(AllHipHop News) Snoop Dogg was supported by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Tyler Perry after lashing out at broadcaster Gayle King over a controversial Kobe Bryant interview question, although they wished he had tackled the issue “a little differently.”
The rap veteran put King on blast online for bringing up the late basketball icon’s rape case during an early February chat with Bryant’s friend and fellow athlete Lisa Leslie.
In a video posted on Instagram, Snoop slammed King as a “funky dog head b##ch” and appeared to threaten her, raging, “How dare you try to tarnish my motherf##king homeboy’s reputation…? Respect the family and back off, b##ch, before we come get you.”
His angry rant led to Oprah Winfrey’s best friend receiving a number of death threats, and Snoop, who faced a public backlash himself, later issued an apology for his tough-talking, insisting he was wrong for calling her out so viciously.
He claims there were actually a lot of Bryant fans who shared his point of view: “You would think it was more people against me, there was more people with me.”
“It made me feel like I had too much power,” he said of how others began treating King after he spoke out. “And at that particular time, I was abusing it. That’s just what I felt, and I had to get it right.”
Snoop credits his mother, former church choir director Beverly Tate, with helping him realize the error of his ways.
“My mother raised me in church and she raised me to respect women,” the hip-hop star explained. “It was certain things she said to me that took me back to being a little kid. And when your mama can make you feel like a kid, that’s when you gotta get right…”
Snoop added, “She didn’t say I was wrong, she was just giving me, ‘You know I raised you better. You’re a representation of us. Every woman that has ever crossed your life, you’re a representation of that.’”
The rapper was also contacted by famous friends like Diddy and filmmaker Perry, who gave him their backing but encouraged him to rethink his choice of words.
“When this thing happened with Gayle I got calls from Tyler Perry, Puff Daddy (Diddy), (news commentator) Van Jones, powerful black men and they didn’t bash me,” Snoop said. “They was just like, ‘Brother we got your back if you need. But we think you should’ve said… it a little differently.’
“We got a real brotherhood going on behind the scenes.”
Snoop has yet to speak directly to King, but he has made various attempts to get in touch: “(I) reached out through her friends, her associates and I even DM’d (direct messaged) her (on social media), sending her a prayer, letting her know I apologize to her.”
Basketball icon Bryant was killed alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a California helicopter crash in late January.
A public memorial for the Los Angeles Lakers legend and aspiring sports star Gianna was held at the team’s home venue, the Staples Center, on Monday.