SNOOP TAKES US
TO CHURCH

As our hip-hop elders age with their audiences, there’s been a curious twist to how each icon has explored the reality of “being grown.”

Enter Snoop Dogg with his effortlessly curated gospel gathering, Snoop Dogg Presents Bible of Love (RCA Inspiration), an album packed with two hours and 14 minutes of church, honey, from the rousing choir to stomping, joyful R&B jams and rapturous solos and sermons.

To usher in the praise and worship at full blast, Snoop hand-picked a powerful cast of stars, with features by Patti LaBelle, Charlie Wilson, Faith Evans, K-Ci, The Clark Sisters, Kim Burrell, Daz Dillinger, Jazze Pha, Mary Mary and Mali Music.

At 32 tracks, Bible of Love was a passion project for the rapper, who described his desire to deliver a gospel album on Dr. Dre’s Beats 1 radio show last year, saying, “It’s always been on my heart. I just never got around to it because I always been doing gangsta business or doing this or doing that. But I just felt like it’s been on my heart too long. I need to do it now.”

While gospel and gangsta may seem like an odd pairing at first glance, so was Dogg’s teaming with Martha Stewart, and yet somehow it works. Snoop has the singular ability to melt into any kind of musical party and make it his own—even if it means leaning back on most of the tracks, as he did on this record. From the G-funk groove of the Dogg Pound to the happy pop of Pharrell beats and the reggae universe of Snoop Lion, this legend has a deep authenticity as an artist that allows him the room to, in this case, pray.