Gangsta rapper to grandfather: The Olympic gold rebranding of Snoop Dogg

(CNN) — Had Snoop Dogg pretended to take a toke from the Olympic torch he helped carry to open the 2024 games, few people would have been surprised.

But the now cannabis entrepreneur and elder statesman of hip-hop is in his respectable era – he’s a little older, a little wiser and a whole lot more lovable.

The 52-year-old rapper’s transformation – from superstar on trial for murder in the 1990s to Martha Stewart bestie on “grandpa’s duties” at the Olympics – has been so slow and shrewd that it’s very natural to ask: How did we get here?

P. Frank Williams covered Snopp Dogg’s murder trial for the Los Angeles Times and co-wrote the book “Chosen by Fate: My Life Inside Death Row Records” with the musician’s co-defendant McKinley Lee Jr.

Williams told CNN the answer is actually quite simple.

“He worked hard and loves what he does,” said Williams, who most recently directed Hulu’s “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told” documentary. “Snoop has this likability and charm that you can’t buy.”

Not to mention an arc that’s a testament to the power of reinvention.

Tough start in Long Beach

Born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. in Long Beach, California, Snoop Dogg earned the family nickname “Snoop” because of his resemblance to the Peanuts character.

He came up during a time when gang violence and crack were devastating inner city neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Despite being a star athlete in high school, Snoop fell into that life, selling drugs and getting into trouble as a teen.

“I was always scared. That’s why I believe I survived because you have to have either fear or respect. And I didn’t understand respect, so I feared everything,” Snoop Dogg told Howard Stern in 2021. “A lot of times I got shot at; a lot of times I had a gun in my possession and could have shot back but I was too scared to shoot back because I was so concerned for my life. It’s either fight or flight and most of time when you’re out there, it’s flight.”

That “gangsta” persona would follow him when he first found fame in 1992 as the guest rapper on producer and NWA member Dr. Dre’s debut solo single “Deep Cover,” for the movie of the same title.

That led to working with Dre on his now iconic album “The Chronic.”

Snoop Dogg’s debut album, “Doggystyle,” would follow. A critical and commercial success, the album cemented him as the premiere artist with Death Row Records and one of the rappers most associated with West Coast rap.

But by that point, trouble was brewing.

A trial and trying something different

The rapper and his bodyguard Lee Jr. were accused of murder in the 1993 death of 20-year-old Philip Woldermariam whom Lee, Jr. admitted to shooting, but claimed self defense.

Woldemariam’s death happened shortly before the release of Snoop Dogg’s debut album and brought a great deal of attention to one of the singles, “Murder Was the Case,” which Snoop Dogg later said was written a year prior and highly prophetic.

“My peers, we wrote about death. You see, and I wrote that song ‘Murder Was the Case’’ where I was like, ‘I came when my booboo’s ‘bout to have my baby,’” he told Audible’s “Words + Music” last year. “[His then-girlfriend now wife Shante Broadus] wasn’t even pregnant, and I hadn’t even caught the murder case.”

Famed O.J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran represented Snoop Dogg and Lee Jr. when the case went to trial in 1996 and resulted in an acquital.

That same year, Snoop Dogg released his second studio album, “Tha Doggfather,” which featured a softer version of the rapper, which he has since said his record label was not happy about.

It was so noticeably different from his debut album that years later people were still talking about how it felt more restrained and less hardcore than his debut.

“What Snoop tries to do throughout ‘Doggfather’ is exhibit the sort of maturation that was probably taking place in his life: he was 25 now, a father, had successfully navigated a terrifying legal gauntlet, had adjusted enough to the money and fame and constant paranoia,” Paul Thompson wrote for Fader in 2019. “But instead of making a hard break into a new, constructed persona –– or, instead of flitting between familiar fare and songs that were radically different –– he mostly just dials his old style down to 80 percent.”

At the time, Snoop Dogg has said, Death Row Records was not happy about his pivot.

“They wanted me to keep it gangsta,” he told Jemele Hill in 2019 during an episode of her “Unbothered” podcast. “They wanted me to, like, remain gangsta and still be, you know, f**king s**t up, but I just went through a murder case and I couldn’t.”

He said, “My heart and my spirit wasn’t in the place” to continue to embody his former persona. So, he rejected his label’s advice to go that direction.

He told Hill he’s been determined to be authentic and that meant growing as his life has changed because, “Me being me is all I know how to do.”

“As you grow older and you learn how to be a man, you have a family, things that you living for than that becomes the scope,” he said. “And I’ve never been afraid to position my life and say that I have a family now.”

Building an empire

Married to his high school sweetheart Shante Broadus since 1997, Snoop Dogg and his wife are the parents of sons Corde, 29, Cordell, 27 and Julian, 26 and daughter Cori, 25, as well as a dozen grandchildren.

Earlier this year he told Jennifer Hudson on her daytime talk show that his grandkids call him “Papa Snoop.”

Having a growing family meant he also needed to grow his paycheck, and he has certainly done that.

His portfolio now includes everything from his own line of wine with 19 Crimes to his Snoop Loopz cereal brand and, of course, a line of cannabis products.

Along the way, he has also managed to indulge in his passion for both sports and entertainment with his youth football league and acting gigs.

Along the way he’s gotten a little help from his friends, including domestic arts doyenne Martha Stewart.

The unlikely pair even had their own reality show, “Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party” which launched in 2016 and ran for two seasons.

The rapper did all that while still managing to keep his large footprint in the music industry with current major acts including K-Pop superstars BTS recruiting him to collaborate.

Going for the gold

Yet nothing is as indicative of Snoop Dogg’s place as a national treasure as his selection to be one of the bearers of the Olympic torch at this year’s games held in Paris.

There was Snoop Dogg, not only running with the torch, but also sparking delight as he helped conduct interviews for NBC (which is airing the games), offering spot on and hilarious commentary about competitions and fawning over athletes.

There was precedence given that in 2021 he and friend Kevin Hart hosted “Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg” for NBC’s streamer Peacock, in which they conducted interviews and offered some laugh-out-loud commentary during the competitions.

This year, Snoop Dogg talked to NBC about what it meant to him to carry the torch during the opening ceremony’s relay.

“I felt like Muhammad Ali. It was extraordinary, it was excellent,” he said. “I found out that when you hold the torch you a peace messanger so I really felt good about that.”

Williams, who as a journalist covered Snoop Dogg for years, shared what he believes other stars can learn from Snoop’s arc as a celebrity.

“Trust your gift and be yourself,” he told CNN. “People love Snoop because of his authenticity! He’s is the same backstage and onstage.”

Fo shizzle.

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