Snoop Dogg’s new tricks

last updated 8 January 2015

Snoop Dogg is a mass of contradictions, says Elizabeth Day in the London Observer. A former L.A. gangster, drug dealer, and pimp, he is now a multimillionaire rap artist and dedicated family man. Since 1997 he has been married to his high school sweetheart, Shante, with whom he has three children. “I fell in love with her and I can’t fall out of love with her,” he sighs contentedly. “We’re just meant to be. That’s just what it is, despite the ups and downs and the temptations that I’ve been through in the industry and life in general. She’s my love, the mother of my kids, the love of my life, my heart, my soul.’’

He has even toned down the traditional gangster misogyny of his lyrics, out of respect for his wife and daughter. “My whole life I was taught that it was okay to call a woman a bitch once you get in a position of power. Once you became a pimp or a player, that was the appropriate language to call a woman. But as I became a man, and seeing that wasn’t the right way, I changed direction.” That doesn’t mean, however, he’s given up performing his old songs. “I love ’em,” he says with a grin. “I was a bad motherf---er.”