It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart on November 18, 1995.[4] The album sold 278,000 copies in its first week.[5] It is one of the last high-selling and critically acclaimed releases from the label, preceding only Tha Doggfather and Tupac's releases as an anticipated album, and is the last to be "officially" produced under the G-funk era of hip-hop, with Death Row Records' future releases diverging from the style. Though Dr. Dre was Death Row's top producer, the album was mostly produced by Daz Dillinger, while Dre mixed the album. Dogg Food led the way for Daz to become the top in-house producer for Death Row until his departure in the late 1990s.
The video for the first single, "New York, New York", caused some controversy when Snoop appeared in it kicking down buildings throughout New York. The trailer of Tha Dogg Pound was shot at during the process of making the "New York, New York" video although no one was injured. The song is one of three tracks on the album not produced by Daz, as DJ Pooh provided the beat.[6]
Background
Its controversial lyrics were the subject of shareholder protest. The album was supposed to be released in August 1995, but as a result of the controversy from Time Warner, the release was delayed by two months.[7]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music wrote that the album "revealed a comparative deftness of touch and a penchant for self-parody largely lacking in [the group's] more esteemed colleagues."[9]The Washington Post opined that Tha Dogg Pound's "variation on what has become a stale formula is less sample-driven than most gangsta funk; instead, it focuses on the formidable verbal flow and rhyme skills of Daz and Kurupt."[16]The Baltimore Sun wrote that "the music here sounds wonderfully fresh, from the growling synth-bass of 'Smooth' to the dreamy, slightly tropical pulse of 'Big Pimpin' 2'."[17]Trouser Press called the album "a low-key, unambitious and only mildly imaginative replay of Doggystyle, rolling over familiar G-funk terrain with the same minimum of venom and violence."[18]
Commercial performance
Dogg Food debuted at number one on both the US Billboard 200 and the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, selling 278,000 copies in its first week (the week ending on November 5, 1995).[5] The album was certified 2× platinum on January 5, 1996.
