Snoop Dogg's Wellness Retreat 2017

Snoop Dogg w/ Cypress Hill, Method Man & Redman, and Berner
WaMu Theater, Seattle, WA
04.13.17

If you weren’t high, you weren’t in the room for Snoop Dogg’s Mount Kushmore Wellness Retreat Tour 2017. Once a two-day festival, they kicked off this year’s festivities in Seattle, an opening that felt near-obligatory for our weed-friendly city. While not sold out, the crowd that showed up were enthusiastically dancing through WaMu theatre, holding their blunts high—despite the heightened security—and rapping every word right along with the lineup of Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Method Man & Redman, and Berner.

Bay-area rapper Berner and member of signee of Taylor Gang Records opened the night in a cloud of smoke, setting the stage for expectations. His knack for stoner flows and everyone’s enthusiasm during “Burn One” proved that he’s made his mark on the genre over the past decade and countless albums and collaborations.

While the DJs set up for Method Man and Redman, Meth’s trademark voice comes over the loudspeakers talking about, what else, weed. Nursing their longtime bromance, the hip hop master duo rocked old school tracks and new in a rapid-fire medley of hits. Their stage energy hasn’t slowed a bit over the years, and they proved their live draw tenfold. There were water-whips aplenty, Meth jumped into the crowd, and Red got everyone barking back. While their set might have felt cut off, they delivered, in their own words, 150%.

Things got slightly more finessed when Cypress Hill took the stage, the strobe lights beginning to blast, a thick entourage lining sidestage with phones set to record. Right away they have everyone jumping, their set feeling like a memory lane mixtape, the bass turned to eleven. One of the biggest hip hop acts of the 90s—and keeping with the marijuana theme of the evening—CH lit up on stage, passed one to the crowd, and had everyone put ‘em in the air. They split the crowd in half with a competition, having everyone sing either House of Pain’s “Jump” or Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” which, given the locale, had the crowd crazed.

The heavy-hitting lineup culminated in Snoop himself, all California chill in his purple track suit and shades. Scantily-clad dancers joined him on stage amidst the smoke cannons and a live band, for a set that showed off exactly why he’s been able to maintain such an ardent following over his quarter-century career.

Snoop is magnetic on stage. His lilting rhythms and joyful dance moves endeared him to the crowd while he grinned his way through a killer set. The crowd seemed to know every word, and right off the bat Snoop seemed impressed, commenting how their rapping along sounded so good. He worked through bits of all his major collaborations, from DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win” to Katy Perry’s “California Gurls.” Every one of them getting more applause than the one before.

The crowd went insane for the sultrier tracks like “Sensual Seduction,” and even the water vendor raised his phone to record a bit from behind his cart. There were also odes to both Biggie and Tupac and a dancing doggy mascot. This was a show for the fans, no doubt, and every artist met their high-partying expectations.

Review by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Sunny Martini

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