Okay, as we're trawling the music mags, how about a little game? Guess who this musician is, interviewed in Uncut not once but twice, first describing his "Desert Island Disc", and then a few pages later, picking his Album of the Year and sticking out like a sore but very welcome thumb amid the sorry shower of aging Britpoppers who reckon Kasabian, Midlake (The Trials of Van Occupanther!?!?!?!?), and Muse are verily the dogs bollocks.

Desert Island Disc
Tha Dogg Pound--Call Iz Active
This record is different from all Snoop's others, it's got more personalities in there. He doens't sing all the time, there are different characters that pop up. They work in crews, four or five people involved at one time. It's a discussion group, in a funny kind of way. I saw him the other day on TV, and he was talking about his sponsorship of football teams; he had 2000 members already. It's funny because Al Sharpton was complaining about how rappers should contribute more to the community. I like Snoop's style, as a man. He's the one that got away. the one that did something.

Album of the Year
Kokane--Back 2 Tha Clap
One of the originators of G-Unit finally gets his turn. His take on the whole West Coast Gangsta Hop is much more soulful than gangsta, especially the track "When It Rains, It Pours", a heartbreaking song that most uncharacteristically ends with a comment about his mother.

Any idea?

A clue: read it aloud, in a baleful Welsh accent.

That's right.

It's John Cale!

I know he did that album last year or the year before, with Timbaland-influenced beats, but still...

"I like Snoop's style, as a man"... I can just hear him saying that in his grave 'n' gravelly tone.

I heard that Snoop/R. Kelly single "That's That" the other day coming out of a shop doorway, and suddenly thought: blimey, he's been around a loooong time. 14 years. Which means career-wise he's at the Honi Soit point or something. (Or maybe Tha Blue Carpet Treatment = Blue Mask). "That's That" has up to now irritated me immensely with its lackadaisically jaunty melody, but suddenly, seeing the video yesterday, I decided it was genius. It's got a real "getting away with it" vibe about, spelled out in the video when Snoop drops his usual blase impressed-by-nothing frown and is sorta shuffling about in this lazy-dance way with a stoned shit-eating grin exactly midway between smug and sheepish. Like, "how easy is this?".