Had Snoop Dogg pretended to take a toke from the Olympic torch he helped carry to open the 2024 games, few people would have been surprised.
But the now cannabis and elder statesman of hip-hop is in his respectable era â heâs a little older, a little wiser and a whole lot more lovable.
The 52-year-old rapperâs transformation â from superstar on trial for murder in the 1990s to Martha Stewart bestie on â has been so slow and shrewd that itâs very natural to ask: How did we get here?
P. Frank Williams covered Snopp Doggâs murder trial for the Los Angeles Times and co-wrote the book âChosen by Fate: My Life Inside Death Row Recordsâ with the musicianâs co-defendant McKinley Lee Jr.
Williams told CNN the answer is actually quite simple.
âHe worked hard and loves what he does,â said Williams, who most recently âSnoop has this likability and charm that you canât buy.â
Not to mention an arc thatâs a testament to the power of reinvention.
Tough start in Long Beach
Born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. in Long Beach, Calif., Snoop Dogg earned the family nickname âSnoopâ because of his resemblance to the Peanuts character.
He came up during a time when gang violence and crack were devastating inner city neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Despite being a star athlete in high school, Snoop fell into that life, selling drugs and getting into trouble as a teen.
âI was always scared. Thatâs why I believe I survived because you have to have either fear or respect. And I didnât understand respect, so I feared everything,â Snoop Dogg . âA lot of times I got shot at; a lot of times I had a gun in my possession and could have shot back but I was too scared to shoot back because I was so concerned for my life. Itâs either fight or flight and most of time when youâre out there, itâs flight.â
That âgangstaâ persona would follow him when he first found fame in 1992 as the guest rapper on producer and NWA member Dr. Dreâs debut solo single âDeep Cover,â for the movie of the same title.
That led to working with Dre on his now iconic album âThe Chronic.â
Snoop Doggâs debut album, âDoggystyle,â would follow. A critical and commercial success, the album cemented him as the premiere artist with Death Row Records and one of the rappers most associated with West Coast rap.
But by that point, trouble was brewing.
A trial and trying something different
The rapper and his bodyguard Lee Jr. were of murder in the 1993 death of 20-year-old Philip Woldermariam whom Lee, Jr. admitted to shooting, but claimed self defense.
Woldemariamâs death happened shortly before the release of Snoop Doggâs debut album and brought a great deal of attention to one of the singles, âMurder Was the Case,â which Snoop Dogg later said was written a year prior and highly prophetic.
âMy peers, we wrote about death. You see, and I wrote that song âMurder Was the Caseââ where I was like, âI came when my boobooâs âbout to have my baby,ââ â[His then-girlfriend now wife Shante Broadus] wasnât even pregnant, and I hadnât even caught the murder case.â
Famed O.J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran represented Snoop Dogg and Lee Jr. when the case went to trial in 1996 and resulted in an acquital.
That same year, Snoop Dogg released his second studio album, âTha Doggfather,â which featured a softer version of the rapper, which he has since said his record label was not happy about.
It was so noticeably different from his debut album that years later people were still talking about how it felt more restrained and less hardcore than his debut.
âWhat Snoop tries to do throughout âDoggfatherâ is exhibit the sort of maturation that was probably taking place in his life: he was 25 now, a father, had successfully navigated a terrifying legal gauntlet, had adjusted enough to the money and fame and constant paranoia,â âBut instead of making a hard break into a new, constructed persona ââ or, instead of flitting between familiar fare and songs that were radically different ââ he mostly just dials his old style down to 80 percent.â
At the time, Snoop Dogg has said, Death Row Records was not happy about his pivot.
âThey wanted me to keep it gangsta,â he told Jemele Hill in 2019 âThey wanted me to, like, remain gangsta and still be, you know, f**king s**t up, but I just went through a murder case and I couldnât.â
He said, âMy heart and my spirit wasnât in the placeâ to continue to embody his former persona. So, he rejected his labelâs advice to go that direction.
He told Hill heâs been determined to be authentic and that meant growing as his life has changed because, âMe being me is all I know how to do.â
âAs you grow older and you learn how to be a man, you have a family, things that you living for than that becomes the scope,â he said. âAnd Iâve never been afraid to position my life and say that I have a family now.â
Building an empire
Married to his high school sweetheart Shante Broadus since 1997, Snoop Dogg and his wife are the parents of sons Corde, 29, Cordell, 27 and Julian, 26 and daughter Cori, 25, as well as a dozen grandchildren.
Earlier this year he told Jennifer Hudson on her daytime talk show that his grandkids call him âPapa Snoop.â
Having a growing family meant he also needed to grow his paycheck, and he has certainly done that.
His portfolio now includes everything from hto his and, of course, a line of
Along the way, he has also managed to indulge in his passion for both sports and entertainment with his youth football league and acting gigs.
Along the way heâs gotten a little help from his friends, including domestic arts doyenne Martha Stewart.
The unlikely pair even had their own reality show, âMartha & Snoopâs Potluck Dinner Partyâ which launched in 2016 and ran for two seasons.
The rapper did all that while still managing to keep his large footprint in the music industry with current major acts including K-Pop superstars BTS recruiting him to collaborate.
Going for the gold
Yet nothing is as indicative of Snoop Doggâs place as a national treasure as his selection to be one of the bearers of the Olympic torch at this yearâs games held in Paris.
There was Snoop Dogg, not only running with the torch, but also sparking delight as he helped conduct interviews for NBC (which is airing the games), and fawning over athletes.
There was precedence given that in 2021 he and friend Kevin Hart hosted for NBCâs streamer Peacock, in which they conducted interviews and offered some laugh-out-loud commentary during the competitions.
This year, Snoop Doggabout what it meant to him to carry the torch during the opening ceremonyâs relay.
âI felt like Muhammad Ali. It was extraordinary, it was excellent,â he said. âI found out that when you hold the torch you a peace messanger so I really felt good about that.â
Williams, who as a journalist covered Snoop Dogg for years, shared what he believes other stars can learn from Snoopâs arc as a celebrity.
âTrust your gift and be yourself,â he told CNN. âPeople love Snoop because of his authenticity! Heâs is the same backstage and onstage.â
Fo shizzle.