Calvin Cordozar Broadus (born October 20, 1971 in Long Beach,
California) is a rap musician and actor. His mother nicknamed
him "Snoopy" as a child, and he took the stage name
Snoop Doggy Dogg (later changed to Snoop Dogg) when he began recording.
Snoop Dogg Biography
Snoop Dogg was frequently in trouble with drugs and the law as
a young man, in and out of jail for the three years after he graduated
from high school. He began making homemade rap tapes with his
friend Warren G, who was a stepbrother of Dr. Dre of N.W.A.. Dr.
Dre began collaborating with the young rapper, first on the theme
song of the film Deep Cover, and then on Dr. Dre's debut solo
album The Chronic.
While recording
his own debut album Doggystyle with Dre in August of 1993, Snoop
Dogg was arrested in the shooting death of Phillip Woldermarian,
a member of a rival gang who was later revealed to have had
a secret obsession with Snoop (see stalking); he was eventually
acquitted on both self defense grounds and because he allegedly
drove the car while his bodyguard McKinley Lee fired the fatal
shots (Lee was also acquitted on self defense grounds). Snoop
remained entangled in the legal battles around the case for
three years.
The Doggystyle
album was released in November of 1993 on Death Row Records,
and became the first debut album ever to enter the charts at
number one, helping to fuel the ascendance of West Coast "G
Funk" rap. The singles "What's My Name" and "Gin
and Juice" went to the top ten, and the album remained
in the charts for several months, even as controversy raged
over the murder trial and his violent and sexist lyrics. Gangsta
rap became the center of arguments for censorship and labeling,
with Snoop often used as an example of violent and misogynistic
musicians.
A short
film about the trial called Murder Was The Case, and an accompanying
soundtrack, were released in 1994.
However,
by the time Snoop's second album The Doggfather was released
in November of 1996, both the furor and the popularity of gangsta
rap had begun to fade, dragged down by the death of Snoop's
friend Tupac Shakur and the racketeering indictment of Death
Row co-founder Suge Knight.
Snoop Dogg
has since drawn back a bit from hardcore gangsta rap, performing
with the hard rock Lollapalooza tour in 1997, and making several
film appearances, in addition to producing and directing music
videos for himself and other artists. He released an autobiography
in 2001.
In 2002
Snoop Dogg announced that he was giving up drinking and drugs.
Later that year he released the album Paid Tha Cost to Be Da
Bo$$, which featured the hit singles and videos "From Da
Chuuuch to Da Palace" and "Beautiful," featuring
guest vocals by the Neptunes' Pharrell Williams.
Snoop Dogg
has worked with Silkk the Shocker, C-Murder, B-Legit, Babyface,
Bad Azz, Bizzy Bone, Mariah Carey, Bootsy Collins, The D.O.C.,
Daz Dillinger, Dr. Dre, and Nate Dogg, among others. Snoop Dogg's
sound has been heavily influenced by funk, and R&B.
Snoop Dogg's music features samples from earlier black artists
and groups, including James Brown, Marvin Gaye, and from Parliament.
On 11 April
2003, Snoop was unhurt after a drive-by shooting on Fairfax
Avenue in Los Angeles, California. He was riding in a motorcade
of five vehicles with eight armed bodyguards when three men
in another car fired multiple rounds from a semi-automatic handgun.
One bodyguard was injured in the incident.
On 21 May
2004, Snoop Dogg filed for divorce from his wife Shante Broadus,
citing irreconcilable differences. He is seeking joint custody
of their three children, Corde, Cordell, and Cori.
Snoop Dogg
is famous for using slang invented by fellow rapper E-40, much
of which is simply derived by adding an "izz" or "izzle"
sound to the word. Some examples:
Fo' Shizzle
= for sure, the real thing
Chuuuch = absolutely, emphatically, proper
Nizzle = nigga, perhaps an attempt at making it more palatable
by altering it
Mr. Dizzle = Himself (He would on his MTV show)
A large number of Snoop Dogg's songs mention "the LBC."
This is a reference to the city of Long Beach, the Long Beach
Crips or Long Beach, California.
During the
2004 Christmas season, he was featured in a series of television
commercials for T-Mobile, promoting the T-Mobile Sidekick, the
company's version of the Danger Hiptop mobile phone and Internet
device.
Snoop
Dogg Discography
1993 Doggystyle (Death Row Records)
1996 Tha Doggfather (Death Row Records)
1998 Da Game Is to Be Sold Not to Be Told (No Limit Records)
1999 No Limit Top Dogg (No Limit Records)
2000 Dead Man Walkin' (No Limit Records)
2000 Tha Last Meal (Priority Records)
2002 Doggy Style Allstars: Welcome to Tha House (Doggy Style
Records)
2002 Paid Tha Cost to Be Da Bo$$ (Doggy Style Records)
2002 Mafia Image (Doggy Style Records)
2004 213 - The Hard Way (Doggy Style Records)
2004 R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta) The Masterpiece (Doggy Style
Records)
2006 Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
2008 Ego Trippin'
See
also
Snoop
Dogg Quotes
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