''Coolaid'' is the fourteenth studio album by American rapper

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

. It was released on July 1, 2016, by

Doggystyle Records Doggy Style Records (formerly known as Dogghouse Records) is an American record label founded by the rapper Snoop Dogg in 1995. It is named after Snoop Dogg's debut album, ''Doggystyle'' (1993). The record label started out as a subsidiary of D ...

and eOne Music. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2015 to 2016 at the Doggystyle Studios Records, in Diamond Bar,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The production on the album was handled by Snoop Dogg and other record producers, including

Just Blaze Justin Gregory Smith (born January 8, 1978), known professionally as Just Blaze, is an American record producer and DJ. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Smith attended Rutgers University for three years before dropping out to pursue a career in mus ...

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American rapper and record producer. Born and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ in 1994. At the age ...

and

Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer and rapper. Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, he is widely acclaimed for his distinctive production work and "stuttering" rhythm ...

. Snoop Dogg also enlisted a variety of guest vocalists such as

Too $hort Todd Anthony Shaw (born April 28, 1966), better known by his stage name Too Short (stylized as Too $hort), is an American rapper. A pioneer of West Coast hip-hop, Shaw was among the first acts to receive recognition in the genre during the late ...

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. He embarked on a musical career after meeting record producer Mick Schultz in 2008, and signed a recording contract wi ...

Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...

, Trick Trick,

E-40 Earl Tywone Stevens (born November 15, 1967), better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper. Stevens is a founding member of the rap group The Click (band), The Click and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. He has released 27 stud ...

Jazze Pha Phalon Anton Alexander, known professionally as Jazze Pha ( ), is an American record producer, rapper, singer and songwriter. He founded the record label Sho'nuff Records in 1995, through which he signed R&B singer Ciara in 2003. He produced h ...

, Suga Free and October London, among others. The album title was revealed during the

late-night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show, originating in the American Media, United States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is charact ...

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...

'' on June 2, 2016. The

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

" Kush Ups" was released on June 7, 2016. It was followed by the single " Point Seen Money Gone", which was released on June 27, 2016. The album received positive reviews from music critics, who praised Snoop's technical rapping abilities and production choices.

Background

On March 5, 2016, the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine released an interview, in which a producer

, said that he was working on the new Snoop project. In May 2016, Snoop Dogg announced that his album would be released during the summer of 2016.

Release and promotion

After releasing a

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

solo album, Snoop Dogg returned to

rapping Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

with the songs "

Back Up Backup is the computing function of making copies of data to enable recovery from data loss. Backup may also refer to: Information technology * Backup (backup software), Apple Mac software * Backup and Restore, Windows software * Backup softwa ...

" and " I'm from Long Beach". On April 20, 2016, Snoop released the song, called " Late Nights", which was released in commemoration of 4/20. The song was produced by Mike WiLL Made-It. On May 16, 2016, Snoop announced that the new album will be released on July 1, 2016. On June 2, 2016, Snoop Dogg announced the title to the album, ''Coolaid'', while performing the songs "

Fireworks Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...

" and "Legend" on ''

''. The artwork created by frequent Snoop collaborator, Darryl "Joe Cool" Daniel and Justin Roach, was released on the same day; The cover art for ''Coolaid'', harkens back to the illustrated stylings of his previous releases ''

Doggystyle ''Doggystyle'' is the debut studio album by American rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg. It was released on November 23, 1993, by Death Row and Interscope Records. The album was recorded and produced following Snoop Doggy Dogg's appearances on Dr. Dre's ...

'' (1993) and ''

Tha Last Meal ''Tha Last Meal'' is the fifth studio album by American rapper Snoop Dogg. It was released through No Limit, Doggy Style, and Priority Records on December 19, 2000. It was his third and final studio album released on No Limit, marking this rec ...

'' (2000). Daniel, who was also Snoop Dogg's cousin and ''

'' cover artist, died in July 2024. ''Coolaid'' was made available for

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

on Apple Music on June 29, 2016. The album was released for digital download on July 1, 2016. The physical version was released July 15, 2016.

Singles

" Kush Ups" was released as the album's lead single on June 7, 2016. The song features guest vocals from Snoop's longtime collaborator

, with the production that was provided by KJ Conteh. The music video for the song was uploaded on Snoop's official website on June 7. " Point Seen Money Gone" was released as the album's second single on June 27, 2016. The track was produced by Bongo.

Other songs

The track "Coolaid Man" was released as a countdown single, with the pre-order of the album on June 28, 2016. The track "Legend" was released as an instant grat with pre-orders on June 28, 2016. On June 29, 2016, the track "My Carz" was released as an instant grat with pre-orders. The production on this track is credited to

J Dilla James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006), better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer, composer and rapper. He emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michiga ...

Critical reception

''Coolaid'' received positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 68, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 8 reviews. Writing for ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'', Calum Slingerland called it "a welcome return to the style the rapper helped pioneer".

Commercial performance

In the United States of America "Coolaid" debuted at No. 40 on the ''Billboard'' 200, with 10,000

album-equivalent units The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

, marking the 6th highest debut of the week. It was the 8th best-selling digital album of the week, selling 10,000 digital copies. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the album debuted at No. 122 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

and No. 30 on the UK Digital Albums. ''Coolaid'' was the 11th Snoop solo album to debut at top-ten on the

UK R&B Chart Official Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart The UK Hip Hop and R&B Singles Chart and the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart (also known as The Official UK Hip Hop and R&B Charts, and previously the Top 40 Hip Hop and RnB Singles and the Top 40 Hip Hop and ...

, reached No. 9. In its 2nd week, ''Coolaid'' fell at number 198 on the ''Billboard'' 200, with 950 more copies sold.

Track listing

Credits were adapted from the album's liner notes. Notes * signifies a co-producer *"Don't Stop" contains a sample of " Planet Rock", performed by

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is a retired American DJ, rapper, and record producer. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of ...

and Soulsonic Force. *"Oh Na Na" contains a sample of "Dinner for Two", by Michael Cooper. * "My Carz" contains samples of "

Cars A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

", performed by

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the New wave music, new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two st ...

; and "Trucks", performed by

. * "Two Or More" contains a sample of "Try it Out", performed by Gino Soccio. * "Feel About Snoop" contains a sample of " I'm in Love", performed by

Evelyn "Champagne" King Evelyn "Champagne" King (born July 1, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her first hit was disco single "Shame", which was released in 1977 during the height of disco's popularity. King had other hits from the early t ...

. * "Light It Up" contains a sample of "

Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" is a 1969 song written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, attributed to a then-fictitious band Steam. It was released under the Mercury subsidiary label Fontana and became a number-one ...

", performed by

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

. * "Kush Ups" contains samples of "I Wanna Rock", performed by Luke; and " That's the Way (I Like It)", performed by KC and the Sunshine Band. * "Kush Ups" also contains samples of "(No No) I'm Losing You", by

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...

; and "Wish That I Could Talk To You", by The Sylvers. * "Revolution" contains a sample of "I've Been Trying", performed by The Bar-Kays.

Personnel

Performance *

– vocals (7, 9, 11, 16, lead on 1–6, 8, 10, 12–15, 17–20), recording engineer (20) *Avenue Beatz – drum machine (6, 13–14) *Bruza – additional background vocals (1, 17) * Curt Chambers – guitar (10) * Kendra Foster – additional vocals (14) * L.T. Hutton – additional vocals (10) *Tanya Jones – additional vocals (18) *Shon Lawon – additional background vocals (5, 8), recording engineer (2, 4, 7–8, 10–12, 15–17, 19–20), audio mixing (2, 4–5, 7, 9–10, 15–17, 19) *Lil' Half Dead – additional vocals (2, 10) *Lea Lorien – additional vocals (13) *

Terrace Martin Terrace Jamahl Martin (born December 28, 1978) is an American musician, rapper, singer, and record producer. He is perhaps best known for producing records for several prominent artists in the music industry, including Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dog ...

– talkbox (2) *Musicman Ty – piano (13–14, 18), synth (6, 13–14), organ played by (6, 18), bass played by (6, 13–14, 18) * October London – additional vocals (10, 20), recording engineer (20) *

Mekhi Phifer Mekhi Phifer ( ; born December 29, 1974) is an American actor. Beginning his career in the mid-1990s, Phifer was known for a few notable roles in films including ''Clockers (film), Clockers'', ''Soul Food (film), Soul Food'', ''High School High' ...

– intro voices performed by (2) *Kelli Pyle – additional vocals (13) *Snagz – drum machine (18) *Adia Stinson – additional vocals (12) *Frances Stinson – additional vocals (12) *

– additional lead vocals (5–6, 13, 18) Additional technical *Masaniai M. Ali – audio mixing (12) *Garnett "G" Flynn – recording engineer (2–3), audio mixing (2) *Stanley Greene – audio mixing (7) * Ken "Duro" Ifill – audio mixing (6, 13–14, 18) *

– recording engineer (4), audio mixing (4, 20) *Sean Klein – assistant recording engineer (4–5, 7, 13–14, 18) *Migui Maloles – recording engineer (16) *Travis "Shaggy" Marshall – recording engineer (6, 10, 16–17), audio mixing (17) *Zeke Mishanec – recording engineer (4–7, 13–14, 18), assistant audio mixing (6, 14, 18) *FredWreck Nassar – recording engineer (10) *Zach Nichols – audio mixing (1) *Kyle "Don" Resto – recording engineer (9) * Soopafly – audio mixing (3, 8, 11) *Frank Tatick – assistant recording engineer (6) *Frank Vasquez – recording engineer (1, 7) *Pat Viala – audio mixing (12) *Christopher Walton – assistant recording engineer (9) *Andrew Wright – audio mixing (4, 20)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2016 albums Snoop Dogg albums Doggystyle Records albums Albums produced by Cardo (record producer) Albums produced by Cubeatz Albums produced by Daz Dillinger Albums produced by J Dilla Albums produced by Jazze Pha Albums produced by Just Blaze Albums produced by Nottz Albums produced by Rockwilder Albums produced by Soopafly Albums produced by Swizz Beatz Albums produced by Timbaland