A support act doesn't always merit mention but Dr Dre protege The Game warrants a word. The Compton rapper is Dre's most significant West Coast signing since Snoop. Bearing bristling swagger and commanding cadence, the 25-year-old is the perfect pairing for Dre's stabbing synth and driving drum patterns. By the time the main act emerges, the crowd are well warmed up.

Thirteen years before launching The Game, Dre met a young man called Calvin Broadus. Snoop Doggy Dogg's lackadaisical drawl teamed with the Doc's smoked-out sounds had a chemistry that quickly confirmed their place in hip-hop history. Bobbing about the stage with insouciant ease to the calamitous refrains of the classic What's My Name, Snoop has the crowd eating from the palm of his spliff-holding hands.

The 32-year-old proves himself not only an accomplished performer but an artist who has stood the test of time by moving with the times. A more recent alliance has been with producers du jour the Neptune's. The audience goes particularly wild when Pharrell Williams joins Snoop for the back-breaking beat-box of recent hit Drop It Like It's Hot. At this point the rapper reaches rock star proportions; his vocals all but drowned by the chanting crowd.

The Long Beach lyricist puts on a spirited show featuring dancing girls, various uncles who boogie about and sometimes sing and a live band called The Snoopadelics. There's even a set of sorts - two huge knicker-shaped sheets and several 7ft shrubs scattered about in homage to Snoop's specialist subject, weed.

It's 11 years since Snoop last set foot on UK soil, but it was well worth the wait.