One, two, three and to the four — a hip-hop legend is about to rap at the DMV’s door.
The legendary Snoop Dogg plays Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, on Aug. 1.
Born in Long Beach, California, in 1971, Snoop Dogg burst onto the scene on Dr. Dre’s seminal album “The Chronic” (1992), spitting the smoothest flow of any rapper in the game and helping define the West Coast sound.
The following year, Dre repaid the favor by producing Snoop’s debut solo album “Doggystyle” (1993), which featured hydraulic hits like “Gin N Juice” (“Laid back with my mind on my money and my money on my mind”), not to mention a catchy cover of George Clinton’s funky “Atomic Dog” in “Who Am I? What’s My Name?”
As a member of Suge Knight’s controversial label, Death Row Records, Snoop memorably collaborated with Tupac “2Pac” Shakur on “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” with the refrain, “Ain’t nothin’ but a gangsta party.” Ironically, the track released in May of 1996, just four months before Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas in September.
After Shakur’s death, Snoop left Death Row Records to join other labels like No Limit Records, Priority/Capitol/EMI Records and Geffen Records. Along the way, he cleverly reconstructed the English language with songs like “What’s My Name? (Part 2),” adding new words like “fo shizzle” to our lexicon.
He reunited with Dre on “The Chronic 2001,” featuring the iconic piano of “Still D.R.E.” and the “da, da, da, da, da” opening of “The Next Episode” with its quotable finale: “Hey, hey, hey, hey, smoke weed everyday.”
Since then, he’s collaborated with the likes of Lil Bow Wow (“Bow Wow (That’s My Name)”), Chingy with Ludacris (“Holidae In”), Pharrell (“Beautiful,” “Drop it Like It’s Hot”), Justin Timberlake (“Signs”), The Pussycat Dolls (“Buttons”), Akon (“I Wanna Love You”), Wiz Khalifa with Bruno Mars (“Young, Wild and Free”), DJ Khaled (“All I Do is Win”), Katy Perry (“California Gurls”), Jason Derulo (“Wiggle”) and countless others.
Add it all up and Snoop Dogg has received 17 Grammy Award nominations for his contributions to music, including an Emmy Award-winning halftime performance at the 2022 Super Bowl. He was nominated for another Emmy for his Martha Stewart variety show “Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party” (2017). His movie credits include a memorable part in Denzel Washington’s Oscar-winning film “Training Day” (2001).
