As
tha Dogg Pound, West Coast MCs
Kurupt and Dat Nigga Daz played a supportive role to the foundation of gangsta rap, contributing verses to two of the biggest G-funk albums of the genre,
Dr. Dre's timeless party masterpiece The Chronic and
Snoop Dogg's equally strong debut,
Doggystyle. While the duo's profile paled in comparison to that of their more successful counterparts, their 1995 debut,
Dogg Food, quietly sold millions and the group continued its role of support for some of hip-hop's brightest stars, working closely with
2Pac as he approached his final days.
Doggy Bag collects unreleased tracks and different versions of
Dogg Pound productions from the group's early days, compiling 15 tracks recorded between 1993 and 1998. While
2Pac's verses from tracks like "N.Y. 87" are inexplicably omitted, frequent guest spots show up from
Snoop,
Too Short and
Nate Dogg. Even while dealing with unreleased material from the vaults,
Doggy Bag is as consistent and strong as the majority of the
Dogg Pound catalog. Daz and
Kurupt stick mostly to tales of daily gangsta life, smoking weed, and hustling over stock G-funk beats and the occasional standout DJ Quick production. An alternate version of 1995 single "Let's Play House" finds
Warren G spitting smooth verses while
Michel'le and
Nate Dogg trade hooks and Big Pimpin' rambles an extended spoken word piece that didn't make the cut for the single version. Like many collections of unreleased material, though,
Doggy Bag is best viewed as rough sketches or working models for more refined releases. The beats sound tossed-off even for their time and many of the verses will be extremely familiar, as they were reused or recycled for proper releases at one time or another. The collection stops far short of being any type of Holy Grail or great lost album material, but for fans,
Doggy Bag lives up to its name as a fun, breezy extra helping of
tha Dogg Pound at their best. ~ Fred Thomas