That Tree

Album: More Malice (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the first single from West Coast MC Snoop Dogg's album More Malice, the follow-up to his 2010 Malice N Wonderland record. The song is a collaboration with New York hip hop artist Kid Cudi.
  • Diplo, who has also worked with M.I.A. and Santigold, produced the song. He told MTV News that originally he had no idea the two rappers were even recording the track. The producer recalled: "I've known Snoop's manager Ted Chung for a while and I actually met Snoop through the Swedish singer Robyn at the Grammys last year. We exchanged information because he'd heard of me and I kept in touch. When Ted came around asking for beats, I didn't have any so I gave him some small loops and Ted actually just looped the loops over again."
    Diplo didn't hear anything more about the beats until a recording session with Kid Cudi. "Cudi was like, 'I just did a track with Snoop over your beat.' And I was like, 'What are you talking about?' " Diplo said. "I had no idea that Ted had taken the small loops and they'd rapped on it, so Ted eventually sent me back a vocal and I kind of constructed a track around that."
  • The song was initially earmarked for Malice N Wonderland, but didn't get onto the final track listing. "It didn't make that album because of deadlines and it wasn't in the right shape," Diplo explained. "But they liked the track and really wanted to use it, so I did some more work on it and that's why it's just coming out now."
  • When asked by MTV News about the concept of the song's music video in which he and Kid Cudi star, Snoop compared it to Romper Room, the famed television series aimed at preschoolers known for its organized-yet-free-for-all episodes. "It's kind of hard to explain," he explained. "It's like Romper Room. It's kiddish. It's really fun. Me and him like to have fun, so we wanted the video to depict that. It's not a real serious video. There's no champagne room. There's no money being thrown or a bunch of girls. It's just me and him having a good time."
  • Snoop explained the song's meaning to MTV News: "It's basically a song talking about what we love. It's a hard world we live in. Sometimes the only way we can get away is through that tree. We search the whole globe trying to find happiness, and sometimes, it sits right there in front of us in that tree."

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