For Snoop Dogg — once gangsta rap’s most vilified punching bag turned lovable ambassador, Martha Stewart bestie, corporate pitchman and America’s favorite uncle — carrying the Olympic torch was another surprising chapter in his career of 30-plus years. Yet the surreal sight of a smiling Calvin Broadus carrying the famed symbol through the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis during the final stretch before Friday’s opening ceremony tops them all.
“It was emotional for all of us to see the champ holding that torch and walking up there,” Snoop Dogg said of the honor, alluding to late boxer Muhammad Ali, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1960 and drew tears from the world when he lit the Olympic flame at the 1996 Atlanta Games. “This is my own version of it. I don’t want to get too emotional, but I know that this is special. This says a lot about America as far as where we’re at in this world,” later adding, “I would have never dreamed of nothing like this.”
It was not shocking that Snoop Dogg was in an unusually reflective mood during his conversation with NBC sports commentator Mike Tirico. The 52-year-old’s journey is a story of hip-hop, redemption, Black joy and the coronation of pop culture’s ultimate unifier.
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In true Snoop Dogg fashion, NBC hired him as a special correspondent to appear on Primetime in Paris for the Games following his hilarious Olympic commentary with comedian Kevin Hart in 2021 during the delayed 2020 Olympics. Clips of the pair reacting to a replay of an equestrian competition instantly became a viral classic. In short, it was Snoop being Snoop.
Still, it cannot be overstated just how fantastical it is to witness the artist formerly known as Mr. “1-8-7 on a undercover cop” who single-handedly drew the ire of politicians, community activists, Black faith leaders, law enforcement organizations, and women’s groups in 1993 become Mister Rogers in blue Chucks.
Back in 1993, a young Snoop Doggy Dogg was basking in the record-breaking glow of his multiplatinum album Doggystyle, which sold more than 800,000 copies in its first week, the most for a debut album at the time. Snoop Dogg was also public enemy number one in 1996, charged with first-degree murder along with his bodyguard in the shooting death of Philip Woldermariam. As he awaited his judgment, the hottest rapper in the world was facing public backlash from all sides, including Grammy-winning music legend Dionne Warwick.
Warwick invited Snoop Dogg, Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight and other rappers to her home to discuss what she viewed as the West Coast MC’s misogynistic content. Warwick dared Snoop Dogg and crew to call her a “b—-.” Snoop Dogg was shaken. “We were the most gangsta as you could be, but that day at Dionne Warwick’s house, I believe we got out-gangstered that day,” he recalled in the 2021 CNN film Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over.
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Even after Snoop Dogg was acquitted of the murder charges in 1996, his story could have just as well tragically ended before the start of the new millennium. Following his very acrimonious fallout with Knight, he told Master P that he was planning on dropping a new album titled F— Death Row. The No Limit Records founder gave Snoop Dogg a sobering, lifesaving talk that changed the course of his career and he went on to sell more than 37 million albums worldwide.
“You ain’t gon’ live to see that album out,” Master P told him before offering the embattled rhymer a recording deal. Snoop Dogg moving his family to New Orleans and becoming a No Limit Soldier was just one in a series of intriguing and sometimes stunning side missions that have taken him on his road to the Olympics. In 2005, he established the Snoop Youth Football League to keep kids between the ages of 5 to 13 off the streets of Los Angeles, producing several college and NFL stars, most recently Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Snoop Dogg appeared on business executive and TV personality Stewart’s cooking show in 2008, kick-starting the oddest of odd couple business partnerships. They co-hosted Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party for two seasons on VH1 starting in 2016, were featured in a 2021 national campaign for BIC’s EZ Reach lighter and a 2023 Skechers Super Bowl commercial. He recorded a reggae album, Reincarnated, using the reggae persona Snoop Lion, leading many fans and critics to ask is this dude for real. He most certainly was.
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And so we arrive at Snoop Dogg, Olympic darling and living proof of hip-hop’s limitless possibilities. This unlikely happening is especially significant given that 56 years ago, African American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who won gold and bronze medals in the 200 meter race, respectively, were virtually banished from track and field after raising their fists in a silent protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. It was a long time coming, considering the racist treatment such Olympic heroes as sprinter Jesse Owens, tennis player Wilma Rudolph, and Ali faced back home.
Today, Snoop Dogg has company. Public Enemy’s legendary hype man and reality show star Flavor Flav has become the official face of the U.S. women’s water polo team, which will compete for its fourth consecutive gold medal. Rapper Cardi B appeared in an Olympic promo video in July with world champion sprinter Sha’ Carri Richardson and became emotional over the track star’s comeback. Richardson was suspended from Team USA in 2021 after she tested positive for THC, a banned substance.
“I’m really, really proud of you,” Cardi B told Richardson. “Because you came back stronger than ever with your talent. You have evolved.”
Evolved. A powerful word that Snoop Dogg can more than attest to.
Keith “Murph” Murphy is a senior editor at VIBE Magazine and frequent contributor at Billboard, AOL, and CBS Local. The veteran journalist has appeared on CNN, FOX News and A&E Biography and is also the author of the men’s lifestyle book “Manifest XO.”
