Snoop Dogg’s recent 32-song gospel album “The Bible of Love” has been a hotly debated and controversial album within the hip-hop world.

Many critics deem it Snoop Dogg’s entrepreneurial move into the seemingly untapped market of gospel music as well as a vapid attempt to pander to whiter and whiter audiences while being still unassuming and inoffensive to traditional roots of African American music.

However, Snoop Dogg, I believe, has found a niche category that has been expanding over the last couple of years within the realm of hip-hop and has successfully shown his ability to be seen rather than heard.

Snoop Dogg himself rarely appears on the album.

It isn’t until track three we get a taste of what he brings to the table for this heavily gospel album.

He leaves the heavy lifting on this album to well-known gospel artists.

This upset many fans who were expecting a full fledge Snoop Dogg revival album. Snoop Dogg is not the first to attempt to fuse hip-hop and gospel and most likely won’t be the last.

Both Kanye West on his album “The Life of Pablo” and Chance the Rappers “Coloring Book” are at the least “gospel inspired” and portray themes of religion and choral music. This movement within hip-hop is continuing to grow and the use of gospel sound becomes more prevalent with mainstream artists.

Gospel is another branch in the tree of African American music and it ties well with the ideas presented by rap and hip-hop.

The dilemma with this album is that it is marketed as a Snoop Dogg Album. The genius behind such memorable works as “Doggy style,” “Drop it like it’s Hot” and “Gin and Juice” has a certain stylistic and themed expectation by fans and critics alike.

Snoop Dogg’s personality, as the happy stoner uncle of hip-hop, takes away from the meaning and brilliance of this latest album.

If we remove the Snoop Dogg aspect of the album and take it for face value it is undoubtedly the most progressive specifically gospel album to be released in the last ten years.

It features some of the most revered musicians from gospel including Chris Hammond and the Clark Sisters.

It is an exceptionally produced album of gospel that makes you want to delve deeper into the genre.

It is true to itself and proud of it, and the fact that Snoop Dogg’s name is on it is the only reason I, and probably you, listened to this album.
Without the brand that is Snoop Dogg himself, this album would have been put in the same category as other run of the mill gospel releases.