BY CARSON HUGHES, A&E EDITOR

Snoop Dogg made waves this Halloween with the release of his new album “Make America Crip Again.” The album quickly became the subject of controversy when it was found that the album art featured Snoop Dogg standing over Donald Trump’s corpse in a parodic reference to the Ice Cube album “Death Certificate.” This album is just the latest in Snoop Dogg’s intense criticism of Trump. Last March, Snoop Dogg was embroiled in similar controversy when he fired a fake gun at a clown dressed like Donald Trump for his “Lavender” music video.

The first song in “Make America Crip Again” is the single “M.A.C.A.” which takes a number of digs at Trump for his Twitter usage and criticism of Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players kneeling during the anthem as a protest against police brutality and racial biases in the criminal justice system.

Despite this, Snoop Dogg has stated that the song is “not a statement or a political act: it’s just good music,” and that the intent is to “unite, not divide.” Snoop Dogg sees the message of “Make America Crip Again” as a statement meant to inspire impoverished black communities to unify and take care of one another in the face of an administration that does not care about black issues. In an interview with “Rolling Stone,” Snoop Dogg talked about how the slogan “Make America Crip Again” exemplifies this message after saying, “A lot of people glorify the gang-banging and violence but forget that in the beginning, the Crips’ main and sole purpose was to be the reflection of the Black Panthers. They looked after kids, provided after-school activities, fed them and stepped in as role models and father figures.”

As an album, “Make America Crip Again” is quite short. There are only 8 tracks, and it is less than 30 minutes long. The album notably features two singles “M.A.C.A.” and “Dis Finna Be a Breeze!”) and a number of collaborations with other artists including Chris Brown, O.T. Genasis, Ha Ha Davis, October London, DesignerFlow and Shon Lawon.

In terms of content, the album certainly isn’t bad, it is Snoop Dogg after all, but it’s no landmark. One of its main flaws is a lack of focus. Despite the strong political overtones of the titular song of the album, these themes are already dropped in the following song “3s Company.” The entire album is a bit of a mishmash between different ideas and genres that are seemingly placed together at random. The saving grace of this album is that it does contain “good music” like Snoop Dogg promised. “Sportscenter” and “Good Foot” are two welcome additions to Snoop’s catalogue. Though “Make America Crip Again” isn’t the fiery protest album that many were expecting, it’s definitely worth a listen.

This article first appeared in the Friday, November 10, 2017, Edition of The Echo.