Here's me Snoop interview, which ran in the Guardian Guide yesterday. I've also chucked up a few snaps that I took at his album party in Copenhagen, the night before the MTV VMA Awards....
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Snoop Dogg is a cultural icon, an activist, an actor and an entrepreneur, says Hattie Collins. Love him or hate him, Snoop is one top Dogg.
At a pre-MTV Awards party in Copenhagen for his new album, The Blue Carpet Treatment, Snoop Dogg has little time to sip on his Gin & Juice. Every three seconds someone is sticking a camera phone in his face or, in the case of two forthright females, pushing their posteriors determinedly towards the general area of his hands.
Everybody, it would seem, loves Snoop Dogg.
“I went to put some gas in my car one time and this lady rolled up on the side of me and said, ‘My nine month old baby loves your music.’ I was like ‘Would you stop lying,’” says Snoop in his slightly more sedate hotel room the next day, when the Guide is granted a brief audience with the Californian rapper. “She pulled the 9 month old baby out of the car and he pointed at me and said ‘Snoop Dogg,” he grins, turning to his ever-present homeboys (or Bosses and Boss Bitches as he terms his friends), who half-listen while playing video games. “I couldn’t believe that shit. For real, motherfucker couldn’t even hold his neck up.”
It’s 5.30pm, the day after his party and Snoop Dogg has not long woken up. In an hour’s time, he’s off to Copenhagen’s Rådhuspladsen where he’ll perform a medley of hits in front of millions of MTV viewers, many of whom know his lyrics word-for-word. “It’s like Super Snoop,” he says, struggling to describe his success, which is hardly surprising when you consider he’s smoked at least two strongly-scented jazz fags in 11 minutes. “Snoop Dogg is a superhero. He’s from another planet. You could say I’m pop because I sell records like a pop star, but I just don’t know why people like me,” he shrugs slowly. “I don’t focus on the egotistical shit, I don’t, um…hmm.” If there’s one thing you don’t expect from Snoop, it’s shyness. This is the man who, over a 14-year long career, has designed women’s underwear, co-starred as the pimpalicious Huggy Bear in Starsky And Hutch and seen himself splashed across front pages for brawling with BA staff. More than a mere rapper, Snoop Dogg cuts quite the iconic figure. “I just do what I do,” he decides, finally.
What he does do, very well, is rap. The protégé of acclaimed producer Dr Dre, Cordazar Calvin Broadus’ debut on the hip hop horizon was the final nail in New York’s geographical dominance of rap music. Rap fans immediately took to this lanky, loquacious lyricist who rhymed over Dre’s syrupy G-Funk soundtrack about bitches, booze and Californ-i-a’s bountiful sticky-icky-icky. His latest album, a fantastic blur of big beats and super-star guests, solidifies Snoop’s position as one of hip hop’s top dogs. Stevie Wonder makes a rare appearance on a rap album, and it’s the soul legend whom Snoop sees fit to attribute the I word. “I grew up on Stevie, loving how he made music that matters,” he says. “He’s an icon to me. I ain’t did half the work he done. He made music from the ‘60s to today - and good music; party music, thinking music…that’s the status I’m trying to get to. Hopefully by working with him, some of his greatness will have rubbed off on me.”
Blue Carpet also sees the return of Dre as a rapper, something not even 50 Cent or Eminem have persuaded the Doctor to do for several years. Over the mournful piano loop of Imagine, Dre and Snoop trade theoretical thoughts on where they might be had hip hop not happened. The real question perhaps though, is where music might be without Snoop and Dre; between them, they’ve worked with everyone from Jay-Z to Justin Timberlake, Slim Shady to Gwen Stefani.
Their relationship hasn’t always been smooth – times were particularly tough when Dre departed Death Row Records in 1996, leaving Snoop in the middle of the violent Suge Knight/ Tupac v Puffy/ Biggie debacle. Since then though, relationships have been repaired, and the two once more have a great working partnership. “The chemistry is still there - we trust each other and we love each other. We’re bringing the championship back,” Snoop surmises with a grin. Their friendship is such, he adds, that neither have any hesitation in letting the other know when they’re being a bit crap. “If I tell him ‘That shit is soft, you need to get back in the hood’, he don’t get offended. If he tells me ‘That rap is wack, you need to erase it’, I don’t get offended. We trust each other because we’re on the same team,” he says. “It’s never no egos involved when it’s me and Dre. You gotta be able to take constructive criticism, if you plan on being here for a long time. I don’t have no problem taking no orders.”
It’s this humility and ability to take the piss out of himself that have helped people to buy into Brand Snoop. Thinking beyond the hip hop box, Snoop’s sidelines show off his off-key personality perfectly. For example, you can now eat a foot-long Snoop Hot Dogg, ride a Snoop skateboard, play with your Snoop doll and watch Snoop porn (but only if you really have to - Doggystyle is truly odd). Similarly strange but intentionally comedic was his Doggy Fizzle Televizzle TV show, a small screen phenomenon that popularized Southern California slang and had everyone from rude girls to city boys saying ‘Fa shizzle ma nizzle.’ “I’m always trying to stay ahead of the game and do what’s next,” he says of his relentless work ethic. “I’ve got to stay busy cos I don’t know what that word retirement means.”
Other ongoing projects include his role as coach to his son’s football team, soon to be fictionalized on film. “In the beginning, the other parents didn’t really understand me,” he says of The Snoop Youth Football League. “I get more negative press than positive, and it’s kids, so I can understand that and respect that, because I have kids and I wouldn’t want my kids with anybody, um…” Like you? “If I didn’t know how they was,” he corrects. “But they let me take control and be their teacher once they got the chance to see my passion and my love for these kids.” (No Gary Glitter).
But with the various arrests he’s recently encountered (attempting to travel with a collapsible police baton, possession of marijuana and a firearm and a caution for affray after the Heathrow incident…), you have to wonder whether Snoop really sees himself as a good role model. “Snoop the rapper sometimes gives off the wrong impression cos he don’t give a fuck,” he concurs. “But Coach Snoop has a heart. I look at coaching as teaching, so when they become young men, they can look back and say ‘Coach Snoop was inspirational to me.’ Not Snoop the rapper, but Coach Snoop.”
The various escapades, though inexcusable, could be a result of a violent childhood as a member of the notorious Crip gang. A member of the Rollin’ 20 Crips on the bullet-scattered streets of Long Beach, California, it seems you can take the gang-banger out the gang, but you can’t …well, you get the picture. “It used to be a time when people wouldn’t approach me or talk to me cos they’d think they’d get fucked up,” he reflects. “But that’s a big misconception. People think there’s violence around me, but it’s more love than anything.” While he’s still a Crip, per se, it has a different meaning for him now as a 34 year-old father of three.
“I’m not active in the neighbourhood like that; the role I play now is to show that there is some good in it, because people always make it seem like, if you’re a Crip you gotta kill, you gotta steal. Nah, we people,” he refutes. “Being a Crip was something we did because we had no real sense of unity, so that was the title we went up under. It was just like joining the Boys Club.” Sure, armed with AK-47’s and bags of crack.
But while it’s easy to mock, in actuality Snoop doesn’t just talk the talk; as well as being involved in the 2004 Bloods and Crips ceasefire, he recently recorded a song for his new album with Blood-affiliated rapper The Game. He also organized a peace treaty last year, which bought together warring factions of west coast rappers. “A lot of people are influenced by what they see,” he says of the ensuing How The West Was One live tour, alongside The Game. “It’s bad enough that we don’t get along, especially when we don’t know why. So lets give them a reason why we should get along. We all black. We all people. We might have some things in common, if we just sit down and talk about it. We just a conversation away from peace, just as fast as we are a conversation away from war. So it’s a matter of which conversation you want to have.”
His current coup de grace is a series of semi-fictional novels called Love Don’t Live Here Anymore. Admitting, “I’ve been hard on women,” the books attempt to redress Snoop’s rampant misogyny by creating a series that empowers women, rather than degrades them. Then again, as a recent appearance on The L Word attests, even the most ardent of feminists appear to have forgiven Snoop’s sexism; there was little comment made about his cameo on the lesbian drama.
From once rival gang-members to gay women and superstar soul singers, everybody loves Snoop Dogg. Even if no one, himself included, is quite sure why. Which is a good job, he laughs, because he has no intention of quitting just yet. “I think the legacy I’ll leave is that you can do it how you want to do it, just do it till you’re satisfied. And I ain’t satisfied,” he concludes. “So I’m a keep doing it till I’m 70 years old and can’t do it no more.”
BOXOUT
We asked Snoop to tell us his favorite moments. But he was too stoned to remember. Allow us, Sir Snoop.
April 1992: Deep Cover.
Snoop’s first official release taken from the film of the same name. The single under-whelmed the charts by limping to 166 in the Billboard 200 but the vinyl, which announced ‘Dr Dre introducing Snoop Doggy Dogg’ got hip hop heads talking.
Dec 1992: Nuthin’ But A G Thang
The Dogg’s official entry into hip hop headlines. Featured on Dre’s seminal album, The Chronic, the words ‘1, 2, 3 and to the 4, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr Dre is at the door…” are forever immortalized in rap’s memory.
Oct 1993: Who Am I (What’s My Name?)
Snoop Dogg. Obviously.
Nov 1993: Gin & Juice
In which Snoop single-handedly made Gordon’s with ice and a slice cool.
Feb 1994: ‘Kick This Evil Bastard Out
The Star newspaper welcomes Snoop to the UK
Feb 2003: Coach Snoop
The Dogg decides to give his son’s football teams a few tips. Coach Snoop is born.
March 2003: Beautiful
Snoop loves the ladies. A lot. Here, he drops the ‘beotch’ talk and plays nice. Featuring Pharrell on production duties, this signaled Snoop’s return to hip hop hierarchy.
March 2004: Starsky & Hutch
Far from his film debut, but the role in which he received critical praise for his self-parodying portrayal of Huggy Bear.
Sept 2004: Drop It Like It’s Hot
Barely a beat in sight, The Neptune’s fuzzy ode to minimalism was one of Snoop’s bravest musical moments and ultimately one of his most commercially successful.
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