Snoop Dogg Believes Originality Is Lacking in Today’s Rap: ‘The Fundamentals Was Taken Out of It’

Snoop Dogg wants to see more originality in rap these days. The Doggfather said in a new interview that he believes there are too many copycats running around hip-hop and there needs to be more artists looking to stand out rather than following the trends.

Snoop and Dr. Dre stopped by The Stephen A. Smith Show on Friday (Oct. 18), where the legendary West Coast duo spoke candidly while giving their thoughts on today’s landscape of rap.

“Be original,” Snoop said when asked what he would tell an aspiring artist. “Right now there’s so much copycatting, mimicking, sounding alike and imitation. Find your production, your sound — find your ear for who you are and be original even if it ain’t hitting. Stay you.”

Dr. Dre chimed in about wanting to see artists find their sound with a specific collaborator, as he isn’t a fan of songs or albums with a multitude of producers involved in the creative process.

“Find your collaborator. I don’t like the fact there’s nine different producers on one album. I like the idea of one producer on one album,” Dre added. “The continuity is everything for me. I don’t know [when that started], but I don’t like it. If you’re a producer, you should be able to produce the entire album. That’s what I thought it was supposed to be. That’s what I was doing at the beginning.”

Snoop Dogg chalked it up to there being a plethora of beatmakers in rap rather than traditional producers. “I think the fundamentals was taken out of it,” Snoop said of the industry. “Now it’s just a phone that makes you an artist. Something stupid gets you five minutes of fame, and you take that and make a record and you got a two-and-a-half-minute song saying the same thing somebody else just said and now you considered hot.”

He continued: “It used to be about creativity and understanding the musicianship, harmony, melodies and that don’t even matter anymore.”

However, Dre feels there’s a shift in the market from “mumble rap,” and he thinks there’s the next Prince or Michael Jackson out there coming up to change the game.

“I feel like it’s a change happening now from all this mumble rap that’s happening now,” the legendary producer predicted. “There’s somebody in somebody’s garage that’s gonna be the next Snoop or Dre or the next Prince or the next Michael Jackson that’s coming up with something that’s change the game.

“It’s gotta happen right now and it’s wide open because everything that’s happening right now in the music game — especially hip-hop — is weird as f–k,” Dre declared. “It’s gonna get back to the musicianship. I’m seeing it happen.”

Snoop and Dre are reuniting for their first album in more than three decades since 1993’s Doggystyle with their Missionary follow-up, which is expected to arrive in November.