Snoop Dogg was hollering about “more life” way before Drake. The Doggfather fully believes that not only can you speak it into existence, but you can rap it.

“When I fought that murder case and I won, I promised myself I would put more love in the universe, as opposed to a lot of hate and negative energy,” Snoop said recently after a press-only listening session in New York for his upcoming LP Neva Left (due May 19).

“I wrote that in my life. When I wrote ‘Murder Was the Case,’ I didn’t have a case. I believe my pen brought that to life. That’s why I chose to write from a different perspective on Tha Doggfather and records after that. I found myself going back into the gangsta… You know, the gangsta lifestyle always going to pull you back, but you try to write to live now. And if you notice, on all of these songs you heard today, I live on every one of them. If it was a movie, if it was a scene, ‘Well you know he lived through that scene. He made it through that scene.’ As opposed to there being a sad song about me dying and they’re bringing flowers. I don’t want to write that no more.”

And writing is paramount on Neva Left. It’s the Dogg’s best, most focused project since 2008’s Ego Trippin. He offers battle-rap freestyles, reflections on life (he proudly spits about a grandfather), rhymes over Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.” beat, a sample from A Tribe Called Quest “Check the Rhyme,” and even trades bars with KRS-One, Redman and Method Man elsewhere.

“It’s me writing,” described Snoop who recorded the LP in his new studio The Compound.

“That spot is a safe haven,” he said of the space. “I’m so creative there. YG did his album in the spot that I’m talking about. It’s a vibe in that muthaf–ka. I wrote my whole shit. I didn’t want no help. I wasn’t trying to be egotistical. It had to come from me. This is something that needed to be told from my perspective, and my point of view, from my pen. I feel like I haven’t been doing much of that because I’ve been allowing other people to be a part of the process because I’m a helpful, kind guy. But this project was not helpful and kind, it was ‘get back on your shit.’”