It was a long road for Snoop Dogg to become 'America's Dad,' but with multiple musical reinventions — and closely working with NBC — the rapper is at his best.
On Tuesday (Oct. 22), the West Coast legend and The Voice co-judge appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where he looked back on his journey. Upon his early 1990s debut on Death Row Records, Snoop's image and content were feared by conservative Americans, especially as the rapper caught a murder charge in 1993. He was acquitted three years later.
What really kicked off Snoop's latest transformation was being a correspondent at the Paris Olympics 2024 over the summer, which Clarkson mentioned.
"That made me feel good," Snoop said around the 4-minute mark below about how he's now recognized. "Because you gotta understand the journey and the path that I've been on to get to the part of respect and appreciation and love for what I do. That's growth."
He continued, "I've been an open book, I've been able to share my life to the whole world from day one, I never tried to hide anything. So when I made mistakes, it was okay. So now that I'm getting it right, it's even more better."
Elsewhere in the conversation, Snoop teased that his planned collaborative album with Dr. Dre could arrive soon, while looking back with some regret about older material that doesn't reflect his current "energy."
"The life that I'm living, the things that I'm doing, the way that I'm being perceived right now–I need a record to match that energy," Snoop said around the 8:15-minute mark. "And some of my old records don't match that energy, because I'm not that person that I am now."
Check out Complex's breakdown of Snoop's path of reinvention below.