“Last Dance with Mary Jane,” which flips Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” appears on rapper’s new album Missionary
Snoop Dogg’s got a new album out today, it’s produced primarily by Dr. Dre — marking their first full collaboration since Doggystyle — and you better believe it boasts a centerpiece song about weed. One that features Jelly Roll and even samples Tom Petty.
“Last Dance with Mary Jane” borrows its hook and title from Petty’s 1993 song of the sorta-same name (“Mary Jane’s Last Dance”). This gives the track a rootsy vibe as Snoop reflects on his lifelong relationship with weed, dating all the way back to his first puff at around age five (“It was love at first light, fell in love the first night/My uncle told me don’t rush, this could be your first crush”).
Where Snoop is contemplative and at times playful, Jelly Roll is characteristically grave and solemn, taking the “Mary Jane is not a plant I smoke, but a woman who broke my heart” route — though not without some (contractually obligated, we assume) weed metaphors. “It’s so unfair what she did to me,” he opines at one point, “The way she sparked this epiphany.”
(Snoop and Jelly Roll previewed “Last Dance With Mary Jane” a few weeks ago, with the rapper popping up at the country star’s Beautifully Broken tour stop in Nashville.)
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” is one of handful of classic tunes to get the sample treatment on Snoop’s new album, Missionary. “Hard Knocks” boasts bits of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”; “Thank You” samples Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)”; and “Another Part of Me” is a reinvention of the Police classic “Message In a Bottle,” with Sting re-recording the guitar line and providing new vocals.
Missionary boasts a whole bunch of special guests as well. Along with Jelly Roll and Sting, it features verses from Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent, BJ the Chicago Kid, Method Man, Smitty, K.A.A.N, and Jhené Aiko.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
