7 Days of Funk

Apart from a generic cameo from Kurupt on "Ride," 7 Days of Funk is an infectious, modern take on the funk genre--here's hoping that Snoopzilla and Dâm-Funk will collaborate again.

The P-funk derived style of Dam-Funk us about as perfect a fit for Snoop's supine cool as can be imagined. [Feb 2014, p.57]

It's a one-tempo caramel cream of an album--sticky-icky and irresistible. [Feb 2014, p.110]

Snoop is in surprisingly tender form. [Feb 2014, p.88]

The two [Dam-Funk and Snoop], collaborating as 7 Days of Funk, have a loose and luxurious self-titled album (on Stones Throw) that places both men on comfortable turf.

7 Days of Funk is a fun and refreshing experience--one of Snoop’s most enjoyable projects since Tha Blue Carpet Treatment. George Clinton would be proud of this fresh take on funk music.

The name of this project might be 7 Days of Funk, but there’s enough groove in this mofo to last a lifetime.

Lyrically, 7 Days Of Funk offers little to muse on. Snoop's mainly concerned with discussing how funky he is and what a good time he's having. It's largely free of the misogyny and gangsterisms that have defined his past work.

It’s a groove and a mood piece; a funk report for the ages and the future--and, after less than 40 minutes (including the bonus tracks), it drops out of space at exactly the right moment.

A laidback funk groove is the essence of 7 Days of Funk, with Snoopzilla’s vocals taking his relaxed approach to its full.... To say Dâm-Funk is engineering a new kind of funk would be a misstatement; to say he has a keen sense for the atmosphere as well as the rhythms of funk, an understanding of what really makes for a classic funk track, would be an understatement.

If anything, 7 Days acts as the inverse of The Chronic, wherein a famous hip-hop producer introduced the world to an up-and-coming MC weaned on P-Funk and George Duke; now, it's a pop-cultural hip-hop icon giving a bit of shine to an adept indie producer who can elicit all strains of funk in this 21st-century Zone of Zero Funkativity. It's not the dank, but breathe deep anyway.

Even if this is Snoop's first album with a single producer since the monolithic, Dr. Dre-helmed Doggystyle, don't call it a comeback, call it lark, and a funky, welcome one at that.

It's a strong mode to be in, but 7 Days of Funk doesn't change or challenge things--it's a brief LP, even accounting for bonus tracks, and with everybody firmly in a comfortable lane there's not much surprise.

Dam-Funk's production is solid and quite funky, while Snoop's personality shines through his vocals just as they have for the past twenty years or so.

Until Snoop's next reincarnation, this is a welcome diversion.

It's a welcome sign of life from an MC who many assumed to be over the hill, and where it fails, it fails on its own terms--and that's a kind of success in itself.

7 Days of Funk is a slog through shallow percussion (especially in the amateurish drum pattern on the Kurupt-featuring “Ride”) and drowsy synthwork.