Snoop Dogg performs for "VH1 Storytellers" on Thursday in New York
Photo: FilmMagic / VH1

NEW YORK — You call it promoting an album. Snoop Dogg calls it going out with the homies and having the time of his life.

This week in New York, the Dogg has been everywhere from the "The Late Show With David Letterman" to a recent album-release party for Ego Trippin'. On Thursday night, he even taped the latest episode of "VH1 Storytellers." Snoop threw the VH1 rulebook out the window when he told the audience that he didn't have a tale to tell about the first track he performed, "Whateva U Do."

Obviously this wasn't going to be the normal show where the audience sits down to listen to the artist's musical selections and hear some nice antidotes. Snoop was intent on making the show a full party, and his music — including hits like "Gin & Juice" and "Drop It Like It's Hot" — would not allow anyone in the crowd to stay in their seats. People stood and danced all night. The Dogg was backed by a band — "The Snoopadelics" — that included Teddy Riley; DJs Quik, Battlecat and Jelly; Soopafly on piano; a horn section; backup singers; and Tha Dogg Pound on hypeman vocals.

The Long Beach legend did have plenty of stories to share later on, from his days riding shotgun with Dr. Dre and being medically cleared to use marijuana (he claimed to have glaucoma) to a quip about his children telling him he didn't make songs that kids wanted to dance to. "I said, 'N---a, what you talkin' about?' " Snoop said to the crowd with a grin.

Snoop, in fact, has come up with a foolproof dance song called "Life of the Party," which had guest stars Mistah F.A.B. and Too Short walk up from the crowd for a must-see show.

Another surprise was when Snoop and company performed the Everlast country song "My Medicine." The fact that Snoop Dogg performed a country song is still taking time to settle in, and the fact that he did a country song that got the whole audience to clap their hands and bop like they were in church was a sight to behold.

"I love country music," he said. "Love Johnny Cash."

Gap Band lead singer Charlie Wilson came out for "Can't Say Goodbye." The song is about a man who is trying to be there for his family, but he refuses to let the streets go. Once the tune started, an emotional Snoop made the band stop and restart. "That record makes me wanna cry," Snoop said.

The best moment of the show was unscheduled and may not even make the show's cut due to some red tape. The Dogg and his Pound did a rendition of Morris Day and the Time's "Cool." Snoop said he couldn't perform the song on TV because the "man who owns it wouldn't clear it." (According to ASCAP, the writers of that song are former Revolution guitarist Dez Dickerson and a man named Prince.) The band — which sounded better than the recorded tracks — kept their consistent, overachieving sound up, jamming on instrumentals for "Cool" for five minutes before Snoop started singing.

"Teddy, tell me when to come in," said Snoop, who had Daz and Kurupt mimicking the Time by using their hands as a fake mirror, which Snoop pretended to look in. The three began doing Day's patented hop dance.

"Are we hot?" yelled Snoop. "No, we're cool," everyone said in unison. By this time, Riley had left his post on the keyboard and began directing the band like it was a 100-piece symphony. Riley then joined Tha Dogg Pound, laying a towel over Snoop's back. Much like James Brown, the Dogg was definitely not ready to leave.

After "Cool," Snoop sat on a stool and kept singing, "Paid the cost to be the boss," while the band played. Then he freestyled, bringing some melody to cuss words. "We just some real mutha----as," said Snoop. He and Riley went back and forth — Snoop in his real voice, Riley using the auto-tune device at his keyboard.

"VH1 Storytellers: Snoop Dogg" premieres March 31.

In other Snoop news, on Friday morning (March 14), it was announced that the Dogg would not only be appearing on the soap opera "One Life to Live," but he would also be remaking the show's theme song. He told the hosts on "The View" that he loved the program since he was a kid. He would watch it when he was at home on suspension from school.

"I like Bo Buchanan, he's off the hook," Snoop smiled about a character on the show.

He also commented on the Eliot Spitzer scandal, joking that if the disgraced governor would have come to him to get hooked up with a woman, he would have been OK.

"It's too late for advice," Snoop said. "I would have somebody who was real discreet and wouldn't have disclosed his game."

• Snoop Dogg
• Teddy Riley
• DJ Quik

Snoop Dogg
Photo: MTV News

LOS ANGELES — Could Snoop Dogg's smile get any wider? Definitely not. The legendary rapper just got the stamp of approval from one of the world's greatest and best-known athletes: David Beckham.

Yep, their friendship isn't something made up just for the Dogg's E! reality program, "Father Hood."

"I have all of Snoop's albums, and that's definitely one of his best ones," one of Beckham's associates enthusiastically said to Snoop's business partner, Ted Chung, as he stepped outside of the control room where the new LP, Ego Trippin', was playing. Beckham, Arch Bishop Don "Magic" Juan, Snoop and a host of the Dogg's friends were still vibing inside.

"I ain't no groupie or nothing, but that n---a there is the biggest thing to hit L.A. since Shaq," one of Snoop's homies said of the soccer superstar minutes later, leaving to get his digital camera. No way this moment wasn't going to be captured.

After a round of photos Beckham and company left.

"I'll see y'all later, Church!" Beckam said to Snoop.

Ego Trippin' comes out next month, and indeed, Beckham's friend's summation that it will be a gem in Snoop's legendary catalog didn't seem off. The Long Beach, California, rapper turned the album in to his record label Friday and still couldn't get enough of it that night. He gave it one more spin as his friends DJ Quik and Teddy Riley arrived.

"We're known as QDT," Snoop later told MTV News, sitting next to Quik and Teddy. "Compton's finest, if you ask me. ... We've always played for the same team, we just never wore the same uniform.

"Before I was making records, I was buying [Riley's] records," Snoop said. "I was inspired by the whole movement that he had with the New Jack Swing and the R&B records from Al B.Sure, and Keith Sweat ... He's a guy that you sit back and wait for his records to come out, so you can see what you're going to do next."

The three legends have officially forged a musical friendship, kinship and business partnership. QDT want to work together the way Timbaland and Justin Timberlake make albums together and have gone to write, produce and cameo on records for other artists.

Their first project is Ego Trippin'. It started out simply enough: Snoop called in DJ Quik — who has some of the best ears in the business — to mix for the album's early recording sessions. Meanwhile, Riley — who'd been on a year-long sabbatical — met Dogg at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors, where Snoop asked Riley for some beats. He went home and started making a myriad of tracks. Snoop loved the three he heard, and everything blossomed from there.

Riley was given the task of coming up with Ego Trippin's second single, a follow-up to the monster track "Sensual Seduction."

"We redid Morris Day and the Time's 'Cool,' " Snoop said with a smile. "People are gonna trip when they hear how I'm singing on there. Teddy had me sing the whole thing by myself."

"Coooool. Ain't nobody bad like me," Doggy sings on the track. "I got diamonds on my fingers and a couple on my toes. ... I'm just cool. So cool. Ain't nobody bad like me."

Elsewhere, on what will probably be another single, tentatively titled "I'm Alright," the vocal duties are shifted to Raphael Saadiq. (It seems Snoop went back on last year's promise that he'd have no guests on this album.)

"I'm alright, I'm alright, we allllright./ ... Waste of time, go your way, and I'll go mine." The record is about Snoop 86ing a girl.

In the studio, Dogg started dancing, rhyming and sliding on the floor to the sounds of his own music. Don Juan got up and joined in with his own moves. Out of nowhere, Ray J popped up. But that's far from random: Snoop has more famous friends than a dog has fleas, and everybody's welcome to join him.

They just might serve as a muse to one of his rhymes.

"Me and Leonardo DiCaprio," he raps on a song called "Hollywood Nights." "He keep a bad ho. I keep a bad ho."

Pharrell Williams and Too Short also contribute to the LP. This time around, not only did Snoop get people like Shawty Red to write his song lyrics, he brought in a team of aspiring MCs to pen his rap lyrics too.

"I'm into giving people chances," he explained. "They wrote what they thought Snoop Dogg should be saying. It turned out wonderful."

Maybe he should have named the project I'm Not Ego Trippin'.

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• Snoop Dogg
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Teddy Riley
Photo: Interscope

Teddy Riley is gearing up for his debut solo album, BlackRock, to be released this fall. In the meantime, look for the disc's first single, "Party and Bullsh--," on the "Rush Hour 2" soundtrack in August.

The album will be the New Jack Swing pioneer's first step back into the spotlight after years behind the scenes as a producer, and marks his first release for Virgin Records, according to the label. In addition to working on Joe's #1 hit "Stutter," Riley worked with Product G&B on their upcoming debut, and just wrapped up production on Michael Jackson's long-awaited Invincible (see "Michael Jackson Previews 15 Invincible Tracks").

The Guy founder put the kibosh on a possible reunion of his last group Blackstreet late last year (see "Teddy Riley Says Blackstreet Reunion Unlikely"). The group, which scored a Grammy for their 1996 single "No Diggity," split acrimoniously in 1999, with Riley and former partner Chauncey Hannibal exchanging nasty words and legal threats for much of last year.

BlackRock is set for a November release, while the video for "Party and Bullsh--," featuring Riley, Method Man and "Rush Hour 2" stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, will be shot later this month, according to the label.

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