Has Snoop Dogg Massacred the Disco Revival?

Believe it or not, disco used to be about quaaludes, flashing lights and sex in the club. These days it's become the most grossly overused and highly diluted reference point that mainstream pop has ever had. The slightly pleasant summer of "Get Lucky" turned into the creepy totalitarianism of "Blurred Lines", and now you can't even go for a pint without catching a glimpse on the pub TV of Bruno Mars crotch-sliding across the greased bonnets of a Corvette. The world wants funky bass and gratuitous hooks, and they want it now and then they want it again. And then one more time. And guess who's next to step into this contemporary canon?

Snoop Doggy Dogg is here. Currently in his sixth regeneration, having been through West-Coast rap, reggae, EDM, Euro Tekno and funk, he is now emerging from his Tardis with an afro and a white tux, this is disco Snoop. The track, produced of course by Pharrell Williams, is called "So Many Pros". And while the intentions are clear, there is something really lacking here. It is missing the horn drop of "Uptown Funk", the slinky chorus of Katy Perry's "Birthday", or the rattling percussion of Timberlake's "Take Back the Night". None of these songs were ever pretending to be "real" disco, but they at least contained enough in the way of hooks to tighten their grip on the charts. Is "So Many Pros" proof then, that nu-Disco has run its course?

Mass-produced disco-revivalism has reached its peak, which also means it is closer to death. We are now in the realms of vague funkery, a world where layering your pop song a sampled slap bass track and garish horns is seen as the wax seal of global chart success. Snoop Dizzle will no doubt get over disco, moving on to his chamber-pop phase or whatever comes next, the question is: can we do the same?

Footnote: the sharp eyed among you may have noticed that this totally isn't the first time Snoop has done funk baby.

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