Snoop Dogg hits back at those criticizing his 'Missionary' album

Snoop Dogg's latest album Missionary, produced entirely by Dr. Dre, was released on December 13. The opinions surrounding the project have landed on social media, as well as podcasts, and the reviews have been mixed.

There are some people who said they didn't care for the album, and they weren't looking for a new Snoop project to begin with. So, the Long Beach legend responded on Instagram and hit back at his detractors.

"First of all, thank y’all for the support for Missionary. Long time coming," said Snoop. "Love the reception but let me say this: I’ve been watching podcasts and people doing reviews. A couple of them specifically where they started off saying, ‘I wasn’t into this album, I don’t like Snoop Dogg, I wasn’t anticipating this, I don’t care' … Really just listening just to listen. Started off hating."

"Get to song three, four, demeanor change a little bit," he continued. "By the time they get to song eight, nine,10, they love Snoop Dogg, loving the production, loving the growth. By the time they get to the end, they’re in tears because they’re emotional behind the body of work that me and Dr. Dre put together trying to show how to make a body of work, a project, well received. I love the hate and the love. That’s why we do it. We do it because we love what we do. Thank y’all."

Unfortunately for Dre and Snoop, Missionary had underwhelming first-week sales since HITSDailyDouble says it sold just 36,000 equivalent units. Still, some might say that too much emphasis is placed on first-week sales and more attention should be paid to what an album does after several months.

But Snoop seems to be taking the criticism in stride regardless. It's easy to tell based on the caption of his Instagram post. "Thin line between love and hate 🙏🏽 ya kids and ya mama love me 😂👍🏿🌎🌎. Carry on," he wrote.