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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.
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.
He 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, he 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. [1] (http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,11608,00.html?tnews)
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.
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 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)
Hit singles
- "What's My Name?" (1993) #8 US; #20 UK
- "Gin and Juice" (1993) #8 US; #39 UK
- "Doggy Dogg World" (1994) #32 UK
- "Snoop's Upside Your Head" (1996) #12 UK
- "Vapors" (1997) #18 UK
- "We Just Wanna Party with You" (feat. JD) (1997) #21 UK
- "Tha Doggfather" (1998) #36 UK
- "Still a G Thang" (1998) #19 US
- "From tha Chuuuch to da Palace" (2002) #27 UK
- "Beautiful" (feat. Pharrell) (2003) #6 US; #23 UK
- "Drop It Like It's Hot" (feat. Pharrell) (2004) #1 US, #10 UK
Selected filmography
- Soul Plane (2004) as Pilot
- Starsky & Hutch (2004) as Huggy Bear
- Old School (2003) as Himself
- (2002) as Himself
- The Wash (2001) as Dee Loc
- Bones (2001) as Jimmy Bones
- Training Day (2001) as Blue
- Baby Boy (2001) as Rodney
- Tha Eastsidaz (2000) as Killa Pop
- Hot Boyz (1999) as C-Dawg
- The Wrecking Crew (1999) as Dra-Man
- Urban Menace (1999) as Preacher
- I Got the Hook Up (1998) as Bar Patron
- Documentry of Shawn (1998) as Shawns Retarded Friend Brianc
- Ride (1998) as Mente
- Caught Up (1998) as Kool Kitty Kat
- Half Baked (1998) as Scavenger Smoker
- Murder Was The Case (1994) (video) as Himself
External links
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Snoop Dogg
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