Tha Blue Carpet Treatment

Tha Blue Carpet Treatment is the eighth studio album by West Coast hip hop recording artist Snoop Dogg. It was released on November 21, 2006, by Doggystyle Records and Geffen Records. Recording sessions took place from November 2005 to September 2006 in several recording studios and artists such as Dr. Dre, The Neptunes, DJ Battlecat, DJ Pooh, Timbaland, Danja, Mark Batson, Terrace Martin, and Mr. Porter appear on the album, among others.

Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
Studio album by
Snoop Dogg
ReleasedNovember 21, 2006 (2006-11-21)
RecordedNovember 2005 – September 2006
StudioDoggystyle Records Studio, Diamond Bar, Los Angeles, California – Los Angeles, California – New York City, New York – Atlanta, Georgia
Genre
Length77:50
LabelDoggystyle Records, Geffen Records
Producer
Snoop Dogg chronology
Tha Blue Carpet Treatment Mixtape
(2006)		 Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
(2006)		 Ego Trippin'
(2008)
Singles from Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
  1. "Vato"
    Released: August 15, 2006
  2. "I Wanna Love You"
    Released: September 14, 2006
  3. "That's That"
    Released: October 10, 2006
  4. "Candy"
    Released: December 12, 2006
  5. "Boss' Life"
    Released: April 10, 2007

The album debuted at number 5 on the US Billboard 200, selling 264,000 copies in its first week.[1] Upon its release, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album was promoted with Tha Blue Carpet Treatment Mixtape, which was released a few days before the official album release.

Background

The title of the album, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment is a reference to the red carpet traditionally present at formal events. The blue color refers to Snoop Dogg's affiliation with the gang of Crips, who often wear blue (as opposed to the primary color, red, of their rival gang, the Bloods). The album cover underwent several revisions. In August 2006, the first concept art was revealed on Snoop Dogg's website. It features a cartoon dog (representing Snoop Dogg) displaying Crip gang signals, while standing on a blue carpet patterned-like bandana. The design has been used, which would have been the third of Snoop Dogg's album covers to use the cartoon for likeness of the rapper that was designed by his cousin Darryl Daniel. The updated version of his cover artwork was shown on the Late Show with David Letterman's 13th Anniversary Special on August 30, 2006, and that cover artwork features a parody of the famous Hollywood Sign, that reads "LONG BEACH". It has changed to its current version. Geffen posted this as the final cover for the album on their website.[2]

Snoop Dogg directed to take the Long Beach back to its gangsta roots. The rapper told MTV.com about embracing his true nature to the album; stating, "I went right back to the 'hood", he said of his album's production. "I took it back to the basics. I've been making a lot of pop songs, lot of R&B songs. Songs that may have made my fans feel like I wavered from what I was naturally accustomed to doing. But I'm an entertainer and I entertain people and that's what I was feeling at the time. But right now, I'm feeling like going right back to the 'hood". Pharrell said that the rapper's music video, "Vato" will not only show his gangsta side, but will also tackle the issue of violence between African Americans and Hispanics at Los Angeles, California and call for racial unity. Snoop Dogg would teamed up with well-known DJs from the West, to the East, and to the South by releasing Tha Blue Carpet Treatment Mixtape, which was hosted by DJ Skee, DJ Whoo Kid and DJ Drama. It contained all the rumoured tracks that had been cut from the final track listing of his studio album. It was released a few weeks before the official album came out.[3]

"Think About It" was composed by Frequency in his dorm room one and a half years prior to the album, while Frequency was a student in Virginia. The material was passed to Mike Chavez of Geffen Records, who gave it to Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg uses the track to show his older son—who had not chosen him as the favorite hip-hop artist when being asked—that he can still be an old school gangster rapper regarding his style if he wants to.[4][5] The track, titled "Imagine" was slated to be featured on Busta Rhymes' album The Big Bang. Busta Rhymes stated in several interviews, before the release of The Big Bang, that the sample for "Imagine" was still trying to be cleared. Busta Rhymes stated that he was not sure that the sample would be cleared on time for his album's release, so it had to be excluded from his album. With the sample not being cleared at the time, and it is presumable that the song was given to Snoop Dogg for his album. It was recorded with verses by Kam and Snoop Dogg (in different from the album version) while playing during TBCT Listening party.[6] Although Busta Rhymes released the remix to "Imagine", it is presumable that his "remix" when it was actually the intended original version which did not make it on the release of The Big Bang. Artists such as Nas, Ja Rule and Black-Ty each did their freestyles on this track.[7]

Music

"Which One of You" was recorded during the album sessions at its process, with the group called N.V. The song was run by the production team 1500.[7] "Round Here" contains the same sample on the song "Thank You" performed by Dido, in which became the same sample that it was used by a fellow American rapper Eminem for his track Stan. Therefore, Snoop Dogg was wasn't aware about this matter when he was making that record during its recording sessions.[7] "L.A.X." contains a sample of "More Bounce to the Ounce" performed by Zapp, in which Snoop Dogg already have used this sample of a song once on one of his earlier track, "Snoop Bounce", in which was included from his album Tha Doggfather (1996). All three songs – "That's That Shit", "Boss' Life" and "Imagine" – has lyrics ghostwritten from a former Aftermath Entertainment artists such as Stat Quo (Benton, S.) and The D.O.C. (Curry, T.).

Recording

Snoop Dogg told Billboard, that he was working on this album, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, for nine months. He has collaborated with the likes of R. Kelly on the biggest song on the album, titled "That's That" produced by Nottz and other featured on the album Ice Cube, Pharrell, D'Angelo, Akon, Nate Dogg, B-Real (of Cypress Hill) and even Stevie Wonder. He also confirmed that Dr. Dre had a big input on this album, producing several tracks and even rapping a verse on the track, "Imagine". Dr. Dre hadn't produced any Snoop Dogg tracks since 2000. He also did I Wanna Fuck You with Akon but had to release a cleaned up version for radio play called I Wanna Love You.

Other songs recorded for this album didn't make the final cut, including "Wannabes" featuring Young Jeezy and Nate Dogg; produced by DJ Quik, "Smokin' Smokin' Weed" featuring Ray J, Slim Thug, Shorty Mack and Nate Dogg, and "Put This Thang on You" featuring Ne-Yo, only two of these ( except on You Put This Thang ) are released in disc two that is, in the disc of bonus tracks.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic(70/100)[8]
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[9]
AllHipHop(8/10)[10]
Allmusic[11]
The A.V. ClubB+[12]
Okayplayer[13]
Pitchfork Media(7.5/10)[14]
Robert Christgau[15]
Rolling Stone[16]
USA Today[17]
XXL (XL)[18]

Tha Blue Carpet Treatment received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album maintained generally positive reviews with IGN calling it "one of Snoop's strongest efforts in a long time, with the beats, rhymes, and guests all complimenting the Doggfather with grand immediacy." It received a 4 out of 5 from Allhiphop.com, About.com and Allmusic. Ryan Dombal for Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Blue Carpet finds him refocused and reunited with Dr. Dre on four tracks. The two get nostalgic on standout 'Imagine'." – Grade: B+[19] Vibe magazine wrote that "Tha Blue Carpet Treatment stands as a strong statement from a veteran still pushing his artistic boundaries."[8] Blender wrote that the album is "A throwback to his trunk-rattling G-funk heyday." – Grade: 3.5 out of five stars.[8] XXL wrote that "Snoop's lyrical fire seems resurrected, as he delivers arguably his most consistently scorching work post-Doggystyle."[18]

Christian Hoard for Rolling Stone wrote that Snoop's eighth LP doesn't do much to break the trend. The production is pretty hot, with high-def beats that range from tricked-out funk (Dr. Dre's "Boss's Life") to dark, tense bounce (the excellent Neptunes-produced "Vato"). The radio-friendly ups—the R. Kelly feature "That's That Shit"—balance out brawny head-nodders like "Gangbangin 101." Snoop sounds great dropping streams of consonants on "Think About It," and few rappers could make a minimalist "Drop It Like It's Hot"-style cut like "Candy (Drippin' Like Water)" sound so singular.

Nathan Rabin for The A.V. Club reviewed the album and wrote that "Snoop has always been able to knock out infectious radio singles, but his albums generally strand a few knockout songs amid oceans of lazy filler, opportunist trend-hopping, and derivative, second-rate G-funk. Sleepy, anticlimactic recent reunion albums from Dogg Pound and 213 (Snoop, Warren G, and Nate Dogg) failed to rouse Snoop out of his longstanding professional funk. So why does Snoop's shockingly good Tha Blue Carpet Treatment sound more like a loose, revitalized follow-up to Doggystyle? Dr. Dre's reappearance certainly doesn't hurt. Dre has always brought out the best in Snoop, and his presence seems to have reignited Snoop's passion and hunger. No track better exemplifies the disc's ethos of delirious excess than "Candy (Drippin' Like Water)", an insanely catchy candy-coated R&B song with clever nods to hyphy (E-40 and producer Rick Rock) and retro jazz-rap (check out that crazy Digable Planets sample!), plus guest raps from a small army of past-their-prime gangstas. When faced with a choice, Snoop here inevitably chooses all of the above. So Treatment gives listeners Dr. Dre and The Neptunes, The Game and Ice Cube, red-hot polygamy enthusiast Akon and old standby Nate Dogg, George Clinton and Stevie Wonder, gangsta shit, pimp shit, and at least one song encouraging pee-wee football players to go hard or go home. With his lush Blue Carpet Treatment, Snoop Dogg finally seems intent on building and expanding his musical legacy, rather than merely coasting on it.[20]

Commercial performance

Tha Blue Carpet Treatment debuted at number 5 on the US Billboard 200, selling 264,000 copies in its first week.[21] On the Nielsen SoundScan annual "Best Sellers Top 100" rankings, the album was listed 97th with the 2006 year-end catalog closing sales number of 637,000 copies despite having been released in mid-November and its sales data were accumulated for only one and a half months. As of June 2018, the album had sales 903,000 copies in the United States.[22]

Track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Intrology" (featuring George Clinton)
DJ Battlecat1:59
2."Think About It"
  • Broadus, Jr.
  • Bryan "Frequency" Fryzel
Frequency3:37
3."Crazy" (featuring Nate Dogg)
Fredwreck Nassar4:26
4."Vato" (featuring B-Real)
The Neptunes4:44
5."That's That Shit" (featuring R. Kelly)
Nottz4:17
6."Candy" (featuring E-40, MC Eiht, Goldie Loc, Daz Dillinger and Kurupt)
Rick Rock4:48
7."Get a Light" (featuring Damian Marley)
3:41
8."Gangbangin' 101" (featuring The Game)
Martin4:01
9."Boss' Life" (featuring Akon1)
Dr. Dre3:22
10."LAX" (featuring Ice Cube)
DJ Battlecat3:21
11."10 Lil' Crips"
  • Broadus, Jr.
  • Hugo
  • Williams
The Neptunes3:15
12."Round Here"
Dr. Dre3:42
13."A Bitch I Knew"
  • Broadus, Jr.
  • David Weldon
Rhythum D4:32
14."Like This" (featuring Western Union and LaToiya Williams)
  • Broadus, Jr.
  • Priest Brooks
  • Terence Harden
  • LaToiya Williams
  • Damani Washington
Soopafly3:56
15."Which One of You" (featuring Nine Inch Dix)
15003:32
16."I Wanna Love You" (featuring Akon)
Akon2:59
17."Psst!" (featuring Jamie Foxx)
  • N8
  • Brainz
  • Jamie Foxx
2:59
18."Beat Up on Yo Pads"
  • Broadus, Jr.
  • Denaun Porter
  • Desmond "DJ DDT-Da Busta" Travis
  • Mr. Porter
  • DJ DDT-Da Busta
2:57
19."Don't Stop" (featuring Warzone and Kurupt)
  • Broadus, Jr.
  • Tyler
  • Craig Miller
  • Spillman
  • R. Brown
  • Chris "THX" Goodman
Goodman3:22
20."Imagine" (featuring Dr. Dre and D'Angelo)
  • Dr. Dre
  • Batson
4:42
21."Conversations" (featuring Stevie Wonder)
3:38
Total length:77:50

Bonus Tracks
No.TitleLength
1."Got My Own" (featuring Swizz Beatz) 
2."Wanna Be" (featuring Nate Dogg, Young Jeezy) 
3."That's That (Remix)" (featuring Nas and R Kelly) 
4."Imagine (Remix)" (featuring D'Angelo, Dr. Dre and Ja Rule) 
5."Do It" 
6."Life" (featuring The Emotions) 

[23]

Notes
  • 1 On the single version, Akon's guest vocals were replaced by vocals from Nate Dogg.
Sample credits

Personnel

Credits adapted from Allmusic.[24]

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[46] Gold 50,000^
France (SNEP)[47] Gold 75,000*
Russia (NFPF)[48] Gold 10,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[49] Silver 60,000^
United States (RIAA)[50] Platinum 1,000,000[22]

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

gollark: Also, you don't need the `if h then` bit, because it'll just return early if `h` doesn't exist, see?
gollark: If you're okay with hardcoding the time/date you're waiting for, you can generate the Unix timestamp for it with another thing and just get the difference between that and `os.epoch "utc"`.
gollark: It needs to be pastebin.com/**raw**/whatever.
gollark: You can get the time/date in UTC and localtime with `os.date` or something, and Unix time, but I don't think there's a way to parse dates.
gollark: The rest of `pastebin` is mostly just argument parsing. Well, and handling other stuff like `put` and `run`.

References
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  2. "Snoop Dogg : Releases : Tha Blue Carpet Treatment". Interscope Records. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  3. MixUnit.com – The World's Largest Hip-Hop Store
  4. "Frequency Interview". West Coast News Network. dubcnn.com. February 2007. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  5. Diva, Amanda (September 2006). "Snoop Dogg: From the Left Pocket Part 1". AllHipHop. Archived from the original on October 20, 2006.
  6. Snoop Dogg: "Imagine" (feat Dr. Dre). Retrieved October 3, 2011 – via YouTube.
  7. "Snoop Dogg Interview Part 3". West Coast News Network. dubcnn.com. January 2007. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  8. "Critic Reviews for Tha Blue Carpet Treatment". Metacritic. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  9. Nero, Mark Edward (2006). "Snoop Dogg – Tha Blue Carpet Treatment". About.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  10. AllHipHop review Archived October 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  11. Jeffries, David. "Snoop Dogg: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  12. Rabin, Nathan (December 5, 2006). "The Blue Carpet Treatment". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  13. "Snoop Dogg: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment". Okayplayer. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
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  15. Christgau, Robert. "CG: Snoop Dogg". Robert Christgau.com. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  16. Hoard, Christian (November 27, 2006). "Snoop Dogg: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment". Rolling Stone. Straight Arrow. ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original on June 4, 2007.
  17. USA Today review Archived October 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  18. Barone, Matt (November 2, 2006). "Snoop Dogg: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment". XXL. New York: Harris Publications (#87). ISSN 1093-0647. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  19. Dombal, Ryan (November 24, 2006). "Tha Blue Carpet Treatment Review". Entertainment Weekly: 109. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  20. http://www.avclub.com/articles/snoop-dogg-the-blue-carpet-treatment,8055/
  21. Harris, Chris (November 29, 2006). "Jay-Z Scores Seventh No. 1 With Kingdom Come Chris Daughtry, Beatles, Snoop, Tupac make top 10 during big sales week". Los Angeles: MTV. Retrieved May 27, 2013. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  22. "Billboard Magazine Match 1, 2008 – pág 25". Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
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  33. mariah charts for Snoop Dogg
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  48. "Russian album certifications – Snoop Dogg – Tha Blue Carpet Treatment" (in Russian). National Federation of Phonogram Producers (NFPF).
  49. "British album certifications – Snoop Dogg – Tha Blue Carpet Treatment". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Tha Blue Carpet Treatment in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
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