Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told

AMG Review of Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

As the Death Row ship was sinking, Snoop Dogg bailed, heading over to the new bastion of street cred, No Limit Records. Master P is a master marketer, and he knows how to reshape everyone on his roster into good No Limit soldiers. And that's precisely what Snoop Dogg is on Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told, his third album proper and first for No Limit. There are a few concessions to G-funk scattered throughout the record, primarily in the form of squealing synthesizers, but by and large, Beats by the Pound and P give Snoop a set of standard No Limit backing tracks and have him do the No Limit dance. But there's one crucial difference: unlike most of Master P's grunts, Snoop has style, miles and miles of style. His loose, languid delivery is positively enthralling.