Snoop Dogg

Sal Masekela: 22 years you've been in this game, so to speak. 30 million albums. The story is well-known, but I wanna know where it began for you.

You're still here. You're still beyond the call of relevant. But tell us a little bit about where you come from. Snoop Dogg: Well, I come from the East Side of Long Beach, Long Beach, California.

I was raised by my mother, a single parent, and she raised me on good music, having a good time. I'm a '70s baby. So in the '70s it was all about peace, love, and happiness, so I believe that that spirit is the spirit that I live by today.

You know, being a kid, just being a big, a big grown kid, and I love to have fun. I love to show love. I love music. I love art.

And I just love being creative, and my mother always kept me in the presence of people. Like, it was times in the '70s where there would be a party in the living room, and all the kids would be in the back, and they would call me in the living room to come dance, 'cause I could dance real good with the big girls. Sal Masekela: What was some of that music that your mother was playing?

Snoop Dogg: It was a song called I Ain't Gonna Bump No More with This Big Fat Woman. That was one of the songs I used to dance to the most. I ain't gonna bump no more with no big fat woman.

Sal Masekela: And growing up in school, I mean, it. You were not a rapper first. You were into music.

You sang in the choir. Yeah. You were, you were very much a child of the arts, even though, quote, unquote, you were an LBC. Snoop Dogg: Yeah. It was, brought to me at an early age at the church I went to, Golgotha Trinity Baptist Church.

My auntie and the people that at the church, they would always put together plays where we would have to act and re-enact certain heroes of yesteryear to, you know, to become who we are.

And it was through singing, acting, and just being in front of a crowd at a early age that helped me develop, you know, the confidence to where whenever I was able to speak in front of a crowd I was able to be confident at all times. Sal Masekela: And that's something that you see not just in your music, but in the way that you deal with your brand. I mean, I watch you.

You can deal with, and you do, you deal with just about anyone, which might be hard for some people to comprehend when they think initially of, like, Doggystyle, you know, 1992. How many of you bought that album? Okay. Good.

You. But you're an everyman. I like to call you black Switzerland. Snoop Dogg: It feel like that, 'cause, I mean, I can do whatever I wanna do whenever I wanna do it, and it feels good to do it.

I feel like you shouldn't be restricted. You shouldn't be put in a box. You should be who you are at all times, and I've always been a loving, happy, fun, outgoing individual.

I'm a fun guy that loves to have a fun time. Sal Masekela: Over the course of these years, you you've made many records, but a lot of, a lot of your peers who were making records at the same time as you in the early '90s, they're no longer making rap albums.

Some of them is, are still in the business, but they had to sort of shed their hip hop persona to continue to move forward. Why is it that you think you've been able to maintain your place in pop culture without really having to shed the fact that this is the Snoop D-O double G? Snoop Dogg: I think it's the way I came.

I came being pure and sincere and being honest, and that's all I know. I just gotta be me. I don't know how to be nobody but me, and this is what I'm great at, so I'ma continue to do that.

You know, I don't know if it rubs you the right way or the wrong way. It makes me feel good, so I'ma do it. If it's good to you it must be good for you.

Sal Masekela: Within all that, though, you're, you're gonna have, you're gonna have challenges and struggle in figuring out which lanes to choose. What might be some of the harder decisions you've had to make in order to stay relevant or to stay on the journey where you are today? Snoop Dogg: Well, my decisions are never made based on what the popularity of the world will think.

It's always based on what feels good to me and what's best for me. And I don't never look at, you know, what I'm doing and say, "Well, what are people gonna think?" I do it for the reasons of it makes me feel good, so eventually it's gonna make you feel good.

That's how it's always been for me. Every since I came into the music industry, it's always been about the expression of my expression becoming your expression. It's just we become one.

I feel like the people feel like Snoop Dogg is a part of their life. It's not like I'm a rapper or producer or actor. I'm, like, one of their family members, because they've been with me for so long and I've been so up close and personal.

It's never been, like, a secret. I've opened my closet up from day one. Sal Masekela: And I think that's one of the reasons why a little, a little kid and the grandmother will both be like, "Hey, that's Snoop Dogg."

Snoop Dogg: That's crazy you say that, because a lotta times the kids will approach me, and I'm trying to figure out why do the kids like me, and this is before I had a football league, before I became, you know, more positive in what I was doing. And the kids would always come up and say, "We love you.

We love you." And I never understood why they loved me until I had to figure out that I'm that kid. I am who that kid is. He is seeing himself in me.

So regardless of how my rhymes may sound, if they're derogatory, if they're, if they're explicit, that kid sees something in me that resembles himself. So once I figured that out, I started to aim my pen in a more positive direction, to write songs that matter to the kids and do things for the kids, like a youth football league.

Sal Masekela: You're from a interesting genre in music in hip hop in that a lotta times artists are afraid to do what you just described, to make that lane change.

There's this perception that you have to maintain the exact same struggle, the exact same front that you had when you first came out in order to stay relative And you see some of these artists that they're struggling because they can't let out what it is they have to give. Do you find yourself in, ever in a position where you're mentoring some of these other young artists?

Because every other young artist I see coming up, they look at you and they shout you out all the time, "Uncle Snoop, Uncle Snoop." You're on collaborations with a lot of these young artists. What do you say to them?

Snoop Dogg: Well, I'm like a, I'm like a real uncle, because I give them guidance on and off the field, meaning that in the business and in life in general. And a lot of times when I came into this music industry, I didn't have that. I didn't have big brothers to help me.

I had to learn on my own. So what I wanted to do was be something like there had never been before. I wanted to be a uncle or a wisdom of guidance for these young rappers and young entertainers, where they can call on me and get some information, and that's what it's been like for the past 10 years.

I've been mentoring, I've been helping, I've been associating myself with all of the young rappers and trying to be positive and give them a understanding that you do have to reach a certain point in your life and your career where you have to make a better decision for you.

And by me having kids and a wife, it also structured my life in a different way to where I pull back from the things that I used to do to the things that I know how to do. Sal Masekela: Mm. There's also something I think, and I'm sure this wasn't planned, but there is something about your flow, the fact that your flow is always came from a place of melody.

And even though you were talking about things that were abrasive and sometimes downright guttural, you said them in such a nice way. Snoop Dogg: Like, oh, I don't love them hoes. Sal Masekela: Exactly. That, they they were less abrasive.

But I think the. Where did, where did that come from? Where did you get that sound?

Because obviously everyone, any rapper, it's about that cadence and flow, but yours is unique and timeless. Snoop Dogg: Well, like I said, I'm a '70s baby, so in the '70s we only had certain people to look up to. And players, you know, I don't know if y'all understand what a player is, not a football player or basketball player.

But a player in the neighborhood had a certain conversation about himself. He'd never speak too loud, and when he spoke you understood what he said because it was so smooth and so melodic. And I've always wanted to be a player, from a kid.

So when I was able to become a player, that was one of my traits, one of my, you know, accolades, to be able to speak smoothly on the microphone and not be so aggressive and so loud, but to get your point across by being smooth and in pocket. Sal Masekela: Mm. I said to someone the other day, there are only a few rappers that I look forward to seeing when I'm old.

And I know that when it's like, "Hey, Snoop's playing Vegas," "Oh, we we should go. We should go." "We we. Come on, we should go."

And you're gonna be able to come out there and be like, "Bow wow wow, yippie yo vippy yay," and everyone's gonna get down. Snoop Dogg: I just might be in a wheelchair, though. But it'll be cool.

I'm still gonna be rolling. Sal Masekela: Nonetheless, you know, you you move forward and we talk about the things that you've done to to be in the conversation, and you got 35 million followers on Facebook. Your YouTube channel just broke the one million subscriber mark.

If you've never watched GGN News, which Snoop hosts, it's just pure brilliance. I'm doing a bad job of interviewing compared to what he this dude does on his show. And he can talk to anybody.

I follow you on Instagram. You clog my feed in the most wonderful way. But you do this really interesting job of showing.

You don't just say, "Look at my." You actually don't even say, "Look at my cars, look at my this, look at my that." You really take people on a journey of your life, to the point where they feel like they're on the journey with you and they feel like you're not just Snoop Dogg, but you really are the homie.

What is it that sort of made you embrace social media the way you have? Snoop Dogg: My team, Cashmere and Stampede, I wasn't a fan of it at all. I remember the first time they was like, "Get on Twitter.

People follow you." I'm like, "I don't want nobody following me." "That would be weird." 'Cause I didn't understand the dialect, you know?

I'm like. And there's people would be like, "Hey, Snoop, I'm following you." I'm like, "What you mean you following me?" So once they explained it to me and you know, I understood it, then I put my twist on it and I made it what it is.

It's like, I wanted it to be personal. I didn't want it to be my people put up pictures or put up and say, "Well, Snoop's gonna be here." I want it to be more personal, where they can see and feel me.

And I interact. If it's things on there that I do like, I say, "Hey, I like this." If it's things on there that I don't like, I speak on it. And I feel like people respect the fact that I'm so up close and personal with them, and I don't have a star wall.

Because when you become successful, it's a star wall that pops up, whether it's security or it's just some sort of wall that prevents the people from getting to you. And I never wanted that wall. I always wanted to be up close and personal with the people who make me who I am.

Sal Masekela: Yeah, it's, it really resonates. I mean, one of the ones you posted the other day was real simple, but you know, it just said, "Find something you love, and do it-" Forever. "do it forever." And that's all you said, but it was like, oh, he's not just.

This isn't just a job. It's a reminder, like, you love this. And being on that journey with you following you I feel like your followers, even when you read the comments, it's, it's cool to see the way people respond to you and they're inspired by you.

Snoop Dogg: And I'm inspired by them, because they make me who I am. It be some days where I wanna quit. You know, 22 years strong doing this thing, I be wanting to say, "When do I get a vacation?"

Some people take vacations. I don't know what a vacation is. I never been on one, because I'm so caught up with what I do and what I love.

I love doing what I do. It's not even about the money, it's about the passion that I bring, because I'm so creative and I love getting it out, and I love working with positive people. So at the end of the day, it's more about do it until you can't do it no more.

Then when you're done doing it, then you can look back and enjoy it, because I don't get a chance to look at what Snoop Dogg has done. When I see documentaries or things of my past, I have to stop and watch because I'm so busy playing. Mm. I'm in the game right now, so I can't watch my stats and my highlights 'cause I got another game to play tomorrow.

Sal Masekela: Amen. How much, how much has parenthood, shaped and framed the mindset of the 21st century, 2014 Snoop? Whew. Snoop Dogg: Man, my kids are special. They make me better, you know, in all ways, especially on the music side.

Like, my oldest son, I'd never heard of Wiz Khalifa, and he turned me on to Wiz Khalifa. And then me and Wiz Khalifa became best of friends and went on tour, made a movie, made a record, and we brothers now. So it's like, you have to listen to your kids, not you you dictate to them all the time because a kid can teach you if you're just willing to listen.

My youngest son, he's a football player, but at the same time, me and him, we agree to disagree. And then my daughter, she's a singer-songwriter, so I'm hard on her telling her, "Look, baby, you gotta get it all the way together. And don't be mad when I tell you this 'cause the public gonna be even meaner than I am."

So it's just getting that understanding with the kids and being able to have a relationship with them to where they're my friends. Mm. They don't look at me as a mean old dad. They look at me as a cool father, and that's what a lot of things is going wrong with the parenting nowadays.

There's not the communication. It's a gap. Kids and parents need to be friends. It's okay to dictate, but at a certain point in time, they're gonna become grown.

And if they're your friend, they're gonna be able to tell you everything and you're gonna be there for them, and it's gonna be a beautiful relationship. That's what I found out. Sal Masekela: That's amazing. I made the, Black Switzerland, not really a joke earlier.

I really do think of you as Black Switzerland. It could be a movement. But it's because as a hip hop artist and this guy who really put the LBC on the map, you go to China, you go to South Africa, you go to South America, you go to Dubai, you go to India and make Bollywood movies.

And anywhere you go in any of these other countries, you dive 1,000% into the culture. You don't just show up and do a show. You go and you go all in.

What is it that motivates you to take it to that level as opposed to just going, doing the show, getting the cash, and getting out? Snoop Dogg: These people love me. I was taught love.

See, when you taught love, you gotta give it back. And the love that these people give me, some of these people from different countries don't even speak English, but they know every word to my song. So it's my obligation to give them the experience and the ride of their life, to be able to get up close and personal with Snoop Dogg so when I leave, it's like I never left.

We still connected from the hip to the dip. Sal Masekela: Well. From the hip to the dip. Highlight one of the top international experiences for you culture-wise.

Snoop Dogg: Performing at Live Aid and Paul McCartney, Bill Gates, David Beckham, and a host of other people that's billionaires was on the side of the stage rocking to my music. And there was one point I just stopped and looked at them and was like, "I can't believe y'all know Snoop Dogg." Bill Gates? The Bill Gates.

Like this? Yeah. Sal Masekela: Yes, that's a beautiful thing. All right. Snoop, thank you so much for coming out today. I mean, I couldn't think of a better way

To end our first day. Snoop Dogg.