The Singles Jukebox

Snoop Dogg Jukebox Genre-Watch: G-funk, K-pop, EDM, Katy Perry, reggae, Latin pop, and now… gospel!

[Video]
[5.57]

Jonathan Bradley: A bouncy summer groove and Charlie Wilson in the cut, feeling himself, riffing on god and joy and all that. Gee, Snoop sure is letting the hook ride out, isn’t he? No matter; he’s just letting the track breathe. His rap’s gonna hit even harder for it when it does come in. Yup, yup… yup… here we go… Snoop? Hello? Snoop? Snoop?
[4]

Julian Axelrod: The real story here is that feature delegation. This is Charlie Wilson’s song, and Snoop Dogg never shows up. But Snoop is one of the only people with the juice to drop a high profile gospel album in 2018, so he gets top billing.  As for the song itself, it’s a solid hymnal of resilience and gratitude with some dynamic production touches. (That vibraslap!) Wilson is a consummate pro who gives the track some welcome warmth and personality, but it runs out of steam about halfway through. It could use another element to liven things up — something like, I don’t know, a Snoop verse?
[6]

Tim de Reuse: Snoop is totally absent on what is nominally his own track, which I guess is just as well because I have no idea where he’d fit in. The loose, overlapping layers of instrumentation and the exquisitely Thundercat-esque electronics mesh together into a pleasantly chaotic mass of activity. The most spellbinding parts come when there’s five things going on at once, largely unconcerned with each other, but unfortunately much of the song’s back half decides to be a bit more focused and a bit too predictable.
[7]

Iain Mew: So thoroughly, unstoppably ingratiating it feels like they’re throwing themselves on the mercy of me as listener in a way that’s frankly unnerving. Luckily I’m in a good mood right now. 
[6]

Alfred Soto: The last time these two collaborated was on the awesome “Signs” fourteen years ago. Snoop finding grace from the Lord is an inevitable career if not personal turn, and hooking up with this avatar of pleasure for innocuous, not quite transcendent, tentative gospel soul is like inviting a friend to church and delighting in the friend’s acceptance. 
[5]

Edward Okulicz: I don’t really know much gospel music other than what’s incidentally appeared in other media I’ve consumed, but this sure sounds like a bunch of very recognisable gospel signifiers placed together in a semi-competent way and sung with friendliness and warmth by Charlie Wilson. It certainly is a gospel song with the nominal involvement of Snoop Dogg, and him striking some amusing poses in the video while Wilson goes for it as much on screen as he does on record. Not sure what Snoop actually did other than that, but if he arranged it he did a nice job too. Perhaps God doesn’t need a hypeman but a Snoop track could do with some Snoop, right?
[5]

Stephen Eisermann: As someone who’s often struggled with faith, I’ve always found soulful gospel music more compelling than Christian rock or rap. It feels more authentic and lived in than Christian music and it almost always feels more passionate. Here, Charlie Wilson gives a terrific turn singing about how he felt saved by God’s good graces, and though I find myself swaying with him and the choir, I still can’t do much more than smile along to the track due to my own confusion and struggles with faith. But — Charlie sounds great and I’m always a fan of some good organ-backed choir.
[6]