Snoop Doggy Dogg (b. Calvin Broadus, 1971) Rapper-prot�g� of former
N.W.A producer/member Dr. Dre, first heard on the Dre-produced title track from the 1992
film Deep Cover. In the accompanying video clip, Snoop Doggy Dogg lurched onto the screen,
his eyes heavy-lidded, melodically including the song's hook "187 [murder] on an
undercover cop." As Snoop's history became known, that threat gained weight: it
transpired that this unknown newcomer was a member of the Long Beach Insane Crips gang and
had done jail time for selling cocaine and subsequent probation violations. The rapper was
next heard on Dr. Dre's 1993 album The Chronic, guest-starring on the trio of hit singles;
Snoop's seductive rhyme style and charismatic on-screen persona instantly established him
as one of the most distinctive voices in hip-hop. Such was the anticipation surrounding
his Dre-produced solo debut Doggystyle that the record's December 1993 debut at #1 (the
first such performance by a new artist) and quadruple-platinum sales were entirely
predictable. (The record itself was somewhat predictable, from its smutty cartoon cover to
its incessant self-reference and Chronic-derived tracks. In the video for "What's My
Name?" Snoop morphed into ... a dog.)
On August 25th, 1993, an argument started in front of Snoop's new home in Woodbine Park,
L.A., between the rapper, two associates, and Philip Woldemariam, a 20-year-old Ethiopian
immigrant who had just been released from a year in jail. Woldemariam was allegedly
pursued into a nearby park and shot from a vehicle by McKinley Lee, Snoop's bodyguard. Lee
claimed self-defense, but it was widely reported that the victim's fatal wound was in his
back. Snoop, who was on $10,000 bail for a gun possession charge at the time of the
incident, handed himself in to police after appearing at a September 2nd MTV awards show
in L.A. --his bail was set at $1 million. Snoop had another #1 album in November 1994 with
Murder Was the Case, the multi-artist soundtrack to an 18-minute film directed by Dr. Dre
and based on a Doggystyle track. In April 1995 it was ruled that, although key evidence
had accidentally been destroyed, Snoop Doggy Dogg's murder trial would proceed that
October.
