Snoop Dogg

Calvin Broadus aka Snoop Dogg (vocals/production)

Snoop Dogg was born Cordozar Calvin Broadus in Long Beach, California in October 1971. He made his first appearance on Doctor Dre’s Chronic Album in 1992. His rise to fame began in 1993 with the release of his debut album ‘Doggystyle’ on Death Row Records. The first debut rap album to hit the charts at number one, it sold 1.5 million albums prior to it release, fuelled by the rapper’s street credentials and criminal infamy.

Despite being billed as a hard man, his rap name came from a joke his mum made about him looking like the Peanuts cartoon character Snoopy. Just after he graduated from high school he served time for a drug conviction. There was a gap of three years before his next album, due to him being arrested for murder (he was later found not guilty). ‘The Dogg Father’ was released in 1996 on Suge Knights Death Row Record label, home to dead rapper Tupac Shakur. His next releases came in 1998 with ‘Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told’ and 1999s ‘No Limt Topp Dogg’.

Snoop became as consistent with his releases as he did at courting controversy, however in between this time he met and married his wife Shante Taylor. Despite his reputation as a ‘player’, with adult movies, like Snoop Dogg they have three children and remain together. He collaborated with fellow rappers Xhibit, Nate Dogg and Doctor Dre on ‘Snoop Dogg Presents Tha Eastsidaz’. He still regularly collaborates with Dre, most notably on 2004 chart smash ‘Still Dre’.He marked his return to form in 2002 with two releases ‘Snoop Dogg Presents...Doggy Style Allstars Vol. 1’ and  ‘Paid tha cost to be tha Bo$$’.

2004 was by far Snoop’s most commercially successful year with the release of ‘Hard Way’, which saw him return to working with his childhood rapping partners Warren G and Nate Dogg. But it was the modestly titled ‘R&G (Rhythm and Gangsta): The Masterpiece’ that saw him gain more popular appeal, including chart hit ‘Drop It Like Its Hot’. He followed this up with single ‘Signs’ with former boyband star Justin Timberlake and 2005’s ‘Welcome Tho Tha Chuuch- Da Album’.

Over the years Snoop has featured on soundtracks for a variety of films, including Men In Black, Bad Boys 2 and Charlies Angels and had bit parts in 2004’s remake of Starsky and Hutch as Huggy Bear and cult classic ‘Old School’. He also starred in his own MTV show ‘Doggy Fizzle Televizzle’ and a popular Saturday Night Live. This gangsta rapper also has a soft side, setting up the American football tournament between his youth all-star team from California against an opposing Jacksonville youth all-star team in aid of Snoop’s Save A Life Foundation, which works with inner-city youth and children’s hospitals.

Currently he has been touring Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia while working on his new album ‘Blue Carpet Treatment’. He also featured on single ‘Say Something’ with Pharrell Williams and Maria Carey.

Photo by: Shirlaine Forrest