Named after his stepfather, Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Sr. (December 10, 1948 – November 9, 1985, Los Angeles), Calvin Broadus was born October 20, 1971 at the Los Altos Hospital in
Long Beach, California, the second of three sons of Beverly Broadus (née Tate; born April 27, 1951,
McComb, Mississippi).
[3][4][5] His father, Vernall Varnado (born December 13, 1949,
Magnolia, Mississippi),
[3] was a
Vietnam veteran, singer, and mail carrier who was said to be frequently absent from his life.
[6] Broadus' parents nicknamed him "
Snoopy" as a child because of his appearance, but usually addressed him as Calvin at home.
[7][8] His mother and stepfather divorced in 1975. At an early age, Broadus began singing in Golgotha Trinity Baptist Church and playing piano; when he was in sixth grade, he began rapping.
[9][10] He attended
Long Beach Polytechnic High School, and was convicted for cocaine possession, serving six months at the Wayside County Jail.
[citation needed]
As a teenager, Snoop Dogg frequently ran into trouble with the law. Snoop Dogg was a member of the
Rollin' 20 Crips gang in the
Eastside of Long Beach,
[11][12] although he stated in 1993 that he never joined a gang.
[9] Shortly after graduating from high school, he was arrested for possession of cocaine.
[7] Snoop Dogg's conviction caused him to be frequently in and out of prison for the first three years after he graduated from high school. Snoop, along with his cousins
Nate Dogg and
Lil' ½ Dead and friend
Warren G, recorded home made tapes as a group called
213, named after the Long Beach
area code at the time. One of his early solo freestyles over
En Vogue's "
Hold On" had made it to a
mixtape which was heard by influential producer
Dr. Dre, who phoned to invite him to an audition. Former
N.W.A member
The D.O.C. taught him how to structure his lyrics and separate the thematics into verses, hooks and chorus.
[13]
1992–93: Doggystyle
When he began recording, Broadus took the stage name
Snoop Doggy Dogg. Dr. Dre began working with Snoop Dogg, first on the theme song of the 1992 film
Deep Cover, and then on Dr. Dre's debut solo album
The Chronic with the other members of his former starting group,
Tha Dogg Pound. The huge success of Snoop Dogg's debut
Doggystyle was partially because of this intense exposure.
[7]
To fuel the ascendance of
West Coast G-funk hip hop, the singles "
Who Am I (What's My Name)?" and "
Gin and Juice" reached the top ten most-played songs in the United States, and the album stayed on the Billboard charts for several months.
[7] Gangsta rap became the center of arguments for censorship and labeling, with Snoop Dogg often used as an example of violent and
misogynistic musicians.
[14] Doggystyle, much like
The Chronic, featured a host of rappers signed to or affiliated with the Death Row label including
Daz Dillinger,
Kurupt,
Nate Dogg and others.
Rolling Stone music critic
Touré asserted that Snoop had a relatively soft vocal delivery compared to other rappers: "Snoop's vocal style is part of what distinguishes him: where many rappers scream, figuratively and literally, he speaks softly."
[9]
A short film about Snoop Dogg's murder trial called
Murder Was The Case, was released in 1994, along with an accompanying
soundtrack. On July 6, 1995,
Doggy Style Records, Inc., a record label founded by Snoop Dogg, was registered with the
California Secretary of State as business entity number C1923139.
[15]
1996–97: Tha Doggfather
After Snoop Dogg was acquitted of murder charges on February 20, 1996, he and the mother of his son and their kennel of 20 pit bulls moved into a 5,000-square-foot (460 m
2) home in the hills of
Claremont, California and by August 1996 Doggy Style Records, a subsidiary of
Death Row Records, signed
The Gap Band's
Charlie Wilson as one of the record label's first artists.
[16]
However, by the time Snoop Dogg's second album,
Tha Doggfather, was released in November 1996, the price of living (or sometimes just imitating) the gangsta life had become very evident. Among the many notable hip hop industry deaths and convictions were the death of Snoop Dogg's friend and labelmate 2Pac and the
racketeering indictment of Death Row co-founder
Suge Knight.
[7] Dr. Dre had left Death Row earlier in 1996 because of a contract dispute, so Snoop Dogg co-produced
Tha Doggfather with
Daz Dillinger and
DJ Pooh.
This album featured a distinct change of style as compared to
Doggystyle, and the leadoff single, "
Snoop's Upside Ya Head", featured a collaboration with
Gap Band frontman Charlie Wilson. While the album sold reasonably well, it was not as successful as its predecessor. However,
Tha Doggfather had a somewhat softer approach to the G-funk style. The immediate aftermath of Dr. Dre's withdrawal from Death Row Records, realizing that he was subject to an iron-clad time-based contract (i.e., that Death Row practically owned anything he produced for a number of years), Snoop Dogg refused to produce any more tracks for
Suge Knight, other than the insulting "Fuck Death Row", until his contract expired.
[11] In an interview with
Neil Strauss in 1998, Snoop Dogg stated that though he had been given lavish gifts by his former label they had withheld royalty payments to the artist.
[17]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said that after
Tha Doggfather, Snoop Dogg began "moving away from his gangsta roots toward a calmer lyrical aesthetic":
[7] for instance, Snoop participated in the 1997
Lollapalooza concert tour, which featured mainly alternative rock music. Troy J. Augusto of
Variety noticed that Snoop's set at Lollapalooza attracted "much dancing, and, strangely, even a small mosh pit" in the audience.
[18]
1998–2000: No Limit, Top Dogg and Tha Last Meal
Snoop signed with
Master P's
No Limit Records (distributed by
Priority/
EMI Records) in 1998 and debuted on the label with
Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told that year. His other albums from No Limit were
No Limit Top Dogg in 1999 (selling over 1,503,865 copies) and
Tha Last Meal in 2000 (selling over 1,000,000).
[7] In 2001, his autobiography,
Tha Doggfather, was published.
2002: Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$
In 2002 he released the album
Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$, on
Priority/
Capitol/
EMI Records, selling over 1,300,000 copies. The album featured the hit singles "
From tha Chuuuch to da Palace" and "
Beautiful", featuring guest vocals by
Pharrell. By this stage in his career, Snoop Dogg had left behind his "
gangster" image and embraced a "
pimp" image.
2004–05: R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece
In 2004, Snoop signed to
Geffen Records/
Star Trak Entertainment both of which are distributed through
Interscope Records; Star Trak is headed by producer duo
The Neptunes, which produced several tracks for Snoop's 2004 release
R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece. "
Drop It Like It's Hot" (featuring Pharrell), the first single released from the album, was a hit and became Snoop Dogg's first single to reach number one. His third release was "
Signs", featuring
Justin Timberlake and
Charlie Wilson, which entered the UK chart at #2. This was his highest entry ever in the UK chart. The album sold 1,724,000 copies in the U.S. alone, and most of its singles were heavily played on radio and television. Snoop Dogg joined
Warren G and
Nate Dogg to form the group
213 and released album
The Hard Way in 2004. Debuting at No.4 on the
Billboard 200 and No.1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, it included single "Groupie Luv". Together with fellow rappers
Lil' Jon,
Xzibit and
David Banner, Snoop Dogg appeared in the music video for
Korn's "
Twisted Transistor".
2006: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
Snoop Dogg's appeared on two tracks from Ice Cube's 2006 album
Laugh Now, Cry Later, including the single "
Go to Church", and on several tracks on
Tha Dogg Pound's
Cali Iz Active the same year. Also, his latest song, "Real Talk", was leaked over the Internet in the summer of 2006 and a video was later released on the Internet. "Real Talk" was a dedication to former Crips leader
Stanley "Tookie" Williams and a diss to
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California. Two other singles on which Snoop made a guest performance were "Keep Bouncing" by
Too $hort (also with
will.i.am of
The Black Eyed Peas) and "
Gangsta Walk" by
Coolio.
Snoop's 2006 album,
Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, debuted on the
Billboard 200 at No.5 and has sold over 850,000 copies. The album and the second single "
That's That Shit" featuring
R. Kelly were well received by critics. In the album, he collaborated in a video with
E-40 and other West Coast rappers for his single "
Candy (Drippin' Like Water)".
2007–08: Ego Trippin'
In July 2007, Snoop Dogg also made history by becoming the first artist to release a track as a ringtone prior to its release as a single, which was "It's the D.O.G." On July 7, 2007, Snoop Dogg performed at the
Live Earth concert, Hamburg.
[19] Snoop Dogg has ventured into singing for
Bollywood with his first ever rap for an Indian movie
Singh Is Kinng; the title of the song is also "Singh is Kinng". He also appears in the movie as himself.
[20] The album featuring the song was released on June 8, 2008 on Junglee Music Records.
[21] He released his ninth studio album,
Ego Trippin' (selling 400,000 copies in the U.S.), along with the first single, "
Sexual Eruption". The single peaked at No.7 on the Billboard 100, featuring Snoop using
autotune. The album featured production from
QDT (Quik-Dogg-Teddy).
2009–10: Malice n Wonderland and More Malice
Snoop was appointed an executive position at Priority Records. His tenth studio album,
Malice n Wonderland, was released on December 8, 2009. The first single from the album, "
Gangsta Luv", featuring
The-Dream, peaked at No.35 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted at No.23 on the Billboard 200, selling 61,000 copies its first week, making it his lowest charting album. His third single, "
I Wanna Rock", peaked at No.41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Snoop features on the latest
Gorillaz album,
Plastic Beach. The fourth single from
Malice n Wonderland, titled "Pronto", featuring
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, was released on
iTunes on December 1, 2009. Snoop re-released the album under the name
More Malice.
2011-present: Doggumentary
Snoop collaborated with
Katy Perry on the first single from her
second mainstream album, "
California Gurls", which was released on May 11, 2010. Snoop can also be heard on the track "Flashing" by Dr. Dre and on
Curren$y's song "
Seat Change". He was also featured on a new single from Australian singer
Jessica Mauboy, titled "
Get 'em Girls" (released September 2010). Snoop's latest effort was backing American recording artist,
Emii, on her second single entitled "Mr. Romeo" (released October 26, 2010 as a follow-up to "Magic"). Snoop also collaborated with American comedy troupe
The Lonely Island in their song "Turtleneck & Chain", in their 2011 album
Turtleneck & Chain.
Snoop Dogg's newest studio album is
Doggumentary, The album was renamed to
Doggumentary and was released during March 2011.
[22] Snoop was featured on
Gorillaz' latest album
Plastic Beach on a track called: "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach" with the
The Hypnotic Brass, he also completed another track with them entitled "Sumthing Like this Night" which does not appear on
Plastic Beach, yet does appear on
Doggumentary. He also appears on the latest
Tech N9ne album
All 6's And 7's (released June 7, 2011) on a track called "Pornographic" which also features
E-40 and
Krizz Kaliko.