Life Lessons

One of my goals here on LinkedIn is to give back to the LinkedIn community by sharing some of the valuable lessons I have learned in life. I also want to reintroduce myself to many executives here that may not know me beyond my music persona.

Nearly 30 years after emerging as a rapper from Long Beach, Calif., I have worked hard to transcend my hip-hop roots and become culturally ubiquitous.

Whether it is movies, commercials, a TV show with Martha Stewart, an investment fund, or still releasing new music, I continue to build my brand staying authentic to my core fans while also attracting new fans.

I was recently interviewed by David Gelles of the NY Times for an article titled “The Tao of Snoop Dogg” where we discussed:

• Building a brand
• Career challenges
• Overcoming shyness
• The importance of mentorship
• Surrounding yourself with the right people
• Fairness and equity in the creator economy
• The kind of brands I want to work with and my selection process

I want to share some of the lessons and learnings from this article with y’all.

Hope you enjoy!

Here are the selected excerpts from my NY Times interview:

How have you managed to stay relevant for so long?

The easiest thing you can do is just do you. I felt like doing me would be the easiest path to me remaining relevant in the industry. It’s originality and uniqueness. I just try to do me.

OK. At what point did you think your career was going to be about more than just music?

Probably after I did the “Murder Was the Case” movie. In the beginning, I wasn’t comfortable on camera. I was kind of shy. But once I got to that stage, as far as to be able to shoot a movie that I asked for, that I wanted to be a part of, and it came to life — it was fascinating to me.

How did you overcome that shyness?

Success and practice. The more success you have and practice you have, the more familiar you become with it. Either love it or hate. I love what it do for me and I love what it do for other people when they see me onscreen. It’s a feeling of joy when people understand it and they get it.

How did you think about building out a career beyond music?

We weren’t into branding or any of that at first. We were just into making good music and trying to be the dopest [expletive] in the world. My branding and my business came when I was able to go to No Limit Records with Master P, and be under his guidance and his tutelage and his wisdom. He taught me how to be a better businessman, how to be more than just a rapper, but to be about my business. It’s called show business. I had mastered show. But Master P showed me how to master the business.

Who were your mentors besides Master P?

Dr. Dre. Definitely Puffy. Russell Simmons. Guys like that, that were in my field but were able to jump outside of it and become bigger.

I’m not really somebody that likes taking information from people. I’m more about: We trading game, chopping it up, bettering each other, giving information on how my business is going, how your business is working, how I see it from the outside looking in.

I got a lot of relationships. Quincy Jones and Charlie Wilson are like uncles to me, where they shape and mold the lifestyle of Snoop Dogg, not just the business. What you learn about being a better person from somebody is more important than what you learn business-wise or career-wise.

How did you make sure you had honest brokers around you as you were getting involved in new ventures?

Sometimes you have to have the wrong people around you to know what the wrong people around you look like and what they act like. My experience came from having the wrong people in my business, to where they didn’t benefit me or didn’t teach me anything.

Do you think the platforms like Apple and Spotify are treating artists fairly?

I just don’t understand how you only get this little bit amount of money per stream. I just don’t understand the dynamics of those numbers, and how they can create these systems without Black people up top, while Black people are the ones generating the most money from these systems through the music. So I’m just trying to figure out when they’re going to cut us in in the beginning, as opposed to always letting us be the ones who get it to a point where these platforms can sell for billions of dollars, and then the Black people that made it famous get nothing.

Just like the TikTokers. All of the young Black content creators on TikTok have boycotted because they see that when they do the dances they don’t get the attention or the money. But as soon as the white dancers do it, it’s the biggest [expletive] in the world and they on Jimmy Fallon. That’s not fair. It’s not cool to just keep stealing our culture right in front of us and not include us in the finances of it all.

We need to be involved early. They always cut us out. They call Snoop after they got their companies up and are like, “Hey, Snoop, you want to be a brand ambassador?” I want some equity. Give me a piece of the pie. If I can’t get no equity, [expletive] you and your company.

How do you think about which brands you want to work with these days?

It’s got to be fun. And it’s going to make funds. So long as the word “fun” is involved, it’s cool.

Do you consider potential partners through any moral or ethical lens?

I think about all of it. I don’t want to associate myself with people who don’t have a like mind as me, just like they don’t want to associate themselves with me if I don’t have the same mind as them. Companies that get down with me know how I get down. They know the extracurricular things that I do. They know the things that I do in the hip-hop world and in the business world.

They have to accept all of that when you’re dealing with Snoop Dogg. That’s the way I branded myself, to where when you get Snoop Dogg, you get all of it. It’s just, what version did you pay for? Did you pay for the version with the kids, the G-rated Addams Family movie? Or did you pay for the rated-R Snoop Dogg, the one the adults like? Which one did you pay for?