Snoop Dogg has a lot on his plate these days. He’s just released his 18th album, From Tha Streets to Tha Suites, and a music video, “Look Around,” which pays homage to his hip-hop roots. He also starred in a new commercial for the BIC EZ Reach lighter with his pal Martha Stewart and gave sage advice as a Mega-Mentor on The Voice Season 20.
Given how natural the Doggfather is on big and small screens — and how successful the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton was at the box office — it’s only natural that the old-school rapper will be involved with a Straight Outta Compton sequel or companion film. When asked about such a possibility, Snoop seemed interested…but this man has a passion and vision of much bigger plans.
“It depends on whose eyes it’s told through,” the rapper tells Yahoo Entertainment. “You know if it’s told through the right eyes, through the right lens, and it makes the most sense for me. But I think what makes the most sense to me is the ‘Snoop Dogg anthology,’ the life story of Snoop Dogg, where it starts with my mother and father meeting each other before I was even born, to me being born, to me growing through the ‘70s and ‘80s and the ‘90s. Me being the ‘Black Forest Gump,’ so to speak, seeing me in all of these highlighted moments in American history.”
He said, “We’re developing that, putting it together as we speak, just trying to take my time and put the right information out. I don’t want to rush to it just because Straight Outta Compton was successful, just to come behind it. I want to take my time and make sure that I’ve put together the right infrastructure of how I became me — you know, the people that inspire me, my upbringing, my mother, my father, my friends, community influences, inspirations that shaped and molded me. I don’t see it being a biopic because I can’t give all of this great information and entertainment in two hours. But if I give it to you in an anthology, you’re likely to get six or seven seasons of this.”
Snoop appears to have the series written in his head, but while it will begin with the childhood memories he cherishes, it will inevitably take a darker and grittier turn. “Definitely my childhood in the ‘70s, seeing how people loved each other, seeing how racism really didn’t exist to a maximum, how I grew up in school with different nationalities, teachers with different colors, and we loved them. They loved us in the community, and there were certain rules and regulations. It was just a love thing, and if you messed up, you could be disciplined by anybody on the block. It was always like a neighborhood watch. That era of the ‘70s taught us how to love and how to be kind to people,” he explained.
“Then the ‘80s era, that’s when the cocaine, drugs, violence, my teenage years and all of the things that were brought to our community by the government and the C.I.A. — that has been revealed now. But when we were living in that life, in that era, we didn’t know why we were being given guns and drugs out of nowhere. And then we became drug dealers and gang-bangers based on tools that were given to us. They didn’t deal with no schools or no trade techs or anything. They just dropped off guns and drugs and gave us a path to destruction. And then they locked us all up.”
Snoop turns 50 this year, and next year will mark the 30th anniversary of his recording debut on Dr. Dre’s “Deep Cover,” but he recalls his adolescence as “indefinitely dark” and admits that there was a time when he didn’t think he’d live to be 21. “In that era of drugs and gang violence, to see 21 years old was a blessing. That’s what we were always striving to, to actually make 21. To see 21 meant a lot to my era, to my generation, because a lot of us wasn’t making it to that number,” he said.
Although fans await the release of the sure-to-be-fascinating series on Netflix or Hulu, Snoop is already planning his next musical ventures, which include a blues album and a jazz album. In reality, he’s actually “20 songs deep” into an old-school R&B album with Mary J. Blige, Anderson. Paak, Raphael Saadiq, Stokely Williams of Mint Condition, rising soul star October London, and other special guests that will bring life back to that era he loves.
One of Snoop’s many passions and talents is football, and he appeared in Coach Snoop, a docuseries about his Snoop Youth Football League, in 2018. It seems that another perfect way for him to celebrate 30 years in the game will be at Super Bowl LVI next year. Snoop’s dream is to perform the halftime show alongside a group of hometown hip-hop heroes and fellow Death Row/Aftermath Records superstars at the 2022 Super Bowl, held in Los Angeles.
“Hopefully, the NFL will be smart and make the right decision. It’s in Inglewood, Calif., and it will make the most sense in the world,” says Snoop. “I’m available, Dre’s available, Eminem’s available, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent — whoever Dr. Dre wants to pull out of his hat to make this thing a professional event and make it big and the biggest effort they can have. It’s just a matter of the NFL pulling the trigger.”
Snoop promises that he and Dre will pull out all the stops once more after being a part of one of history’s most talked-about concerts that featured a Tupac Shakur hologram at Coachella 2012. “I wouldn’t just walk out. I would definitely do something that would be mind-blowing, you know what I’m saying? People will be talking about it for the next 30 years. I’m open to anything that’s dope, unique, edgy, and cunning. This will be cutting-edge, just for my people.”
Despite incredible odds and the fickle nature of hip-hop and pop audiences, Snoop has reached the big 5-0, and his career is bigger than ever. Is there any advice he would offer to himself when he was younger? “Don’t change a mother***kin’ thing,” Snoop says with a smile.
Discover more from Baller Alert
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
