DETROIT CITI'7EN ( upplement to the Michigan Ctiizen) Week of Dec. 19 - 26, 1993 Page 8
By TUREKA TURK ! Born in 1971, in Long
Snoop Doggy Dogg i I Beach, California (south
po ing o_!l the backcover of I of Compton), Snoop wa
hi new release looking I glad to see the ag� of 21
"hardcore" with a joint in because, a lot of his bo�s
hi mouth, eyes off to no couldn t even make It
where in particular. The there.
future maybe.
Girls squeal about how uFOR A BLACK man
fine the lim 22-year-old to go to a funeral for one of
i , big braids in his
hai r and all. They
think that the
"hardcore" 10 k in
hi eyes and that in
nocent mile is
cxy. They think
that hi rhyming
voice, reminiscent
o Curti Mayfield,
is a tum n.
Parent' winc
when they hear
n op s vice cv n
when they don't
kn w who hi.
They' just he r "We
don \t love them
ho ." and jump to
their conclusions
about rap star and
how they poi on
mind. They can't
comprehend why
their children con-,
tinuou lyIisten to
"gang ta rap" ince
it 0 violent, dis
respectful, and vul
gar. They don't
know the differ
cnce bctween
Luther Cam pbell
and no p Doggy
Dogg. They really
don't want to.
For go d r a
'on, the difference
ctwecn n p and
the r e s t of the
"gang ta rapper "
out and about n
the rap chart
hould be made
clear. vcryone
should know that
gang ta rapper
aren't anything other than I h i h d . h'
tre t griot . It i from I I .g�a u a t t �, t at
. orne "gang ta rapper" nothin unu ual h ay.
that th 'e oblivi usly out I no p like many y ung
of touch with their wn ' Black childr n, wa rai cd
community and children I by hi 1 Jot}) r, a migrant
will find out what' rally fr m Mi si ippi, alon .
going n. no p may b a I Hi ather, al 0 from the
good I ink. uth wa p rt of th g -
to record underground
tape when he got out
the p I!.. Warren G, a OJ
and one of Snoop's
boys , got down with
school into a big huddle, II Sno p and they started
vibing with the flow of it ell ing the tape in the
all. neighb rhood. Warr n G,
the brother of fonn er NW A
m m ber Dr. Ore, gay the
I tap t hi brother and Ore
hi db' wa impre d. Th end
m t In n -
u know it, th 'd I
three hundred p 0-
I
pIe there. So I just get on
the mic and start bustin'.
And the crowd gettin' big
ger and bigger. Then the
school counselors thing
we got a fight goin' on and
they get in the middle of it
and it'd just be nigg-s in
ther rappiri'. They'd say
we can't be doin' this but
when I tell them more
about it, they start un
derstandin' what we was
up to and it was cool,"
Snoop recounts.
Back in tho e days,
older p ople didn't mind
rap 0 long as it kept kid
oft' of the treet and off
of ach ther ' head.
But then om th ing
w nt ,wrong. Outsid in-'
fluenc began to cr ep
into noop's life in a big
way.
Like rap artists, Souls
of Mi chief ay, "Some
times it get a little hectic
out there."
After graduation,
Snoop was arrested by
n undercover cop for
po .se sion for al of
cocaine and entenced
to a year in county jai 1. It
was in jail that Snoop
got a lot of the stori he
rap about. In fact, he'd
p rform for them every ,
night.
The inmate told
noop that he wa to
talented to be in pen and
that h should do some
thing with him elf. It
made him think becaus
"that' a place where
muthafuc--- don't give
a f--'- about you".
See SNOOP,' P ge 6
Reprinted from the Michigan Citizen Newspaper
pel group The Varnado
Brothers before moving to
Detroit.
Snoop, a middle child
in a family full of boy ,
was raised in the Baptist
church, Golgotha Trinity
Baptist Church to be exact,
where he played the piano,
sang in the youth choir and
was a member of the bas-
ways of school and started
to respect the art form.
"When rap first came out,
every rapper wa real.
There wasn't no pop rap
pers. Everybody was
hard," ,Snoop says.
Spontaneous chool
jams would start in the
hallways that would draw
kids from allover the
k tball team.
In coo I Sn op wa
like th one kid in cIa s
that helped you get
through t e day because of "IT
hi j kes and extreme wi t. I d
. ar un
He like the crowd. It wa I d . ,
ar und that time that he I f 010
tarted rhyming in th hall- I bor li�