Grammy-winning producer Dr. Dre has been by Snoop Dogg's side since the start of the rapper's career more than three decades ago, with Snoop's 1993 debut album Doggystyle instantly putting him on the map thanks to the smash single "Gin and Juice" and other Dr. Dre-produced hits. Now, fresh off the 30th anniversary of the album, the two Super Bowl halftime headliners have joined forces once again for the new album Missionary.
Missionary marks the twentieth studio album of Snoop Dogg's career, and the landmark album arrives as the SoCal-bred rapper basks in the glory of his wide-reaching empire from the kitchen with Martha Stewart to the Olympic torch relay. When speaking about teaming up with Dr. Dre once again for the album, the "Drop It Like It's Hot" MC said Dre was able to bring out a new side of him as an artist at 53. "When you hear what we have and how he's got me rapping, it's like a grown Snoop Dogg. There's some growth to him. It's the way he selects his bars, it's the way he uses his voice," he said on the All the Smoke podcast back in January.
"[Dr. Dre] uses me like a f**king robot and I love it because I love to be produced. I love to be challenged," he continued. "If I'm being produced, we're creating this piece together, and this s**t is masterful because my voice is a part of your music. It is actually an instrument, as opposed to it just bouncing around the track. Use my voice like a f**king instrument. Let me be a part of the music." He added that all of his collaborations with Dr. Dre have been like this. "Every song that you've ever heard from Dre and Snoop, my voice is never on top; it's always in there because it's an instrument. That's what he's doing. He's using me as an instrument right now to create this masterful album."
Throughout the album, the dynamic duo bring in a wide variety of guest stars from Eminem, Method Man, and 50 Cent to Sting, Jelly Roll, and Jhené Aiko. Snoop's reunion with Dre came, he said, after the producer noticed that the rapper's music today needed to match the same all-star level of name recognition with other pursuits and products. "[Dre] was watching me in the entertainment world and figuring that my music hand ain't matching my entertainment hand," Snoop told The Associated Press. "He wanted to put music back in the foreground with his production, leadership, and guidance on the project."