Snoop Dogg (born October 20, 1971, in Long Beach, California; real name Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr.) is an American rapper, reggae musician, and actor. In his early days, he called himself Snoop Doggy Dogg. The name Snoop was the nickname his mother gave him because of his fondness for the comic strip Peanuts. In 2012, he announced that he would now be making reggae instead of rap and would call himself Snoop Lion. In 2013, he released a funk album titled 7 Days of Funk under the band name 7 Days of Funk, together with Dâm-Funk, as Snoopzilla. In 2015, he released a new album called Bush under the name Snoop Dogg again. In 2018, he made a radical stylistic shift with the first-ever release of a gospel album (Bible Of Love).
Life
Childhood and youth
Growing up in a poor neighborhood in Long Beach, he began to rap. Due to the conditions in his area, he became a member of the Rollin’ 20’s Crips gang. He is still a member of the gang to this day. He was first arrested shortly after finishing high school for dealing cocaine. In the following years, he was arrested multiple times and spent some time in prison. In the early 1990s, he decided to change his life and get involved in the music business.
Beginning of the musical career
Before he was discovered by Dr. Dre in the early 1990s, he had already recorded songs with his cousin Nate Dogg and Dre’s half-brother Warren G under the name 213. 213 is the area code for Long Beach. It was also Warren G who left a tape with his own songs on Dr. Dre’s desk, who was already successful at the time with the group N.W.A, which eventually led to the contact with Snoop. 213 disbanded because Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg were signed by Dr. Dre at Death Row Records, and Warren G was signed by Def Jam.
1992–1997: Death Row Records
In 1992, Snoop was featured on Dr. Dre’s album “The Chronic” with several guest contributions. The album significantly shaped the G-funk music genre. In 1993, Snoop released his debut album, Doggystyle. The album sold over four million copies in the US alone. At that time, he also became friends with Tupac Shakur.
While recording Doggystyle with Dr. Dre in August 1993, Snoop Dogg was arrested in connection with the shooting of Phillip Woldermarian, a member of a rival gang. Snoop was accused of carrying out a so-called drive-by shooting with his bodyguard McKinley Lee. While Snoop was driving, his bodyguard Woldermarian shot the man. In court, Snoop Dogg claimed he acted in self-defense because the man was a stalker. For his defense, he hired the lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who later defended, among others, Michael Jackson, O. J. Simpson, and Tupac Shakur. Snoop and his bodyguard were acquitted because the court recognized the situation as self-defense. The trial dragged on for three years and affected Snoop Dogg’s work on a new album, which was eventually released in 1996 under the title Tha Doggfather.
Snoop Dogg had already formed the group “Dogg Pound Gangsta Clicc” (D.P.G.C.) during his youth. D.P.G.C. includes several West Coast artists such as Daz Dillinger, Kurupt and Nate Dogg, as well as RBX, The Lady of Rage, Bad Azz (another cousin of Snoop) and Soopafly. Snoop’s cousin Daz Dillinger released the album Dogg Food in 1995 with his partner Kurupt under the name Tha Dogg Pound.
1998–2001: No Limit Records
Then came a turning point in Snoop Doggy Dogg’s career: He parted ways with Dr. Dre (who had now founded his own label, “Aftermath”), dropped the “Doggy” from his name because the rights to his previous name were held by Death Row Records, and signed a contract with the New Orleans rap mogul Master P on his label “No Limit Records.” He released three albums in total. In 1998, Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told was released, a more commercial rap album with numerous guest appearances from the No Limit label. The album debuted at number 1 on the charts and was certified platinum (like every album by Snoop Dogg so far).
Nine months later, his second album with No Limit, No Limit Top Dogg, was released. With guests such as Warren G, Suga Free, Mausberg, Goldie Loc, and Nate Dogg, and productions by West Coast veteran DJ Quik, Dr. Dre, and Meech Wells, the album was once again a commercial success. With O.G. Tray Deee and his colleague Goldie Loc, Snoop Dogg then released two albums as “Tha Eastsidaz” in 2000 and 2001: First Snoop Dogg Presents: Tha Eastsidaz and then Duces n Trayz: The Oldfashioned Way. Thru productions by Battlecat and Soopafly, these albums also kept G-funk alive. In addition, seven years after The Chronic, Dr. Dre’s second solo album, 2001, was released, on which Snoop Dogg appeared four times, including on the hit singles Still D.R.E. and The Next Episode feat. Nate Dogg.
In 2000, Snoop released his third and final album with No Limit Records. Tha Last Meal now had almost nothing stylistically to do with No Limit. Appearances by artists like Kokane, Suga Free, Tha Eastsidaz, Bad Azz & Lil 1/2 Dead illustrate this. The first mentioned can only be heard as a singer on this album and is featured on several tracks. Dr. Dre also contributed some productions again.
In 2001, Snoop Dogg’s autobiography Tha Doggfather was published.
2002–2005: Collaboration with The Neptunes
In this year, Snoop Dogg had to endure some musical setbacks: Tha Dogg Pound disbanded because Kurupt returned to Suge Knight’s record label Death Row. Snoop’s female rap group, Doggy’s Angels, also failed to bring him much success. There would be no more albums from Tha Eastsidaz, as Tray Deee (in prison until 2012) accused Snoop of not paying him royalties from the albums sold.
At the end of 2002, he made a comeback with “Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$” thru his label Doggy Style Records and Priority Records (EMI). The single “Beautiful,” produced by “The Neptunes,” reached number 7 on the charts. In the two years that followed, he released ten street mixtapes titled Welcome 2 tha Chuuch with DJ Sycamore and Soopafly. At this point in his career, Snoop Dogg had shed his gangster image and established a “pimp image” in its place.
After twelve years as a commercially successful rapper, Snoop managed to fulfilll his childhood dream in August 2004: Together with his friends Nate Dogg and Warren G, who had also achieved worldwide success by then, he released the album The Hard Way as 213 thru TVT Records. It debuted at number 4 on the charts, but it did not stay on the charts for long.
Four months later came Snoop’s seventh solo album, R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece, on Doggystyle/Star Trak/Geffen. Star Trak is the record label of the producers The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams & Chad Hugo), and the success of the single Beautiful from the last album seemed to have prompted Snoop to continue working with them. The single Drop It Like It’s Hot feat. Pharrell Williams reached number one in the charts for five weeks. However, this album did not satisfy most of Snoop’s old fans: too many guests from pop music and the absence of a West Coast sound led to criticism.
Daz Dillinger and Kurupt buried their feud in 2005 and went on a US tour together with Snoop Dogg, The Game, and Soopafly. The founder of the Crips gang, Stanley “Tookie” Williams, was not pardoned after 25 years in prison despite the clemency petition of his lawyers and was finally executed by lethal injection on December 13, 2005. Snoop Dogg, who had organized demonstrations against an execution together with Jamie Foxx, released the label sampler Welcome 2 Tha Chuuch: Tha Album on the same day via Doggystyle Records. The single “Real Soon” feat. Daz, Kurupt & Nate Dogg was not only the first song by D.P.G.C. in a long time, but also a song for Tookie Williams.
2006: Problems at airports
On April 27, 2006, Snoop Dogg was arrested at London Heathrow Airport after the rapper and his 30-strong entourage were denied entry to the British Airways first-class lounge and subsequently caused a ruckus. In a hearing in May, Snoop Dogg was banned from entering the UK for life. The ban was lifted in 2008.
On October 29, 2006, he was found with a weapon and marijuana during a random check for a parking violation at Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank (Los Angeles County) and was arrested again, but was released after posting a $35,000 bail.
2006–2012: Dogg-Pound Reunion
In June 2006, the Dogg-Pound-Reunion album Cali Iz Active was released, featuring West Coast producers like Battlecat and Soopafly, as well as Swizz Beatz and David Banner, with guest appearances from Lady Of Rage, RBX, David Banner, and P. Diddy, among others. Sales were moderate.
Snoop Dogg formed two new groups of West Coast rappers. On the one hand, “The Warzone,” consisting of Goldie Loc, MC Eiht, and Kam. On the other hand, the “Western Union” with Soopafly, Damani, and Bad Lucc. He signed both of them to his label Doggystyle Records.
The first single from the album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment is the song Vato with B-Real. The second single is called That’s That Shit (featuring R. Kelly). The third and fourth are called Candy and Boss’ Life. On the album Boss’ Life, Akon sings, but for the single and the video, Akon was replaced by Nate Dogg because Akon refused to participate due to his record label. In 2006, his income was estimated at 17 million US dollars and his net worth at 170 million US dollars.
Snoop Dogg first collaborated with Nas in 2006 for a track on his album Hip Hop Is Dead. Furthermore, he produced a compilation called The Big Squeeze under his producer pseudonym Niggaracci, which featured only tracks by West Coast rappers.
In November 2007, Snoop Dogg announced the release of his new album Ego Trippin’ for March 2008. Snoop Dogg also announced that there would be no guest appearances on the album. The premiere of the video for the first single Sexual Eruption (or Sensual Seduction) was on November 28, 2007, on American TRL.
In 2009, Snoop Dogg became the Creative Chairman of Priority Records. His tenth studio album, Malice n Wonderland, was released on December 8 of the same year. The first single, Gangsta Luv, only reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album became the worst-selling of his entire career.
In 2010, Snoop Dogg was featured as a guest musician in several songs, such as Katy Perry’s “California Gurls,” Curren$y’s “Seat Change,” and Jessica Mauboy’s “Get ’em Girls.” In 2011, he made another guest appearance in The Lonely Island’s Turtleneck & Chain.
In a video interview, Snoop Dogg confirmed in September 2010 that he was in the studio with producer Swizz Beatz. The album titled Doggumentary was released in March 2011 and has reached number 8 on the Billboard charts to date.
2012 to 2014: Reincarnated
After a stay in Jamaica, Broadus announced in the summer of 2012 that he wanted to release a reggae album. The album will be accompanied by a documentary film of the same name about his “Jamaican experience.” For this and any future projects, he chose a new stage name, Snoop Lion. Broadus told reporters that he had been baptized with this name by a Rastafarian priest.
The first single from the album Reincarnated is titled La La La (on a reworked version of Ken Boothe’s Artibella) and was produced by Diplo and Major Lazer. The album was released on April 23, 2013, and the film on March 21 of the same year.
In September 2012, Broadus released an electronic music album, Loose Joise, under the pseudonym DJ Snoopadelic. He particularly highlighted the influence of George Clinton’s Funkadelic. In an interview, he said, referring to his stage names: “Snoop Lion, Snoop Dogg, DJ Snoopadelic—they only know one thing: make music that’s timeless and bangs.”
2015 to present: Bush
In 2015, he released the album “Bush” again under the name Snoop Dogg.
Other activities
In 2000, Snoop (as “Michael J. Corleone”) directed Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, a pornographic film produced by Hustler. This film combined hip-hop with adult material and was a commercial success. The film won the award for “Top Selling Release of the Year” at the 2002 AVN Awards. Fueled by this success, Snoop also directed Snoop Dogg’s Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp in 2002, this time using the nickname “Snoop Scorsese.”
Snoop tried to establish himself as an actor (Baby Boy, Starsky & Hutch, Training Day, Bones – The Death is Just the Beginning, Soul Plane). In addition, he was active as a businessman, for example, with his own Cadillac model (“Snoop De Ville”), Snoop Dogg action figures, his clothing company “Snoop Dogg Clothing,” and a skateboard distribution company (Snoop Dogg Boarding Company), which he founded together with his brother. In addition, he founded the clothing brand Rich & Infamous in collaboration with Christian Audigier.
He was the host of the MTV Europe Music Awards 2007 in Munich.
In March 2008, he made an appearance at WWE Wrestlemania 24; he presented the Playboy Bunnymania match as the Master of Ceremonies.
In 2008, the US rapper sang the German hit “Schön ist es auf der Welt zu sein” by Roy Black in an advertisement for Vybemobile.
On July 2, 2005, he performed at the second benefit concert Live 8 in London, initiated by Bob Geldof. On July 7, 2007, he performed in Hamburg at Al Gore’s Live Earth.
In 2012, Snoop collaborated with Epic Lloyd and Nice Peter on the song “Moses vs Santa Claus (feat. Snoop Dogg)” as part of the Epic Rap Battles of History, which was released in December of that year on YouTube and iTunes.
In January 2019, it was announced that Snoop became a spokesperson and investor for Klarna.
Private life
Snoop Dogg has been married to Shante Taylor since June 12, 1997, and they have two sons and a daughter. He lives in Long Beach. In March 2009, Broadus converted to the Nation of Islam. He is a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. His cousin is WWE wrestler Sasha Banks.
Awards
In April 2016, Snoop Dogg was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as the first musician. On November 9, 2018, he was honored with the 2649th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
