Steppin' through the fog and creepin' through the smog, it's Calvin Broadus, Jr., a.k.a.
Snoop Dogg.
He's a cultural icon, but there's still plenty to learn, so keep watching to discover the
truth about Snoop Dogg.
Snoop has occasionally been accused of creative embellishment in terms of his ties to Los
Angeles gangs.
While this may have been a result of his association with Dr. Dre, whose street cred was a bit
questionable, the accusations didn't stick when it came to Snoop.
As a teenager, he was a member of the infamous Rolling 20s Crips, and in fact some older
Crips encouraged him to take up rapping after a stint in jail for possession in 1990.
Snoop was close friends with Crips co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams and was even one
of the last people to speak to the notorious gangster before his 2005 execution.
He makes no secret of his gang past, his many trips to the county lockup, or his early 2000s
stint as an actual pimp.
That he remains a beloved public figure in spite of all this is a testament to just how
lovable he really is.
Snoop has been involved in youth football for years.
He coached his son Cordell's middle school team, and he now runs a statewide league in
California.
Some of his players have gone on to success in the NFL, and Cordell himself seemed set
for pro stardom after being recruited for college by the UCLA Bruins.
But then he abruptly quit to pursue a filmmaking career.
After an outstanding high school career, Cordell waffled on whether he would play for a couple
of seasons before permanently hanging up his jersey for film school in 2016.
It turned out that he had only ever seen football as a hobby and a way to become closer with
his dad.
While pursuing his degree, the young Dogg went ahead and started his own production
company, the appropriately named Film School Productions.
Snoop is quite the family guy.
One might assume that, as a world-famous rapper who literally became an actual pimp at the
height of his fame, he's had carnal relations with plenty of beautiful women.
While that may or may not be accurate, there has been one constant female presence in his
life: his wife and high school sweetheart, Shante Broadus.
Admittedly, however, it's been a bit of an up-and-down relationship.
The pair became an on-again-off-again couple when Snoop was totally unknown and remained
that way throughout his early '90s fame explosion.
They finally married in 1997, but Snoop filed for divorce in 2004, which may have been related
to all of that pimping.
However, the couple renewed their vows in 2008, and it's been reasonably smooth sailing
since.
"I need to love this woman who loves me and had my kids and put her life aside and let
my music and my business be secondary."
Snoop's stage name has gone through a few permutations over time.
He famously, albeit briefly, changed it to Snoop Lion for a brief foray into reggae.
And longtime fans remember that he used to have a "Doggy" in the middle.
But among all the Doggs of rap, Snoop stands out for having a singularly silly stage name
that only a mother could love, and that's because she's the one who gave it to him.
His parents called him "Snoopy" due to his resemblance to the classic beagle of Peanuts
fame.
Apparently, his similarity to Charlie Brown's pal was even more oddly pronounced in his
youth.
And since his Mom was such a big fan of the funny papers, it's just a good thing he wasn't
a chubby kid.
We're not sure if the world ever would've been ready for a "Garf Katty Katt."
He may be world-famous now, but Snoop was once just an unknown rapper making demo tapes
to other peoples' beats.
He would pass these tapes along to his cousin Daz, who in turn would play them for his buddy
Dr. Dre, who was uninterested at first.
One freestyle, recorded to the instrumental from En Vogue's "Hold On," was finally enough
to convince Dre to set up a meeting shortly before he started working on his 1992 masterpiece,
The Chronic.
Snoop became that album's breakout star, helping propel it to ridiculous sales.
But since this wasn't by design, he wasn't paid all that much.
Dre quickly remedied this situation by producing Snoop's solo debut Doggystyle in 1993, which
sold over ten million copies, becoming the fastest-selling rap album ever at the time.
In 2014, Snoop was a guest at the White House for the Kennedy Center Honors.
In an episode of his online show that aired shortly afterwards, he talked about the experience
with Jimmy Kimmel, who of course wasted no time in asking the question on everybody's
minds:
"Have you ever smoked at the White House?"
"In the bathroom."
"You did?
In the White House."
"In the bathroom."
Snoop went on to clarify that the Secret Service agents accompanying him that day had asked
if he needed to go #1 or #2 and that he responded:
"When I do a #2 I usually, you know, have a cigarette or light something to get the
aroma right."
The agents replied that he could light a piece of napkin, which Snoop immediately interpreted
to mean that he could go right ahead and smoke a big ol' blunt.
If this sounds like a tall tale, don't forget who we're talking about here.
If we've learned anything, it's that the crazier a Snoop Dogg story is, the likelier it is
to be true.
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