Snoop Dogg (real name: Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr., 1971-) is an American rapper and record producer. One of Dr. Dre's most popular discoveries, Snoop Dogg is known for
championing marijuana and lyrics featuring
over-the-top glorification of gang life and violence; he is credited for popularizing the slang "izzle," I.E. "fo' shizzle my nizzle" (the term was
introduced to hip hop music by E-40, however). His stage name comes from a nickname used by his parents, because he resembled the dog Snoopy from
Peanuts.
Snoop made a huge impact on
Hip Hop fans as a contributor to Dre's classic album
The Chronic, and soon released his debut solo album
Doggystyle. After being cleared of charges over his bodyguard's 1993 murder of Philip Woldemariam, he switched from Death Row to No Limit Records in 1996, then to Priority in 2002, and Geffen in 2004. Between 2003 and 2004, he actually was a
professional pimp, and this persona carried over to his music persona. In 2009, Snoop became chairman of Priority Records.
In film, he had starring roles in
Bones,
Starsky And Hutch and
Hood of Horror, as well as cameos in assorted TV shows (including
King of the Hill,
Monk,
The Boondocks,
Weeds, and
Futurama) and other movies. He also directed four pornographic movies and a
Girls Gone Wild video.
He collaborated on the
Plastic Beach album. The entire first track is just him doing a slow rap over an uncharacteristically slow brass band track. Very nice.
Snoop can also be found in
Katy Perry's song "California Gurls"; in the music video, he
leads an army of gummy bears.
He recently has decided to change his stagename to Snoop Lion and do reggae music.
Yes, really
. It's not bad, either. Oh, he also played
Moses on
Epic Rap Battles Of History.
This musician provides examples of:
- Artifact Title: The "Snoop" in his stage name refers to Snoopy, a cartoon dog. Once he changed his name from "Snoop Dogg" to "Snoop Lion," the "Snoop" part became an artifact.
- As Himself: In Old School, Weeds, Brüno and Futurama. Most of his characters in film and TV are also very close to his real life and music persona.
- He also plays himself in the soap opera, One Life to Live. Apparently, he's a fan of the show (among other seemingly contradictory interests).
- Auto Tune: In "Sexual Eruption".
- Big Good: He is considered to be this in the West Coast Rap Scene, and Hip-Hop in general. Being that he is one of Rap's most respected artists, he often uses his influence to settle disputes among other rappers and to unite the Hip-hop community towards various causes.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Big time. The fact that he's high all the time probably has a lot to do with it.
- Country Rap: The song "My Medicine", produced by Everlast, and featuring Willie Nelson. More recently, a straight-up Country Song, "Superman" (with both Willie and Snoop singing, and Willie playing guitar/harmonica) appeared on his album, Doggumentary.
- Deal with the Devil: In "Murder Was the Case".
- Filk Song: "Oh Sookie", written for the character in True Blood.
- Gangsta Rap: The Type 3 variety. It helps that Mr. Broadus Jr. is a Crip.
- Horrorcore: A few of his songs border on this, and he has even recorded out-and-out horror-oriented songs, including "Murder Was the Case", where he dies and is brought back to life by Satan, and the Bones and Hood of Horror soundtracks.
- I Have Many Names: His full stage name was originally Snoop Doggy Dogg, and he is credited as Snoop Scorsese for directing one of his porno movies (Michael Corleone is another porn directing alias). "Snoop" is also easier than calling him Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. In 2012 he decided to make a Reggae album, and change his stage name to Snoop Lion.
- Improv: Snoop is very good at freestyling lyrics. According to The DOC, all of "The Shiznit" from Doggystyle is freestyled:
The D.O.C.: The song was "Tha Shiznit" — that was all freestyle. He started busting and when we got to the break, Dre cut the machine off, did the chorus and told Snoop to come back in. He did that throughout the record. That's when Snoop was in the zone then.
- Lighter and Softer: After the controversial Doggystyle, Snoop toned it down a bit for his next album, Tha Doggfather, saying that he wanted to appeal to a wider audience and have a more positive image. Sadly, Doggfather is considered the inferior album by far.
- In regards to his overall image, he zig-zags through both. He still plays up the thug image and he's usually portrayed as having a huge smoke cloud hanging over his head wherever he goes, but at the same time, he's started coaching a little league football team and appeared on Big Time Rush, a Nickelodeon kid's show. It's really amazing that he's able to balance the two at all.
- Mind Screw: Snoop leading an army of gummy bears in a Katy Perry music video.
- Money, Dear Boy: Accused of this, for... shall we say... the range of his resume.
- The Movie: Murder Was the Case, an expansion of his song of the same name.
- Rap Metal: His take on Metallica's "Sad But True".
- Rated G for Gangsta: He's been in a few movies aimed at younger audiences, and was actually cut out of a Muppet movie because of his pornographic video release.
- Sampling: Frequent in his music.
- The main chorus melody of "Tha Shiznit" is actually the lead guitar riff of Billy Joel's "The Stranger".
- "Serial Killa" borrows its high-pitched keyboard from "Funky Worm" by The Ohio Players.
- "Gz and Hustlas"' backing music is lifted from Bernard Wright's "Haboglabotribin'". (Yes, everything from the opening toy piano to the main instrumentation is Wright's.)
- "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" samples George Clinton's "Atomic Dog", "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" and "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)" by Parliament. If "G-Funk bingo" was a thing, this song would surely be a winner.
- "La La La" samples from Ken Boothe's "Artibella".
- Soul Brotha
- The Stoner: Especially notable since he makes absolutely no effort to hide it, and for the most part really doesn't seem to care.
- Throwing Out The Script: In an episode of Saturday Night Live, he played a character that was supposed to lose a rap battle to Kenan Thompson's character but then decided that he wanted to lose and schooled Kenan
- Wolverine Publicity: Very guilty of this. Snoop is one of the most heavily-featured rap artists ever.
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