Snoop Dogg
w/the Game
Sat May 28, White River Amphitheatre, 7:30 pm, $25-$46, all ages.
"Don't you know we got to put our heads together?/Make the change 'cause we're all in the same gang..." West Coast Rap All-Stars
We know that pimpin' ain't easy, though people like Snoop Dogg portray an image of the effortless mack. But even Snoop knows what is truly hard in life: to say "I forgive you."
Snoop is a multimedia superstar with a steady flow of opportunities to brand himself as a household item as indispensable as milk. Got Snoop? Chances are you do in some form or other, whether you own one of his albums, his top-selling porn flicks, or chief off of his blunt-rolling papers. He's also always plastered all over the tube, chillin' with Reedge and Kelly, coffee klatching on The View, or holding court on MTV.
Life looks mighty high for Snoop, but he's also faced Crip-ling lows (all puns intended). He narrowly beat a murder charge at age 25, attempts on his life, and most recently the public scrutiny of last year's marital problems.
This all would seem to leave little time for one of Snoop's most heartfelt projects, save that of coaching his son's champion football team: bringing back the glory of West Coast hiphop and uniting a fractured front. But he's made it one of his foremost concerns. Last month he held a peace treaty meeting of sorts in Los Angeles, where dozens of artists publicly squashed any enmity and began anew.
"I felt we should come together as one-organize, unify, and start making records with each other and be about a cause," Snoop told allhiphop.com.
San Diego rapper Jayo Felony, who'd had a nasty beef with Snoop, told the site that he's already seen a big difference now that they have called a truce. For the past month, Felony has fielded both movie and record label offers.
It runs deeper, too. The truce is also about showing the outside world something that's been in effect for a good 10 years (to varying degrees of success). Crips and Bloods are working together in the music industry, united by a common goal.
And it is so on Snoop's current "How the West Was One" tour, where he and Compton rapper the Game-who both have well-publicized gang affiliations with the Crips and Bloods, respectively-share the same stage night after night. Even Snoop's new shoes (in collaboration with Pony) come in both blue and red, the traditionally opposing gang colors.
But there's an even more immediate and remarkable display of this new Westside unity on the tour. Kurupt and Snoop's cousin Daz were old friends who recently were vicious rivals, mainly since Kurupt had gone back to work with Suge Knight. (Snoop was also none too pleased about that move.) The day of peace brought about by Snoop resulted in the revered Dogg Pound getting back together. Daz and Kurupt have since been special unannounced guests on many stops of Snoop's show and have been making songs together.
Last summer Snoop performed at L.A. club Avalon with 213, the group he formed in high school with Warren G and Nate Dogg, for the first time in years. As they traded verses on Snoop's classic girl-power song, "Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)," Kurupt's fiery bars were a noticeable absence. At that time they were at the height of their Suge Knight-related conflict.
But on stage it seemed like they missed their friend, musically at least.
Backstage, as Snoop and Nate Dogg teased each other for getting distracted by scantily-clad booty, I could see a genuine side behind the gargantuan brand: a guy that actually cares about his friendships.
"The same little childish shit we did as kids, we still do it now, we incorporate it in what we do," he smiled, passing a blunt. "I see it in all of us, myself as well as the other two fellas [Nate and Warren G]. But that's what keeps us right and keeps our heart right because we gotta have some kid in us in order for it to still be fun."
Kids fight and argue, but they also form bonds that stick for life. And while you probably won't see the Big Dogg in a hug sandwich with Suge Knight anytime soon, Snoop's reunification efforts show everyone what it means to be a truly strong force in the rap game. Now that's pimpin'. ■
