Hear Snoop Dogg, Sting, and Dr. Dre Reinvent ‘Message in a Bottle’

Snoop Dogg‘s new single from his upcoming Dr. Dre-produced album Missionary takes major inspiration from the Police‘s 1979 single “Message in A Bottle,” using a sampled or replayed version of Andy Summers’ guitar line and part of the melody — as well as fresh vocals from former Police frontman Sting.

“Me and Snoop made a recording of ‘Message In A Bottle’, which he’s called something else,” Sting recently told BBC Radio 2. “I played the guitar and I sang on it, but Snoop also sings on this, which is quite a revelation to me.” Sting added that he found Snoop to be “a very nice man.”

Snoop’s confident singing is just as prominent as his rapping on the track (produced by Dre and the ICU), and Sting fits seamlessly alongside him, adopting some of Snoop’s flow into his own part. At one point, the two vocalists even nail a harmony together.

“We hung out and we chilled,” Snoop recently said of his time with Sting. “Like a child that’s infatuated with somebody as a singer, and you get a chance to meet them and they give you everything you expected. That’s what happens with me all the time: I meet people I’ve always wanted to meet and they’re everything I wanted them to be.”

Missionary will drop Dec. 13, a date that also marks the 30th anniversary of Snoop Dogg’s Dre-produced debut, Doggystyle. “We were kids at that time,” Dre said in August. “Snoop may have been like 18 or 19 years old, and I’m, I think, I’m six years older than him… This one is gonna show a different level of maturity with his lyrics and with my music.”