"Alot like LL, Chuck D, Slick, + Doug E." Notice he's not mentioning any phoney, unoriginal rappers. Snoop is versitile. He has good songs and bad songs...good lyrics and bad lyrics. He's been stayed consistent over the last decade. And strangely enough, he fits in on "Pump Ya Breaks"...tho' i could easily see the song being just as good without him. The Lil' Kim colabo happened just cuz she waz popular at the time. They have nothing in common and they aren't personal friends. And's amoungst the 3 weakest songs he's done ever. And the Petey Pablo trax didn't see the light of day 4 obvious reasons. FP likes 2 mix it up and try different things. He works with different people on every album just 2 do something new since he's been recording for over 20 years.
Anyone who is trying 2 put FP in the same category as modern commercial rappers who often don't have any reality or quality in their music is just trying 2 justify their watered down taste in music. When u think of Fresh Prince, u think of Run-DMC, LL Cool J, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and so on...not Ja-Rule, Lil' Kim, Petey Pablo, Lil' Jon, Bow Wow, and Young Joc.
Get past "Will Smith, mr. nice guy, megastar, media magnet" and listen 2 the lyrics. It's as simple as that.