Duces n' Trays: The Old Fashioned Way

1	Intro / Snoop Dogg 1:17
2	I Luv It / Snoop Dogg 4:58
3	Eastside Ridaz / Nate Dogg 4:16
4	Crip Hop / Snoop Dogg 5:15
5	I Don't Know / Suga Free 4:08
6	Welcome 2 Tha House / Nate Dogg 3:49
7	Friends / Kokane 2:56
8	Gang Bang 4 Real / Bad Azz 4:49
9	I Pledge Alligence / Kokane 3:46
10	Now Is the Time / Kokane 3:43
11	Cool / Butch Cassidy 5:14
12	Dogghouse in Your Mouth / King Lou 6:43
13	Connected / Snoop Dogg 4:19
14	Mac Bible: Chapter 211 Verse 20-21 / Snoop Dogg 1:40
15	Break a B***h Til I Die 4:07
16	Sticky Fingers / Kokane 3:13
17	There Comes a Time / Snoop Dogg 4:26
18	Late Night / Kokane 2:56
19	So Low / Kokane 3:30
20	Everywhere I Go / Kokane 4:34

Barnes & Noble

Duces N' Trays: The Old Fashioned Way, the second offering from Snoop Dogg's spin-off group, Tha Eastsidaz, reprises the bumping, G-funkiness of their self-titled debut. But whereas, on that effort, Snoop and his Cali cronies Warren G and Xzibit overshadowed newcomers Tray Dee and Goldie Loc, this time around, the potent trifecta wisely share mic time mostly with less seasoned rappers such as RBX, Bad Azz, and Soopafly. Throughout the disc, cameos by golden-throated crooners Butch Cassidy, Nate Dogg, and Kokane accentuate Tray and Goldie's rugged rhymes and Snoop's cool drawl, as the lyrical Gs trade verses on familiar themes such as money, cash, and wack MCs. Tha Eastsidaz also love to big-up their Long Beach Cali roots, which they do on the group-hugging groove of "Friends," featuring an inspired falsetto by Kokane. Other highlights include the cautionary life lessons of "Gang Bang 4 Real," featuring a cocksure rap by Bad Azz; the mellow bounce of "Cool," featuring the aforementioned G-funk crooners; and the haunting, vibraphone-accented melody and sex talk of "Sticky Fingers," featuring Kokane and Ric Rock. Still, no matter how many chefs are in the kitchen, Tray, Goldie, and Snoop are the unmistakable stars of Duces N' Trays. Brett Johnson

All Music Guide

Dogghouse records and its flagship act, tha Eastsidaz, at first admittedly seemed like a questionable venture on the part of Snoop Dogg back in 1999. After all, his reputation wasn't exactly on solid ground at the time, and his timing wasn't exactly ideal either -- West Coast rap in general had faltered ever since 2Pac's death. Yet despite the odds, everything worked out for Snoop. The debut Eastsidaz album didn't exactly set the charts on fire, but it did garner some respectable sales and, more importantly, it set the precedent for Snoop's post-No Limit sound: Battlecat and Meech Wells laid down the beats; Kokane, Nate Dogg, and Butch Cassidy sung the hooks; Snoop loomed above with his sticky-icky ad-libbing; and Goldie Loc and Tray Deee dropped the gangsta rhymes. Duces 'n Trays finds this sure-fire team of Cali crips returning a year and a half later, far more experienced and with a noticeably greater sense of camaraderie. In practically every way, Duces is a noticeably stronger album than its predecessor -- beats, rhymes, hooks, songwriting -- and it features even more talent with unlikely contributions from Mobb Deep, Hi-Tek, Lil' Mo, and Swizz Beatz. But it's the in-house talent that steals the show on Duces, in particular newcomer LaToiya Williams and the ubiquitous Kokane, two vocalists who offset the gruff rapping in nearly every one of the album's 20 songs with their singing. Furthermore, for every straight-ahead gangsta rap song here, there's an unexpected venture into rap-soul such as "So Low," where there's more singing than rapping. This balance between brash posturing and laid-back crooning seems to be Snoop's new sound, and you can't help but feel that it's an inevitable evolution for the '70s funk/soul-influenced West Coast sound. So even if Duces could use a few more hooks, it shows that Snoop is headed in the right direction. If Dogghouse can avoid inner strife and continue to blossom, it could realistically change the sound of West Coast rap just as Death Row did a decade earlier when Snoop was just a pup. Jason Birchmeier