As a musician and an avid fan of Hip Hop, I have always been fascinated with the debate over royalties, what constitutes “music,” and when a song is a remake and when it is a travesty. Case in point, one of my all-time favorite bands, Steely Dan and the frequent use of their songs in Hip Hop.

While their music has been featured in some songs I’ve liked, such as “Peg” in De La Soul’s “Eye Know” and some I don’t, such as “Black Cow” in Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz’s “Deja Vu,” the soul of their music has never been truly captured. Until Kanye, that is. Yes, Mr. West, dared take a major chunk of a Steely track, “Kid Charlemagne” and did a first. He made the song better. Yes, I sheepishly admit it, being the purist snob that I am, that he (or more likely, he and his team) truly re-crafted and enhanced an already great track and gave it a fresh, modern spin, taking it up to another level. It’s really the first time that a Hip Hop artist has essentially done a true cover (or at the very least, improved on the original). In the past, I have been supremely annoyed with artists that play covers verbatim and don’t give them a new twist. It’s about the artist’s personality stepping in and reinterpreting the song, isn’t it?

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Snopp Dogg’s “Sensual Seduction” video is generating a lot of buzz (over 1,000,000 views on YouTube), partly due to it’s campy, retro goodness, but for me, it’s simply a great song! Snoop sings and pretty well, I might add. Either he’s had coaching or he’s been hiding this talent from us all this time.

At a time when people were writing him off as yesterday’s news, he still grabs attention and the occasional hit. True that he is a legend, but I can only imagine in this day and age how hard it is to compete, considering the low quality output of radio-ready music these days. It’s always good to see something “musical” that is wide-reaching and high quality.

For me, it’s a small, elite group that produces current music worth listening to. In Hip Hop, it includes, but isn’t limited to artists like Kanye West, The Roots, Common and Mos Def. Artists who, for the most part, are largely appealing to an aging demographic. Great to see Snoop bringing some love to the mix, punched up with a strong dose of humor.