Snoop Dogg’s headlining performance at last Saturday’s Together Festival began with a bit of last-minute legend building: Before the rap star took the stage, a montage of his hit music videos played to the accompaniment of a bombastic background score. This forced aggrandizement proved unnecessary, however, as Snoop Dogg remains more than capable of justifying his own renown.
After sauntering onto the stage accompanied by two dancers, a clutch of hypemen and a costumed dog mascot, the West Coast hip-hop legend proceeded to lay down a performance that left BITEC arena shaking.
Twenty years in the business will teach you a few things, and in Snoop Dogg’s case, the principle lesson learned appears to be how best to work a crowd. His performance abounded in laconic, stoner theater, all of which he dispatched with unaffected nonchalance.
Early in the set, Snoop marched to the side of the stage, cast the microphone he had been using to the floor and demanded that a stagehand give him “his mic.” This prop proved closer in nature to a jewel-encrusted shield than a piece of A/V equipment. Like so much of Snoop’s identity, it overshot ludicrousness by so wide a margin as to become simply awe-inspiring.
This bit of theater proved indicative of Snoop’s overall performance, which seemed to have been stripped down over the years to only its most effective elements.
He played the hits without boredom or disdain, launching back-to-back from a cover of House of Pain’s “Jump Around” into his own dance-pop centerpiece, “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”
At one point he paused the show to ask, “Bangkok, do you love your motherfucking Tupac?” to which the audience responded with cheers. The volume was perhaps unequal to what you might hear coming from a similarly sized audience stateside, but the crowd nonetheless expressed enthusiasm for (or simply knowledge of) the West Coast icon.
A similarly dissonant moment occurred when Snoop played “Smoke Weed Everyday” and a pungent mist (rather than a pungent cloud) emerged from the audience’s front rows. For Bangkok, that’s a lot of weed to be smoking in public; for Snoop Dogg, it probably qualifies as an off day.
Midway through the show, Snoop brought hometown heroes Thaitanium onstage to collaborate on a song. This gesture of good faith toward his host country served to ratchet up the energy level at BITEC arena, as Thaitanium appeared ecstatic at the opportunity to perform alongside the Doggfather.
Surprisingly, Snoop didn’t even make reference to his freshly minted Snoop Lion persona until the concert’s final moments. He remained throughout the proceedings a showman, well aware of what his audience wanted and gamely willing to provide.
The concert’s high points seemed rehearsed, but were so charming that it would have been hard to fault them for unoriginality.
Before launching into “Gin and Juice,” Snoop made a show of lighting up a blunt and taking a couple pulls. He later tossed this joint into the audience, where it was more than likely trampled.
Post-concert, debate vacillated as to whether or not Snoop’s herb had been the genuine article. It’s safe to say that Snoop, with his ability to nail the right beats, proved that it doesn’t really matter.
