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- - - - - - - - - - - - March 15, 2001 | Porn is the D-cupped, double-penetration-ready muse of popular music. Never mind the offstage comfort and inspiration that a legion of strippers, centerfolds and adult film stars have provided to a "Behind the Music" marathon's worth of rock and rap stars -- the XXX brigade has also lent its considerable assets to the videos, album covers and stage shows of hit makers like Blink 182 and Kid Rock. But what, for all its trouble, has the porn industry received in return? Bupkis.
Order up the Spice channel sometime and you'll see the diligent men and women of adult entertainment humping valiantly away to the lamest music ever recorded -- chilly, A Flock of Seagulls-era synth beats and festive, Spanish game show-worthy jingles. But now, at last, someone is giving a little something back. It took rapper Snoop Dogg to finally ask not what porn can do for him, but what he can do for pornography. When Snoop announced a few weeks ago that he was teaming with Hustler magazine and hip-hop video director Michael Martin to release a series of X-rated titles, the enterprise seemed at once inevitable and surprising. Snoop, a man for whom the Parental Advisory sticker was invented, has never made a secret of his appreciation of "bomb-ass pussy." But it's still a bold leap from a little rump-shaking in your videos to full-Monty money shots. His first submission bears the what-you-see-is-what-you-get title of "Doggystyle." (This is a name with considerably more marquee value than say, "Up the Snoop Chute.") Volume 1 of the rap star's proposed multi-episode flesh opus is a hardcore contradiction -- at once a reminder of how clichéd both music and adult videos have become, and yet at the same time a ballsy, original reinterpretation of both. Other artists toy with safely PG-13-level salaciousness; Snoop, bless his smut-loving heart, warmly welcomes us into his Dogghouse for some genuine, honest-to-god freakiness. The vice isn't limited to sex, either. "Doggystyle" opens with a disclaimer from Hustler about the video's "alleged use of marijuana," which is a bit like pointing out its alleged use of naked people. Never before have so many mellow, smiling faces been recorded blissfully puffing away in a film that didn't involve Cheech, Chong or the Grateful Dead. And none of their movies ever featured a sex scene involving a girl wearing nothing but a leafy green lei. The premise of "Doggystyle," as Snoop explains it, is simple -- "making a party for the homey on his birthday." Maxing and relaxing in his easy chair like a hip-hop Hef, Snoop cheerfully promises the viewer some "bad, bad bitches." And he doesn't tease with "Temptation Island" nymphs; he delivers actual adult stars like India and Anna Malle writhing around Snoop's own home -- in the fake waterfall, on the pool table, in the recording studio, on the staircase. Snoop, meanwhile, casually strolls around the party, unconcerned about the stains his guests may be depositing on his fine leather furniture.
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