Snoop Dogg has been in the game for over three decades and is considered a hip-hop icon. The Long Beach legend has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has been consistent since the early 1990s.
The emcee became a young phenomenon in 1993 with his debut album, Doggystyle, and every project following gained him more popularity. That said, by the 2000s, he was already considered one of the best MCs in the world, alongside figures such as Jay-Z and 50 Cent.
Still, his breakout was massively fuelled by his close friend and collaborator Dr Dre, who executively produced his debut project. Snoop’s first introduction to the world was the 1992 track ‘Deep Cover’, and the young prodigy garnered massive interest.
Dr Dre played a vital role in the Ego Trippin’ creator’s career, and many would argue that Snoop Dogg wouldn’t even be where he is if it wasn’t for Dre, who signed him to Death Row Records in 1992. Snoop wasn’t reliant on Dre once he had gained traction and worked with producers like Pharrell and Timbaland to great success. However, there is nobody closer to him in the music industry.
Following his debut, Snoop worked with West Coast icons Daz Dillinger and Nate Dogg but never returned to Dr Dre despite being signed to Death Row. In fact, he waited over three decades to collaborate with his closest friend on a full-length studio album again.
In an interview with Complex, Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg discussed how they joined forces for Missionary last year and explained why it took them so long to reunite and work on music again. Snoop admitted that he was “honoured” to get back in the studio with Dre and make music. During the interview, the Compton producer detailed how, over the years, he has developed a different style of working and said, initially, it was hard to get his friend to adapt.
Speaking about the recording process, Dr Dre began, “This is a different way of working, to be honest with you. I think it took maybe 20 years for Snoop to allow me to work with him this way. And the way we produced the record and the way we did the writing and the music and the whole nine is a different way of us working.”
Snoop then elaborated on how, in the ‘90s, Dre used to just make beats for him but unveiled that the producer has become a lot more assertive about how the emcee raps over his tracks and now dictates the album’s entire lyrical delivery. Opening up about this, Snoop reflected, “[Dre is] not just making a beat for me, but producing the whole song, every element of the song from how I say it to what I say to the way I say it, to the coming back in doing ad-libs, to making sure that it sounds right.”
He continued, “Like your projection of your vocals, listening to every f*cking word. ‘No, you got to come back and say this word like this because your energy wasn’t right.’ And when we listened to it back, I f*cking love it because it challenged me, and it put me in a position of where I’ve never been. People work with me and be like, ‘Oh, that sh*t was dope.’ This n*gga be like, ‘Nope, do it again. Do it again until it’s perfection.’”
Snoop explained that he liked working with Dr. Dre because it allowed him to take a backseat role, adding, “I can do a lot by myself, but when I’m with you, it’s like I can be Robin and let you be Batman. You know what I’m saying? I can kick back.”
When asked why they teamed up after three decades, Snoop simply responded, “Why not? We still in our prime. We still good at what we do and we just felt like we always fill the void when we make music. We trying to put back the sound that we created under his direction and that’s what we’re doing.”
