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Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. (born October 20, 1971, in Long Beach, California), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (or earlier in his career as Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as an MC in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of producer Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. His catch phrase is widely known as "fo' shizzle, ma nizzle," meaning, "for sure, my nigga." That style of slang was invented by Frankie Smith and The Gap Band in the early eighties, and popularized in part by fellow rapper E-40, much of which is simply derived by adding an "izz" or "-izzle" sound to the word.
His mother nicknamed him "Snoopy" as a child because of how he would dress but also because of the Charlie Brown cartoons that he often watched; he took the stage name Snoop Doggy Dogg when he began recording. He changed his name to Snoop Dogg in 1996, when he left his original record label Death Row Records and signed with No Limit Records. Several of his cousins also became hip hop artists and Aftermath collaborators, including RBX, Nate Dogg, Daz Dillinger, and Joe Cool. R&B singers Ray J and Brandy are also his cousins and he recently released "Smokin trees" with Ray J and a duet with Brandy was pre-recorded for Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, but was not part of the album.
According to Soundscan he has sold over 18.5 million albums in the United States from the establishment of Soundscan (1991) to January 2007.
Early Life
Snoop attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, and his initial foray into public life was as a result of his conviction for cocaine trafficking. Snoop was a member of a local Crips gang in Long Beach, the Rollin' 20's Crips. Snoop Dogg's conviction caused him to be in and out of prison for the first three years after he graduated from high school. Older Crips members and prison inmates affiliated with the Crips gang had a long-standing pattern of recognizing talent (particularly musical or sports talent) among their membership, and Snoop Dogg was pushed to make something of himself as a rapper rather than as a street hustler. Snoop thus followed up on the homemade rap tapes that he had made with his cousin Nate Dogg and best friend Warren G (stepbrother of Dr. Dre of N.W.A.). Originally, Nate's cousin Lil' 1/2 Dead was also part of the group, called 213, named after the Long Beach area code at the time. This was largely in homage to Richie Rich's group 415, which was named for the (then) area code of Oakland, California (now the area code San Francisco and its northern neighbor Marin County).
Success with Death Row Records
Dr. Dre began collaborating with the young rapper, first on the theme song of the feature 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. Snoop Dogg's contribution to The Chronic was considerable; the rapper's rhymes were as present as Dre's. The huge success of Snoop's debut Doggystyle was probably due to this intense exposure.
While recording Doggystyle with Dr. Dre in August 1993, Snoop Dogg was arrested in the death of Phillip Woldermarian, a member of a rival gang who was fired at and killed in a gang fight. Snoop was defended by David Kenner, with his bodyguard McKinley Lee, while Sean Abrams (accompanying member in the jeep) was defended by Johnnie Cochran. Both Snoop and Lee were acquitted; Lee was acquitted on grounds of self-defense, but Snoop remained entangled in the legal battles around the case for three years. His video "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" with Tupac Shakur chronicled the difficulties each rapper was dealing with as a result of their unrelated but concurrent criminal prosecutions.
The Doggystyle album was released in November 1993 on Death Row Records and became the first debut album ever to enter the charts at #1, helping to fuel the ascendance of West Coast "g-funk" rap. 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. Gangsta rap became the center of arguments for censorship and labeling, with Snoop often used as an example of violent and misogynistic musicians.
Doggystyle, much like The Chronic, featured a host of rappers signed to or affiliated with the Death Row label including Daz, Kurupt, Nate Dogg and others.
A short film about Snoop's murder trial called Murder Was the Case, was released in 1994, along with an accompanying soundtrack.
However, by the time Snoop's second album Tha Doggfather was released in November 1996, the price of imitating (or sometimes just living) the "gangsta" life had become very evident. Among the many notable rap industry deaths and convictions were the death of Snoop's friend and labelmate Tupac Shakur and the racketeering indictment of Death Row co-founder Suge Knight. Dr. Dre had left Death Row earlier in 1996 due to a contract dispute, so Snoop co-produced Tha Doggfather with Daz Dillinger and DJ Pooh.
This album saw a distinct change of style as compared to Doggystyle. While the album sold reasonably well it was not as successful, and it was widely believed that its quality suffered from Dr.Dre's lack of involvement. However,Tha Doggfather had a somewhat softer approach to the G-funk style, and Snoop Dogg used a less energetic and more charismatic type of rhyming style, which would be more widely incorporated and exercised later on in his career.
In the immediate aftermath of 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.
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