2007 Pop Music Abstract

From The Tris McCall Report:

Snoop Dogg -- "Sensual Seduction"

Ignore the title, that's just the radio-approved handle; real fans and bootleggers know it as "Sexual Explosion". This is Snoop's long-awaited tribute to Zapp, which means he's run his entire vocal through a talkbox. Poppin', to be sure, but nine out of ten casual listeners will miss the reference and mistake this for yet another digitized T-Pain performance. (Is that the secret to the popularity of the pitch-corrected sound, I wonder?; that it reminds us of Zapp, the Mothership, and the funky vocoder?) Arguably, "More Bounce To The Ounce" and "Computer Love" were the two primary sources for the g-funk sound, and as Nasir the Fussy Archivist pointed out on Hip-Hop Is Dead, Roger Troutman's name is barely remembered these days. Snoop does his best to resurrect it here, and in the process, he's given the Westside something new to low-ride to. It's a neat novelty, but to be honest, when he breaks convention midway through the track and begins to rap, it feels like a happy homecoming.

More here.  [Thanks to Asad Raza.]