Snoop Dogg feat. R. Kelly

“That’s That”

Dir. Benny Boom



The Sears Tower pops up in the background of Snoop’s new video, “That’s That,” and, along with it, an important question: why the hell is the Doggfather in Chi-town?

Snoop doesn’t seem to have an answer. He looks too stoned to even care. But there are some possible explanations for his Midwestern sojourn.

The most obvious gloss? R. Kelly kidnapped him. He’s the one driving the Phantom around the Loop; Snoop’s eyes look more than a little glazed over, and does anyone doubt that everyone’s favorite peddler of sex weed knows how to get some roofies in his own hometown?

Plus, R. Kelly seems desperate to suck up. It’s “your boy Kells,” he fawns, and he lavishes Snoop with girls in thanks for giving him the hook. But the gesture may not be all that magnanimous; the women are at least 18, clearly far too old for Kelly’s taste. Exegesis number two: Snoop is on a crusade. Yes, an actual crusade. How else can one explain the girls in chain-mail, Snoop’s semi-medieval hood, or the giant grail-like chalice he uses to get his drink on? Snoop’s a knight sent from SoCal to annex the Middle West.

The third interpretation is that Snoop just wanted a vacation. Maybe he wanted a chance to rock his unworn furs and hang with some heartland honeys to a beat sampled from Eddie Murphy’s film “Coming to America” (no, for real).And maybe, like this viewer, he just wanted—no, needed—to watch R. Kelly earnestly tell the camera, “If you’re looking for some good sex, holla at a playa.”

Hilarious! Not great; good. You’d be crazy to expect anything else.

—Jake G. Cohen