Snoop Dogg is one of the most well-known (and marketable) rappers in the world, but Tha Doggfather might not have achieved his current level of fame without 2Pac’s help.
The newest guest on The 85 South Comedy Show, Snoop, discussed how his former Death Row labelmate taught him how to become a “star,” starting with his encouragement to uphold his “pimp” character and develop his style.
“I’m still dressing like a n-gga from the hood — khakis, Chucks,” Snoop said of his post-Doggystyle wardrobe. “That n-gga like, ‘Me and you finna have a meeting… We stepping our game up. We gotta change your look, Snoop Dogg. You a pimp, n-gga. Bitches love you. You fly. You gotta start showing your fly side!
“‘I’ma get you suited up.’ ‘I’ma call this nigga Dion Scott, get your suits fitted, get your hair laid, get your nails done. Put some pimpin’ on screen, n-gga.’”
When he and 2Pac appeared in the 1996 music video “2 of America’s Most Wanted,” Snoop Dogg stated he initially felt uneasy wearing the strange and tightly-fitting clothing. However, he eventually got used to it and realized the lesson that ‘Pac was attempting to teach him.
“He dressed me up in suits, Louis Vuitton, Gucci — shit I couldn’t even spell or pronounce! All this Italian shit,” he continued. “Just look at how I’m standing next to cuh when I’m wearing it. I’m trying to figure it out! I’m like, ‘Do I look right? I hope I don’t look sweet ’cause these pants tight as a muthafucka!’
“Once I got comfortable with it, then it was like, ‘OK, this n-gga’s teaching me how to be a star.’ Like, levels and layers. ‘We know you gangsta, dawg, but can you go higher than that? What if a n-gga call you to be in a movie where they want you to be a lawyer? What if a n-gga wants you to be a detective?’”
Snoop Dogg elaborated on 2Pac’s star power by recalling working in the studio with the All Eyez On Me rapper soon after his release from prison in 1995 and seeing for himself his unwavering work ethic.
“We in the studio the first couple of nights [after] he get out. I got a room, he got a room. We make a song, we in that muthafucka listening to it for like four hours. Got bitches up in there. N-ggas like, ‘This shit banging!’” Snoop remembered.
“We got in this n-gga room, he on his fifth song. This n-gga make a song, as soon as it got off, ‘Pull the next beat up! We ain’t finna be listening to that shit, that’s the engineer’s job to mix that shit. Next song.’”
Snoop continued by describing how 2Pac would frequently invite anyone there to contribute a verse or play a beat, referring to him as “resourceful” and “a loving muthafucka in the studio.”
“[He was] not one of them n-ggas that’s in the studio like, ‘Man, get all these n-ggas outta here!’ He entertained that shit,” Snoop continued. “I wasn’t a star ’til I was next to him; he showed me how to be a star. This n-gga was a star. Snoop Dogg was famous, but I didn’t know how to be a star.”
Snoop Dogg previously discussed his friendship with 2Pac during an appearance on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast in May. He revealed he had dizziness while visiting the late rapper in the hospital after the shooting that killed him in September 1996.
“When we drive to Vegas to see Pac, we got to Suge house first, so we haven’t even seen Pac,” Snoop said. “We just talking to Suge, and he got the head wrapped up and he telling us what happened and [saying] ‘Pac gonna be alright, he going to pull through he got shot nine times before he going to be alright.’
“We feeling like it’s going to be alright until we go to the hospital and see that he ain’t alright. He got tubes in him, and it’s like when I walked in like I could just feel that he wasn’t even there, and I fainted. Then his mother got me up and walked me to the bathroom, and had a conversation with me about being strong.”
