Calvin Broadus a.k.a Snoop Doggy Dogg, acquired his nickname because of his resemblance to the popular Peanuts character Snoopy the Dog. His father said that Snoop "had a lot of hair on his head as a baby and looked like a little dog."
His parents split up when he was still a boy; he lived with his mother and two half-brothers, and spent his free time rapping with a friend, Warren Griffin, who would later find fame as rapper Warren G. Snoop was a good student and athlete in high school--several
basketball programs recruited him--but he fell in with the L.A. Crips gang, started selling drugs, and wound up in jail soon after he graduated high school.
Snoop claims that fellow inmates told him to get his life together because he had talent. Over the next three years, Snoop bounced in and out of prison, but he eventually decided to devote himself to rap. His buddy Warren G. gave Snoop his
first break. Warren played Snoop's tape for his half-brother, who just happened to be the godfather of rap, Dr. Dre. Dre loved Snoop's tape, and put him on the soundtrack of the film Deep Cover and on his 1992 album The Chronic. This album went on to become one of
the top-selling rap albums in history, and Dre and Snoop scored a mega hit with "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," with the chorus, "Bow wow wow, yippee yo yippee yay." By this time, Snoop's reputation as a rapper was so great that his first solo record, Doggystyle, released
in 1994, spawned several hit singles, including "Gin and Juice," "Doggy Dogg World," and "Who Am I (What's My Name)."
He was voted best rapper by Rolling Stone readers and critics in their annual poll, and he won an MTV award for best rap video with "Doggy Dogg World." In the midst of all this success, Snoop was arrested and charged with the murder of Philip
Woldermariam, a rival gang member, who was gunned down on August 25, 1993, in a drive-by shooting in L.A. Snoop and his bodyguard, McKinley Lee, were both charged in the murder. Ironically, right around the time the charges hit, Snoop released a single and a long-form
video entitled "Murder Was the Case." Snoop and Lee were both found not guilty of murder.
The November of 1996 release of Snoop's second album, Tha Doggfather, showed that his scrape with the law did little to tone down his gangsta cockiness on songs like "Ride 4 Me," though "Snoop Bounce" (based on Zapp's 1980 hit "More Bounce to the Ounce")
did suggest a more playful side. It would seem fair to suggest that Snoop needed a bit of levity in his life at that moment; Tha Doggfather was released just three months after the death of his friend and labelmate, Tupac Shakur, to whom Snoop dedicated the album. Tha Doggfather
debuted at No. 1, and Snoop's personal problems seemed to have abated, but the press and the public were more engaged by the darker stories emerging from the rap world than by the new album of its premier performer. Questions surrounding Shakur's murder cast a pall over the entire
Death Row Records camp, and by early 1997, serious legal problems facing label head Suge Knight were making headlines. Snoop did perform two songs ("Snoop's Upside Ya Head" and "Vapors") on Saturday Night Live in January, and he added to his old-school credibility by bringing along
the Gap Band's Charles Wilson, who has since become his de facto band leader.
Plans called for Snoop to take to the road in the spring of 1997, but the death in March of the Notorious B.I.G. caused him to cancel his tour out of respect, and, undoubtedly, fears for his own safety, given the murder of two peers in the span of seven months.
Yet as Tha Doggfather slipped from the charts, providing Snoop with the perfect excuse to lay low, he instead opted to accept a high-profile slot on the summer's Lollapalooza lineup. By June, Snoop was making headlines for accepting his first movie role (in a film tentatively titled The Real)
and for marrying his longtime girlfriend Shantay Taylor.
He also took time out for a pair of collaborations (with Tony Toni Toné's Raphael Saddiq and Rage Against the Machine), which would have appeared on a new EP titled Doggumentary, but Suge Knight decided not to release the album for unknow reasons. This was all building
up to the departure of Snoop from Death Row. Snoop was also to make the video for the song "The Party Continues" which was with JD, but Suge Knight won't allow Snoop to appear in the video. This forced JD to come out with a remix to the song with Usher and Da Brad.
With all the problems at Death Row, Dre leaving, 2 Pac dying, and mismangment of money, Snoop decided to leave Death Row Records in search of a new record label. Much talk went around the rapper, most of it pointing to Priority Records; who also label Ice Cube, Mack 10,
and many others, but in the end, Snoop decided on Master P's No Limit Records, which is associated with Priority Records.
With everything that had happened in Snoop's life, Snoop was ready to come out with his 3rd album which is titled, Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not TO Be Told. The album was produced my Master P for No Limit Records, and featured the whole No Limit family. The Album was released
August 4th, and turned platium, 2 weeks later. The album has sold 1.7 millions copies. Snoop has now completed his 4th album entitled "Top Dogg".
  
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