Dogg Years

The time Unc smoked me out.

The Olympics are over.

As a diehard bread and circus enjoyer, I must say: they were fun.

Basketball! Breakdancing! Minions!

And the genial omnipresence of one Calvin Broadus.

No need for me to “explain” Snoop to you.

If you’re reading this, you already spent your childhood watching him morph into a doberman, wear many fabulous hockey jerseys, and steal the show on several of the best songs of all time.

That said, it is wild to recall the Clintonian pearl clutching that followed Snoop’s every move back when “Murder Was The Case” was an actual case — then reconcile that image with the all-purpose gen pop pitchman who’s been cracking jokes on your television screen for the past two weeks.

You could argue that 2007’s bewigged electrofunk singalong “Sensual Seduction” (banger, full stop) was the turning point where Snoop transitioned from MC to full-time celebrity…

If he wasn’t already a full-time celebrity from being an MC.

His championship seasons hang in the rafters. “Deep Cover” into The Chronic into Doggystyle?!?!? Followed by a No Limit pivot, Dre rebirth (Chronic 2001 is still the T2 of rap sequels, from the THX intro to the laser-eyed Up In Smoke Tour skull), and an imperial run with the Neptunes at their creative peak.

Then the music business entered its implosion era.

And I entered the music business!

In between ads for Birdman Lugz and AOL Broadband, the December 2004 issue of The FADER features a cover story on Snoop’s “dramatic” role in The Tenants (also starring Dylan McDermott, Rose Byrne and Seymour Cassel, presently streaming on the Roku Channel).

I was the 23 year old editor sent to write it.

Will save my magazine memory lane-ing for a proper post.

All you need to know for the purposes of this anecdote:

I’m driving a rental car (my first) in Los Angeles (ditto), armed with a flip phone, cassette recorder and printed MapQuest directions to the Ambassador Hotel. Closed to guests in ‘89 and preserved in a cobwebbed state of disrepair, it’s an ideal location to shoot your low budget period pic — hence the ratty sweater and knit kufi on the cover.

“In an abandoned tenement, an African-American militant writer and a Jewish novelist develop a friendship while struggling to complete their novels, but inner tension rises between the two.”

OK!

The Ambassador is also where Bobby Kennedy was assassinated and Guns N Roses filmed “Patience.”

Didn’t get Snoop’s thoughts on Axl, but he was familiar(ish) with the Kennedy connection, waking up from a nap to write “JFK” in the thick dust on the bathroom mirror because he “felt his spirit.”

Lil Half Dead told him not to, because I was going to put it in the article.

Neither of us would be deterred.

There’s some bits about Snoop’s peewee football team (many of whom now play in the NFL) and an even more prescient list of his then-fledgeling brand extensions, regaled to me by a manager while I sat paralytically high after several hits of rapper weed.

That part did not go in the article.

But should have!

A snapshot of dudes in the moment.

For Snoop, that moment — leaning in to extramusical activities, biz experiments and light cosplay — has gone on for twenty years and counting.

(I have also had a “many hat” career since, but save the smoke for nuit nuit.)

Folks love the jovial Olympic Dogg of today precisely because it’s not an act — just the same ol’ Snoopy, talking to your parents about a crip walking horse. For all his musical achievements (which for the record, still continue) the man has always excelled at simply being himself.

Hard to imagine anything else. Probably why you never saw that movie!

Are we being pimped? Or rightfully dazzled once again by the chillest host and slickest voice in the room?

Either way, that’s some real gold-medal USA shit.

Ya better ask somebody!