West Coast rap king in Gossip show

Staff report

Riding a wave of “California” energy, Snoop Dogg will make his first Youngstown appearance Friday when he comes to Club Gossip.

The rap star is fresh off his buzzed-about performance on the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday. Clad in shorts, the Long Beach artist delivered the quintessential West Coast rap on Katy Perry’s “California Gurls.”

The bouncy collaboration about the women of the Golden State is already a summer smash. The song is currently sitting on top of the iTunes most-downloaded singles chart.

The Doggfather seems to be enthroned on a similarly lofty career level these days.

He evolved from his gangsta roots on his more club-friendly 10th album “Malice N Wonderland,” which was released late last year.

“When I started to put together this record, I had a lot of malice in my heart — just focusing on making hard-core gangsta music,” Snoop is quoted as saying in a release from his record label. But as he got into it, he realized he also wanted to make songs that embodied something more. “My mood lightened and I wanted to make some music that just felt good … to me and to the ladies.”

Snoop’s current club tour was put together after he dropped off the Limp Bizkit tour without specifying a reason. He and the rap-metal band had planned a co-headlining summer tour of amphitheaters. Bizkit attempted to keep it together with some replacement rappers, but was soon forced to scrap the whole thing.

Friday’s show at Club Gossip will include three opening acts from the Mahoning Valley: Throwback, beatbox artist Lethal FX and Fresh N Fly.