It starts out well, with the jazzy, languid funk of the intro, Think About It and Crazy. However, things get a little more urgent with the single, Vato. The first of several Neptunes tracks on the album, it has harpsichords and nasty basslines that form a strong gutter backing to Snoop's rhymes and B-Real’s hook.

That’s That Shit cools things off again, with R. Kelly on the hook and an unorthodox Coming to America sample. Candy is the prerequisite Rick Rock-produced hyphy anthem on the album, but a relatively bland track. Two songs later, another familiar theme in recent west coast rap, the Crip-Blood buddy track, shows up in Gangbangin’ 101. It features The Game and Snoop in a song that borrows heavily on the themes of Warren G’s Regulators. The beat bangs, and while it is distinctly west coast, a southern emcee like David Banner would also sound very at home over it .

From here, the quality of the tracks gets a little more variable, but in general, everything is still decent. A few tracks stand out: Once the listener gets over the initial “He sampled DIDO?!” reaction, Around Here is a tight, grimy track about life in the hood. Which One of You is one of my favorite tracks on the album, a great swerving bounce, and good comedic writing make this much more than just another “hoes” track.

The album’s second single, I Wanna Fuck You, follows. It’s a stripper anthem featuring nasal-voiced R&B superstar, Akon. It more or less follows the trend of everything Akon has put out recently, pimp/drug dealer-themed party music with a major rapper. It isn’t terrible, but its sameness keeps it from being particularly interesting.

The best thing on the second half of the album, however, is at the end. Imagine is an end-of-the-album introspective track, with Dr. Dre and D’Angelo. Pianos and strings combine with Dre drums behind rhymes about life without hip hop. The whole thing pulls together quite well before Stevie takes us home on Conversations.

Clearly, there is a lot to like on this album, and Snoop continues to show that he remains a force in hip hop, well over a decade into his career. Even so, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment lacks a breakout single, and consequently feels almost incomplete. It’s clear that Snoop is still a force in hip hop, and has a lot yet to contribute. It’s a shame he wasn’t able to pull out a little more magic for this release, though.