Snoop Dogg Talks 'Bush' and Re-Teaming With Pharrell: 'He Taught Me How to Tap Into My Sensitive Side'
Snoop Dogg is bringing the funk on his new album.
The hip-hop icon re-teamed with Pharrell Williams on Bush, out now, launching infectious new singles like "Peaches and Cream" and "So Many Pros."
"We bring out the best of each other when we're working together musically, dynamically, and spiritually," Snoop said of the Bush producer. "It's just a great feeling to be able to work with somebody like Pharrell, who really gets and understands who I am."
WATCH: Snoop Reveals He's 'Pretty Sure' About an 'Empire' Season 2 Return
Together, the pair aims to "emphasize the funk" with this new album, which is already receiving favorable reviews from critics. "We wanted to make something that was missing," Snoop tells ET. "The funk has always been a part of music, but for us to take our time and say that we want to make a record solely dedicated to the funk, and that era of music that felt good to us when we were kids -- to be able to not duplicate it, but just put our own spin on it."
With songs like Mark Ronson's and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk" dominating the charts earlier this year, Bush's timing couldn't be better. But don't expect to find any throwbacks to Snoop's and Pharrell's earlier hits on this album.
"When we made records like 'Drop It Like It's Hot,' those were moment records that we were in the moment and we felt like we needed to make something that was for the moment," Snoop explains. "This record right here, we have a different pursuit of happiness, which is to see this record live forever."
WATCH: Now This is Snoop Like You've Never Seen Him Before
Snoop enlisted Pharrell's I Am Other creative team to come up with much of the creative on Bush, including the delightfully over-the-top cover art.
"When I first seen it, I was like 'Man, what is this?'" Snoop recalls. "Then I started looking at it and I started seeing it all come together, and I was like 'Man, this is exceptional. This is extraordinary.' Because my average mind only thinks average, so when you bring me something extraordinary, you challenge me to think. So I had to think. And I seen the vision and I felt it and I was like, 'You know what, I'm with it.'"
Though the 43-year-old would rarely hand over his creative control, Snoop says that "felt comfortable" with Pharrell's team. "I let them basically take over the whole visual effects of what they thought it should look like, feel like, sound like," he says. "I wanted him and his team to basically bless me with the sauce that they blessed [Pharrell] with."
And The Voice coach's influence can also be felt in Snoop's lyrics.
"He showed me how to write a song for a woman," Snoop says, referencing his 2003 hit single "Beautiful." "He taught me how to tap into my sensitive side. I'm not gonna say my feminine side, I'm gonna say my sensitive side because there's nothing wrong with having a little sensitivity."
Bush, featuring collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, Gwen Stefani, T.I., Charlie Wilson and Stevie Wonder, is available now in all its catchy, classic, and sometimes sensitive glory.