>>Sal Masekela: 22 years you have been in
this game, so to speak.
30 million albums.
The story is well-known.
But what I want to know, where it began for
you.
You are still here.
You are still beyond the call of relevant.
But tell us a little bit about where you come
from.
>>Snoop Dogg: Well, I come from east side
Long Beach, Long Beach, California.
I was raised by my mother, single parent.
And she raised me on good music, having a
good time.
I'm a '70s baby.
So in the '70s, it was all about peace, love,
and happiness.
So I believe that spirit is the spirit I live
by today, you know, being a kid, just being
a big grown kid.
And I love to have fun.
I love to show love.
I love music.
I love art.
I just love being creative.
And my mother always kept me in the presence
of people like there were times in the '70s
where it would be a party in the living room
and all the kids would be in the back.
And they would call me in the living room
to come dance because I could dance real good
with the big girls.
[ Laughter ]
>>Sal Masekela: What was some of that music
that your mother was playing?
>>Snoop Dogg: It was a song called "I ain't
going to bump no more with this big fat woman."
[ Laughter ]
That was one of the songs I used to dance
to the most.
"I ain't going to bump no more with no big
fat woman."
[ Laughter ]
>>Sal Masekela: And growing up in school,
I mean, you were not a rapper first.
You were into music.
You sang in the choir.
>>Snoop Dogg: Yeah.
>>Sal Masekela: You were very much a child
of the arts even though, quote-unquote, you
were in the LBC.
>>Snoop Dogg: Yeah.
It was brought to me at an early age at the
church I went to, Golgotha Trinity Baptist
Church.
My auntie and the people at the church, they
would always put together plays where we would
have to act and reenact certain heros of yesteryear
to become who we are.
And it was through singing, acting, and just
being in front of a crowd at an early age
that helped me develop the confidence, to
when I was able to speak in front of a crowd,
I was able to be confident all the times.
>>Sal Masekela: That's something that you
see not just in your music but in the way
that you deal with your brand.
I mean, I watch you.
You can deal with -- and you do -- you deal
with just about anyone, which might be hard
for some people to comprehend when they think
initially of, like, Doggystyle, 1992.
How many of you bought that album?
Okay.
Good, good, good.
But you are an every man.
I like to call you Black Switzerland.
[ Laughter ]
>>Snoop Dogg: It feels like that because,
I mean, I can do whatever I want to do whenever
I want to do it.
It feels good to do it.
I feel like you shouldn't be restricted.
You shouldn't be put in a box.
You should be who you are at all times.
And I've always been a loving, happy, fun,
outgoing individual.
I'm a fun guy that loves to have a fun time.
>>Sal Masekela: Over the course of these years,
you've made many records.
But a lot of -- a lot of your peers who were
making records at the same time as you in
the early '90s, they're no longer making rap
albums.
Some of them are still in the business, but
they had to sort of shed their hip-hop persona
to continue to move forward.
Why is it that you think you've been able
to maintain your place in pop culture without
reeling having to shed the fact that this
is the Snoop D-O-double G.
>>Snoop Dogg: I think it is the way I came.
I came being pure and sincere and honest.
That's all I know.
I just got to be me.
I don't know how to be nobody but me.
This is what I'm great at.
I am going to continue to do that.
I don't know if it rubs you the right way
or the wrong way.
It makes me feel good, so I am going to do
it.
If it is good to you, it must be good for
you.
[ Laughter ]
>>Sal Masekela: Within all that, though, you
are going to have -- you are going to have
challenges and struggle in figuring out which
lanes to choose.
What might be some of the harder decisions
you've had to make in order to stay relevant
or to stay on the journey where you are today?
>>Snoop Dogg: Well, my decisions are never
made based on what the popularity of the world
will think.
It is always based on what feels good to me
and what's best for me.
I don't ever look at, you know, what I'm doing
and say, "What are people going to think?"
I do it for the reasons of if it makes me
feel good, eventually it is going to make
you feel good.
That's all it's always been for me.
Ever since I came into the music industry,
it has always been about the expression of
my expression becoming your expression.
It is just we become one.
I feel like the people feel like Snoop Dogg
is a part of their life.
It is not like I'm a rapper or producer or
actor.
I am like one of their family members because
they have been with me for so long.
I have been so up close and personal.
It has never been, like, a secret.
I have opened my closet up from day one.
>>Sal Masekela: I think that's one of the
reasons why a little -- a little kid and the
grandmother will both be like, "Hey, that's
Snoop Dogg."
>>Snoop Dogg: That's crazy you say that because
a lot of times the kids will approach me,
and I'm trying to figure out why do the kids
like me.
This is before I had a football league, before
I became, you know, more positive in what
I was doing.
And the kids would always come up and say,
"We love you, we love you."
I never understood why they loved me until
I had to figure out that I'm that kid.
I am who that kid is.
He is seeing himself in me.
So regardless of how my rhymes may sound,
if they are derogatory, if they are explicit,
that kid sees something in me that resembles
himself.
So once I figured that out, I started to aim
my pen in a more positive direction to write
songs that matter to the kids and do things
for the kids like the youth football league.
[ Applause ]
>>Sal Masekela: You're from an interesting
genre in music in hip-hop in that a lot of
times artists are afraid to do what you just
described, to make that lane change.
There's this perception that you have to maintain
the exact same struggle, the exact same front
that you had when you first came out in order
to stay relative.
And you see some of these artists, that they're
struggling because they can't let out what
it is they have to give.
Do you find yourself ever in a position where
you are mentoring some of these other young
artists?
Because every other young artist I see coming
out they look at you and they shout you out
all the time, "Uncle Snoop, Uncle Snoop."
You are on collaboration with a lot of these
young artists.
What do you say to them?
>>Snoop Dogg: I'm like a real uncle because
I give them guidance on and off the field,
meaning in business and in life in general.
And a lot of times when I came into this music
industry, I didn't have that.
I didn't have big brothers to help me.
I had to learn on my own.
So what I wanted to do was be something like
there had never been before.
I wanted to be an uncle or a wisdom of guidance
for these young rappers and young entertainers
where they could call on me and get some information.
And that's what it has been like for the past
ten years.
I have been mentoring.
I have been helping.
I have been associating myself with all of
the young rappers and trying to be positive
and give them an understanding that you do
have to reach a certain point in your life
and your career where you have to make a better
decision for you.
And by me having kids and a wife, it also
structured my life in a different way to where
I pulled back from the things that I used
to do to the things I know how to do.
>>Sal Masekela: There's also something I think
-- and I'm sure this wasn't planned.
But there is something about your flow, the
fact that your flow always came from a place
of melody.
And even though you were talking about things
that were abrasive and sometimes downright
guttural, you said them in such a nice way
--
[ Laughter ]
>>Snoop Dogg: Like, "oh, I don't let him out."
>>Sal Masekela: Exactly.
They were less abrasive.
But I think -- Where did that come from?
Where did you get that sound?
Because obviously everyone -- any rapper,
it is about that cadence and flow.
But yours is unique and timeless.
>>Snoop Dogg: Well, like I said, I'm a '70s
baby.
So in the '70s, we only had certain people
to look up to and players, you know.
I don't know if you understand what a player
is, not a football player or basketball player.
[ Laughter ]
But a player in the neighborhood had a certain
conversation about his self.
He would never speak too loud.
And when he spoke, you understood what he
said because it was so smooth and so melodic.
And I have always wanted to be a player from
a kid.
So when I was able to become a player, that
was one of my traits, one of my accolades,
to be able to speak smoothly on a microphone
at not be so aggressive and so loud but to
get your point across by being smooth and
in pocket.
>>Sal Masekela: I said to someone the other
day there are only a few rappers that I look
forward to seeing when I'm old.
And I know one when they, "Hey, Snoop is playing
Vegas," "We should go.
We should go.
Come on.
We should go."
[ Laughter ]
And you are going to be able to come out there
and be like bow wow wow yippy yo yippy yay
and everyone is going to get down.
>>Snoop Dogg: I just might be in the wheelchair
though, but it will be cool because I'm still
going to be rolling.
[ Laughter ]
>>Sal Masekela: Nonetheless, you move forward
and we talk about the things that you've done
just to be in the conversation.
And you got 35 million followers on Facebook.
Your YouTube channel just broke the 1 million
subscriber mark.
If you have never watched "GNN News" which
Snoop hosts, it is just pure brilliance.
I'm doing a bad job of interviewing compared
to what this dude does on his show, and he
can talk to anybody.
I follow you on Instagram.
You cloud my feed in the most wonderful way.
But you do this really interesting job of
showing -- you don't just say -- you actually
don't even say, "Look at my cars.
Look at this.
Look at that."
You really take people on a journey of your
life to the point where they feel like they're
on the journey with you.
And they feel like you are not just Snoop
Dogg but you really are the homey.
What is it that sort of made you embrace social
media the way you have?
>>Snoop Dogg: My team, Cashmere and Stampede.
I wasn't a fan of it at all.
I remember the first time, they was like,
You want Twitter people following you.
I was like, "I don't want nobody following
me.
That would be weird."
Because I didn't understand the dialect.
You know, I'm like -- and there's people would
be like "Hey, Snoop, I'm following you."
I'm like, "What you mean you following me?"
[ Laughter ]
So once they explained it to me and I understood
it, then I put my twist on it and I made it
what it is.
It is like, I wanted it to be personal.
I didn't want it to be my people put up pictures
and put up and say, well, Snoop is going to
be here.
I wanted it to be more personal where they
could see and feel me.
And I interact.
If there's things on there that I do like,
I say, hey, I like it.
If there are things on there I don't like,
I speak on it.
And I feel like people respect the fact that
I'm so up close and personal with them.
And I don't have a star wall because when
you become successful, it is a star wall that
pops up whether security or it is just some
sort of wall that prevents the people from
getting to you.
And I never wanted that wall.
I always wanted to be up close and personal
with the people who make me who I am.
>>Sal Masekela: It really resonates.
One of the ones you posted the other day was
real simple.
But it just said find something you love and
do it forever.
And that's all you said.
But it was like, oh, he's not just -- this
isn't such a job.
It is a reminder like, you love this.
And being on that journey with you following
you, I feel like your followers, even when
you read the comments, it's cool to see the
way people respond to you.
And they are inspired by you.
>>Snoop Dogg: And I'm inspired by them because
they make me who I am.
There may be some days where I want to quit.
22 years strong doing this thing, I wanted
to be saying: When do I get a vacation?
Some people take vacations.
I don't know what a vacation is.
I have never been on one because I'm so caught
up with what I do and what I love.
I love doing what I do.
It is not even about the money.
It is about the passion that I bring because
I'm so creative and I love getting it out
and I love working with positive people.
So at the end of the day, it is more about
do it until you can't do it no more.
Then when you done doing it, then you can
look back and enjoy it because I don't get
a chance to look at what Snoop Dogg has done.
When I see documentaries of things in my past,
I have to stop and watch because I'm so busy
playing.
I'm in the game right now, so I can't watch
my stats and my highlights because I have
got another game to play tomorrow.
[ Applause ]
>>Sal Masekela: Amen.
Brings me to the point that I always wonder
is, A, do you sleep?
Because everything that you do you do passionately
and aggressively.
Case in point, growing up, the old MTV days,
the Rock 'N Jock football games where they
would have the pros and the celebrities playing
football and Snoop would be out there, flag
football.
And you would see the moves and you would
see the style of his catches and be like,
"Oh, Snoop, really likes football.
He is a football fan," not to realize that
you were not just a football fan but a football
mind.
You are a certified football coach.
What you've implemented as far as youth football
leagues for kids in Los Angeles and in the
nation is well-documented.
And now your own son is playing in high school
in Vegas at the highest national level.
He's being looked at in every Division I school
there is from Notre Dame to USC.
He can go wherever he wants.
But I watch the way you talked about football
in the past.
Where did that come from to the point where
you weren't just a fan of the game but you
became a student and a mind of the game?
>>Snoop Dogg: I played as a kid, and then
when I had kids, my oldest son wanted to start
playing football at 8.
I was just a father on the side line.
One of the coaches said, "Why don't you come
out and help us?"
And once I started helping, I fell in love
with all of the kids.
I stopped coaching my son and started coaching
the other kids.
And then the following year, I took my son
to another league.
And then I said, you know what?
I want to start my own league, because I feel
like this league is not catered to the urban
community.
There's a lot of parents that want their kids
to play, but they can't pay $300 a kid when
they got four kids.
So I put together Snoop U Football League,
where the fees was $100 for the first kid,
and if there was a second kid in the home,
it was 50.
So if you had four kids living in one home,
$100, 50, -- $250 for four kids, as opposed
to 300 for one kid.
Then we had the kids maintain a 2.0 GPA in
order to play.
Now it's up to 2.5.
And every kid in my league maintains a 3.0
GPA.
We've got 50 kids --
[ Applause ]
>>Snoop Dogg: Thank you.
We got have 50 kids in Division I right now
that are starting that play on every Saturday,
we have four kids in the NFL right now and
we have over 200 in high school, getting ready
to go to college.
[ Cheers and applause ]
>>Sal Masekela: When you're able to say those
stats, and obviously when you started the
league, it was because you saw a need, what
does that fill you with when you're able to
say, like, oh, wow, this is what we've done?
What does that do for you that perhaps is
different from what music does for you?
>>Snoop Dogg: It makes me emotional where
I could cry, you know.
I don't get a chance to cry when I make music,
because I've got to maintain that persona,
oh, he's Snoop Dogg, but when I'm a football
coach, I can cry, I can laugh, I can do whatever
I want to do, because I'm amongst the kids
and being a big kid, and just to see that
these kids believed in me and my program and
the people who help put it together and to
see ten years later what we're doing is awesome,
because the NFL recognizes me now.
College recognizes me now.
It's like this is bigger than music, because
I'm giving hope to some kids who never even
had the dream of going to high school, now
they're going Saturday football and eventually
Sunday football and they can take care of
their families and it's all attributed to
the Snoop U Football League, so I'm very blessed
and thankful.
>>Sal Masekela: That's amazing.
One of my favorite things is, on a Sunday,
you know, Snoop will be watching a game and
he will give you commentary of what's going
on in the game in Instagram.
And it is really, really beautiful.
But I also noticed you don't really have a
team, you have teams --
>>Snoop Dogg: I have a team, my team is the
Stellars.
[ Applause ]
>>Snoop Dogg: But I have a lot of my friends
and home boys who play for particular teams.
So am I not supposed to like my friend because
he plays for this team and this team has offered
me a whole lot of money to come perform at
halftime?
[ Laughter ]
Get the money, man!
I had on some Stellar drawers and a Stellar
tank top when I had that 49er jacket on for
all the --
[ Laughter ]
>>Sal Masekela: Man.
That is a beautiful thing.
[ Laughter ]
I've got to figure out how to do something
like that.
You did a song with Drake last year.
>>Snoop Dogg: Yeah.
>>Sal Masekela: Very interesting song in that
it talked about this no guns allowed.
And if you think of Snoop back in the day,
the last thing --
>>Snoop Dogg: All guns allowed.
>>Sal Masekela: All guns allowed.
What motivated that song for you?
And what's come after it is really cool.
>>Snoop Dogg: Well, what -- what came after
is me getting with the league of young voters,
which is a great, great organization that's
against gun violence and just violence in
general.
Well, it was just me just sitting at home,
watching all of these terrible shootings with
kids would go to school and shoot up the whole
school and theaters and just -- I was like,
it's time for me to use my voice, because
I feel like if I stand up, there may be a
kid who's about to go shoot somebody, and
he says, man, I like Snoop Dogg.
I'm not going to do it because he said no
guns allowed.
And that was just my train of thought into
it.
And I feel like since I put that song out,
it has been a decline in those kind of shootings,
not that we can stop them all.
But the awareness that we do care, that someone
like me who comes from gun violence and comes
from that world is against it now.
And I stand firmly against it to where it's
like it was real.
That's why I put it on my record.
The records that I make are the most intense
that you'll get from me.
So when I speak on my music, it's from the
heart.
So if I take the time out to say this song
is called no guns allowed, put Drake on the
song and my daughter, shoot a video showing
all of this violence with guns, it makes the
awareness level go up to where people will
start to say he cares, so we should care.
So maybe one day we'll be able to get those
laws fixed where everybody can't just go get
a gun just because you want a gun.
And that's what I was doing it for.
[ Applause ]
>>Sal Masekela: How much has parenthood shaped
and framed the mindset of the 21st-century,
2014 Snoop?
>>Snoop Dogg: Whew, man, my kids are special.
They make me better, you know, in all ways,
especially on the music side.
Like, my oldest son, I'd never heard of Wiz
Khalifa.
And he turned me on to Wiz Khalifa, and me
and Wiz Khalifa became best of friends and
went on tour, made a movie, made a record.
And we're brothers now.
So it's like, you have to listen to your kids,
not you dictate to them all the time.
Because a kid can teach you if you're just
willing to listen.
My youngest son, he's a football player, but
at the same time, me and him, we agree to
disagree.
And then my daughter, she's a singer-songwriter,
so I'm hard on her, telling her, look, baby,
you've got to get it all the way together.
And don't be mad when I tell you this, because
the public is going to be even meaner than
I am.
It's just getting that understanding with
the kids and being able to and being able
to have a relationship with them to where
they're my friends.
They don't look at me as a mean old dad, they
look at me as a cool father.
And that's what a lot of things going wrong
with the parenting nowadays, there's not the
communication.
It's a gap.
Kids and parents need to be friends.
It's okay to dictate, but at a certain point
in time, they're going to become grown.
And if they're your friend, they're going
to be able to tell you everything and you're
going to be there for them and it's going
to be a beautiful relationship.
That's what I found out.
>>Sal Masekela: That's amazing.
I made the black Switzerland -- not really
a joke earlier, I really do think of you as
black Switzerland.
It could be a movement.
But it's because as a hip-hop artist and a
guy who really put the LBC on the map, you
go to China, you go to South Africa, you go
to South America, you go to Dubai, you go
to India and make Bollywood movies.
And anywhere you go in any of these other
countries, you dive 1000% into the culture.
You don't just show up and do a show.
You go, and you go all in.
What is it that motivates you to take it to
that level as opposed to just going, doing
the show, getting the cash, and getting out?
>>Snoop Dogg: These people love me.
I was taught love.
See, when you're taught love, you've got to
give it back.
And the love that these people give me, some
of these people from different countries don't
even speak English, but they know every word
to my song.
So it's my obligation to give them the experience
and the ride of their life, to be able to
get up close and personal with Snoop Dogg,
so when I leave, it's like I never left.
We still connected from the hip to the dip.
[ Laughter ]
>>Sal Masekela: From the hip to the dip.
[ Laughter ]
Highlight one of the top international experiences
for you.
Culture-wise.
>>Snoop Dogg: Performing at Live Aid, and
Paul McCartney, Bill Gates, David Beckham,
and a host of other people that's billionaires
on the side of the stage, rocking to my music.
And there was one point I just stopped and
looked at them.
And it was like, I can't believe you all know
Snoop Dogg.
[ Laughing ]
>>Sal Masekela: Bill Gates.
>>Snoop Dogg: The Bill Gates.
Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
>>Sal Masekela: Yes.
That's a beautiful thing.
Where would you like to see it go from here?
I mean, if you could just look out into the
future, Snoop 20 years from now, where do
you want to be?
What do you want to do that you haven't done?
>>Snoop Dogg: I want to go on vacation.
[ Laughter ]
Right?
Ain't that what people do when they enjoy
the success of their life?
[ Applause ]
>>Sal Masekela: Yeah.
Well, I'm really, really, really good at vacation.
[ Laughter ]
>>Snoop Dogg: Well, that's --
>>Sal Masekela: I do that for a living.
This shirt is not a lie.
>>Snoop Dogg: Let's go to Hawaii and do something
special.
>>Sal Masekela: I'll take you surfing in Hawaii.
>>Snoop Dogg: I don't know how to surf.
>>Sal Masekela: I'm saying, I'll change that.
>>Snoop Dogg: For real?
>>Sal Masekela: For real.
>>Snoop Dogg: Start off on the boogie board.
>>Sal Masekela: Yeah, put Finns on you first.
>>Snoop Dogg: Go slow, baby.
>>Sal Masekela: Snoop, thank you so so much
for coming out today, I couldn't think of
a better way to end our first day.
Snoop Dogg.
[ Applause ]
