Thirty years ago today, on November 12, 1996, Snoop Doggy Dogg released Tha Doggfather through Death Row and Interscope. It was his second album, the follow-up to Doggystyle, and it dropped into one of the most chaotic stretches any rap label has ever lived through.
The Album Nobody Knew What to Expect From
Context is everything here. Snoop had spent 1995 preparing for a murder trial and was acquitted of all charges on February 20, 1996. Dr. Dre, the architect of Doggystyle, left Death Row that year to launch Aftermath. Then in September, Tupac was killed. Snoop was making an album without his producer, without his labelmate and with the whole industry wondering if Death Row could hold.
DJ Pooh stepped up and handled most of the production and mixing, with Snoop’s cousin Daz Dillinger, Soopafly, L.T. Hutton and Sam Sneed also contributing. Suge Knight is credited as executive producer. The title and cover nod to The Godfather, with artwork by Snoop’s cousin Darryl “Joe Cool” Daniel, who also designed the Doggystyle cover.
The Records
The singles were “Snoop’s Upside Ya Head,” built on The Gap Band’s “Oops Up Side Your Head” with Charlie Wilson, a remake of Biz Markie’s “Vapors” with Teena Marie and Charlie Wilson, and the title track “Doggfather.” Deeper cuts like “Freestyle Conversation” and “Gold Rush” with Kurupt and the LBC Crew showed a looser, funkier Snoop. The album closes with an “Outro” featuring Makaveli. “(O.J.) Wake Up” also marked Snoop’s first production credit.
The Numbers
Fans showed up. Tha Doggfather debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with 479,000 first-week copies. That was below Doggystyle‘s record 803,000, but it was still the third-biggest rap debut of 1996. The RIAA certified it 2x platinum on February 4, 1997.
Critics were mixed. Even Dre publicly said he didn’t like it. Snoop, though, has said he signs more copies of this album than any other, and called it a rebirth where he chose to push a more positive message.
The IAHHM Take
Tha Doggfather lives in the shadow of a classic, and that’s not fair to it. “Vapors” alone is an all-timer, and the album proved Snoop was a star without Dre’s fingerprints on every beat. It was also his last album as Snoop Doggy Dogg and his last on Death Row until he took over the brand and released BODR in 2022. That makes it a hinge point in one of hip hop’s longest careers.
Your call: Is Tha Doggfather underrated, or does it only feel that way because Doggystyle set an impossible bar?
More from The Archive: On This Day in 1992, UGK dropped Too Hard to Swallow.
Source: Wikipedia: Tha Doggfather (release date, charts, certification and reviews, citing Billboard, the Los Angeles Times and the RIAA)
