Drop It Like It's Hot

By 2004, Snoop Dogg was preparing the seventh studio album of a career that had begun in earnest with his Dr. Dre collaborations more than a decade earlier. "Drop It Like It's Hot," released on September 27, 2004, was the lead single from R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece. Pharrell Williams produced the track alongside Chad Hugo as the Neptunes, and handled the first verse himself, while Snoop took the chorus along with the second and third verses. The pairing had already paid off the year before on "Beautiful," and this time the results were bigger. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, giving both artists their first number one on that chart, and it also became Snoop's first number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. In New Zealand it spent four consecutive weeks at the top.

Critics singled out the production for its extreme sparseness. The track was built from tongue clicks, keyboards, a drum machine beat and white noise, a stripped-down approach that reviewers found striking. The song picked up two nominations at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards in 2005, for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

Paul Hunter directed the music video, shot in black-and-white, with Snoop performing the Crip Walk at the beginning and end. His sons Corde and Cordell Broadus appeared, as did Chad Hugo, Lauren London and Pusha T. The video won a MOBO Award for Best Video in 2005 and Best Hip Hop Video at the 2006 MTV Australia Video Music Awards. Two radio edits existed, including an "Extra Clean" version that removed gun and gang references.