Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa at the Wiltern Last Night

Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa

]

I do, however, remember that Mr. Khalifa was rocking one of those winter hats with the fuzzy ears that no one in California ever wears. Sure, it was cold last night, but it wasn't that cold.

I also remember that both emcees performed with the help of a keyboardist, three DJs, a bassist and a drummer. For anyone who's ever seen hip-hop live, you know how vital a live band is because no matter how much you love a particular song, it's going to suck if it's just a bunch of people rapping over a DJ. 

I'm old and lame, so perhaps I am wrong, but once the S-N-double O-P hit the stage, it became pretty obvious who the crowd was there to see. Yeah, Wiz had the people moving and people were into him, but this was Snoop Dogg in Los Angeles. It's his town and his weed — we're just lucky to be there.

Snoop opened with “I Wanna Rock” and from there did about forty minutes with Tha Dogg Pound — Daz and Kurupt — at his side. The threesome ran through a ton of hits — including “Tha Shiznit” off 1993's unfuckwithable Doggystyle — while Snoop smoked what appeared to be blunts while wearing sunglasses with the words “Snoop Dogg” written on the lenses. Nevermind the fact that it was a late night show in December and that it was indoors. Snoop can wear sunglasses wherever, whenever the hell he pleases because, well, he's Snoop Dogg and we're not. 

[Instead of sticking with his material, Mr. Dogg ran through a plethora of verses he did on other rappers' albums. This was pretty cool because you don't think you're going to hear this stuff live and it kept the show moving because every two minutes was another awesome verse. 

A few girls came out to dance with Snoop during “I Wanna Fuck You,” but the highlight of the evening by far was hearing the crowd sing Nate Dogg's intro and choruses on “Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None).” According to my brother, Snoop's verse on this song is the best 12 bars in hip-hop history. He might be young, but I'd have to agree with my sibling's assessment because Snoop killed that track last night. 

I'm white. I wear glasses. I sport cardigans and I read books. But goddamn it, I was dancing my skinny ass off to this song and it had nothing to do with the perpetual cloud of smoke that hung around like a stoned version of Pigpen from “Peanuts.” You see, there's just something about Snoop's music that starts a party. Go ahead — listen to anything off Doggystyle and tell me you don't have a smile on your face. 

Wiz re-joined Snoop for the final half hour of the show, which featured a bunch of songs of the duo's soundtrack to a film called Mac + Devin Go To High School. Two clips of the film were played between songs. The first, I recall, had something to do with a children's show called “Captain Kush” while the other was a competition of dudes doing crazy shit with their smoke inhalation. The contest, of course, was judged by Snoop and Wiz (or maybe their characters. At this point, who the hell knew what was going on?).

[Really though, none of this matters. The important thing to remember about last night's show was that no concert in Southern California history has had that much weed smoked during the performance. By that, I'm talking on stage and off. Forget the Grateful Dead or the Wailers. Snoop and Wiz raised the public weed smoking bar to an unbeatable level. In writing, it's never a good thing to make blanket statements such as “everyone was smoking weed” because, in all honesty, you can't prove “everyone” was doing anything except breathing air. Well fuck that! Every single motherfucker in that club was high and the goal appeared to be getting higher and higher.

Then there was the on-stage smoking. I have no clue how Snoop and Wiz were able to stand up, let alone rhyme, because those two single-handedly kept L.A.'s medicinal marijuana dispensaries in business last night. At one point, Snoop asked the crowd to show him their doctors' recommendations before busting out his. Wiz later passed a joint to a girl in the front row and last I heard, she's still at the Wiltern dancing even though the show ended 12 hours ago. Daz stood between three DJs and sang back-ups here and there, but what he really appeared to be doing was getting higher than any dude in the joint. And that's saying something.

If I had to count, I'd say Snoop and Wiz went through six joints between them, but that number could easily be closer to 10. And before you act like you're the second coming of Bob Marley, that's in a half hour. And they were performing to a capacity crowd. So, yeah, they were fucking high.

Critical bias: I love me some goddamn Snoop Dogg.

The crowd: A racially diverse group of twenty-somethings with not much in common except weed.

Random notebook dump: No joke — I could smell the weed from the corner of Western and Wilshire.

Overheard in the crowd: “You wanna go to jail?…I'm doing you a favor.”

Set List: 

[I Wanna Rock
Tha Shiznit
P.I.M.P.
Nuthin' But a “G” Thang
Bitch Please
I Wanna Fuck You
That's That
Let's Get High
Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None)
Lil Half Dead
Two of Americaz Most Wanted
Who Am I (What's My Name)?
That Good
Gin & Juice
On My Level
Smokin' On 
Young, Wild and Free
Drop It Like It's Hot
Black and Yellow

Ryan Ritchie