[louder]

Snoop's "The Return of Doggystyle" comes out July 1st, partly produced by Just Blaze!

"For me personally, I love all the experimental things that he's done the past few years, like the Bush album [with Pharrell in 2015], the album with Wiz [2011's Mac & Devin Go to High School soundtrack], the Snoop Lion stuff [2013's Reincarnated]," Blaze says. "But my personal favorite albums from Snoop, besides Doggystyle, obviously, are albums like [2002's] Paid Da Cost to Be Da Boss, Rhythm & Gangsta [from 2004], where he kind of goes back to that Snoop personality that we all first fell in love with. And I was very excited to find out that that’s the direction he’s taking with this album. And just coincidentally, some of the stuff that I’ve been working on lately just kind of felt like an updated version of that old Death Row sound, kind of an updated G-Funk. I just started working on these tracks and they had a lot of those similar elements, just felt like newer versions of that feeling."

Snoop's debut album, Doggystyle, was produced entirely by Dr. Dre, and lately he's been getting back into one-producer projects; 2013's 7 Days of Funk (under the moniker Snoopzilla) was crafted with Dam-Funk, while last year's Bush was entirely produced by Pharrell. But for now, Just Blaze says that while he's heavily involved, there are no plans for him to be behind the boards for the full LP.

"With me, I just like to be involved in a project whether it directly benefits me or not," he says. "So if somebody has a great song and I have ideas and I feel like I can make the song better, I’m going to offer those ideas. But I think that’s kind of all been part of me and [Snoop] having a better working relationship. The final scope and definition of the project remains to be seen, but I’m just excited. I’ve always been a Snoop fan since Doggystyle and The Chronic, so to get a chance to work with him a little more extensively than just, 'Here’s a beat,' has been great."