 |
Snoop Dogg: Always With the Doggy Style
For an answer to that question, we need to go back and dig a little into Snoop Doggie's past. For starters, one of the most well-known facets of his background is that he was sent to jail for six months for trafficking in cocaine. He was also a member of the Crips gang. But all the while, despite jail shot down his chances of becoming a basketball star, Snoop Dog knew he needed to get into rap.
At an early age, he used to mix tapes of himself rapping along with Nate Dogg and Warren G, who just happened to be Dr. Dre's stepbrother (not a bad person to know, right?). Snoop Dogg was also a member of the rap group 213, along with Lil' ½ Dead. It was also this underground work and connections that helped Snoop become who he is today. How so? Dr. Dre somehow got his hands on one of these mix tapes and told Snoop to come in for an audition.
On Death Row
Dr. Dre didn't keep Snoop in the stable for long. He started using Snoop Dogg lyrics on the hit song off the "Deep Cover" movie soundtrack. But more importantly, Snoop Dogg lyrics got major play in one of the biggest rap albums ever, Dr. Dre's "The Chronic." If you listen to Snoop Dogg even back then, you notice just how smooth and confident he was.
That only got amplified when he was on the first ever Snoop Dogg album, "Doggystyle." Snoop Dogg songs such as "Gin and Juice" and "It's a Doggy Dog World" not only made Snoop Dogg a number one recording artist. They defined a generation of rap listeners and then rap artists. This was followed up by the 1996 "The Dogfather." This album didn't do quite as well as the first Snoop Dogg album, but what could?
Part of the problem was a change of leadership. By then, Dr. Dre had left Death Row. And it was also because, some might say, that Snoop got a little softer in his style, and it would take a while before his audience could get used to it.
Really on Death Row
It could also be because Snoop was in a world of trouble, real trouble. Back in 1993, he had been arrested in a gang killing. He eventually got himself acquitted, but it would not be the first or the last time that Snoop Dogg had the law sniffing after him. Add to that the death of Tupac and the arrest of Death Row head Suge Knight, and you have a Snoop that was maybe a little distracted. After Dre left too, he wanted off of Death Row and couldn't get it. So he had to sit out without making any songs until his contract expired.
But happy days came again. When? When Snoop left Death Row and found his way to No Limit Records and Master P. There in 1998, he released "No Limit," the first Snoop Dogg album in years. Then came "No Limit Top Dogg" in 1999 and "Tha Last Meal" in 2000. The last two Snoop Dogg albums in particular did well.
Back On Top
When Snoop signed with Geffen in 2004, his career went back on the steep upswing again. His 2004 record, "R&G," had some classic new Snoop Dogg songs on it, like "Drop It Like It's Hot" and "Signs." Believe it or not, "Drop It" was the first Snoop Dogg song to ever go to number one. Part of the success could be that he's now got Pharrell and the Neptunes doing some of the production.
Lately, Snoop released the 2006 'The Blue Carpet Treatment," with the song "That's That Shit." But Snoop has also gone Hollywood, starring in "Starsky and Hutch," "The L Word," and his own show, "Snoop Dogg's Father Hood"-even the soap One Life to Live.
So is Snoop still controversial? Maybe not after One Life to Live. But he's still hot.
