Born Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr., the rapper Snoop Dogg has become one of the most controversial and successful rappers of his time. Growing up in Long Beach, California Snoop began perfecting his rap skills as a teenager at Long Beach Polytechnic High School where he participated in freestyle MC competitions. His distinctive laid-back sound quickly became all the rage and his friends urged him to send demo tapes to producer Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg quickly became one of the founders of the new sound of West Coast rap.

In high school Snoop joined the notorious gang, the Crips, and found himself in and out of jail for about three years after his graduation from high school. It was a couple of his fellow inmates that urged Snoop to make a homemade rap tape with some of his friends. His best friend, Warren G, also happened to be the cousin of Dr. Dre and pushed the tape into Dre’s hands. Eventually Dr. Dre signed Snoop to his label and Snoop Dogg became Dr. Dre’s protégé.  

Dr. Dre chose to feature and collaborate with Snoop on Dre’s solo album, The Chronic. Snoop’s rhymes were very present on Dr. Dre’s album and gave him tons of exposure and built up the release of his own debut album, Doggystyle. The success of his first album was largely due to his collaboration on The Chronic.

Snoop’s success did not keep him out of legal trouble, however, in August of 1993 Snoop was arressted in association with the death of a rival gang member, Phillip Woldermarian. Snoop was later aquitted after his defense team, lead by Johnnie Cochran, proved that it was actually Snoop’s bodyguard who had fired the shots and that they were only in self defense. The murder trial may have even helped his first single, What’s My Name remain in the Top Ten.

After the death of his friend and fellow rapper, Tupac Shakur, and Dr. Dre leaving Deathrow records, Snoop began to change his style and his voice. Instead of continuing with the hardcore rap sound he began to mellow out his sound, focusing more on his “pimp” lifestyle than his old gangbanging ways.

Snoop also began to produce X-rated material with Hustler magazine. Eventually, the success of Snoop’s hip hop style porn caused him to found his own production company called, Snoopadelic Films, in 2005.