Snoop Dogg says he has a lot to thank Tupac for, chalking up his signature “pimp” persona and work ethic to the late Hip-Hop icon.
During his appearance on The 85 South Comedy Show, the Death Row Records CEO recalled ‘Pac teaching him “how to be a star,” starting with his image.
Snoop says during his post-Doggystyle era, he was ” dressing like a n#### from the hood,’ and would wear khakis and Chucks.
“That n#### like, ‘Me and you finna have a meeting. We stepping our game up. We gotta change your look, Snoop Dogg,’” Tupac told him. “’You a pimp, n####. B###### love you. You fly. You gotta start showing your fly side!'”
“‘I’ma get you suited up.’ ‘I’ma call this n#### Dion Scott, get your suits fitted, get your hair laid, get your nails done. Put some pimpin’ on screen, n####.’”
However, Snoop Dogg admitted it took him some time to become accustomed to his new look, as worn by him and Tupac in the “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” video in 1996.
“He dressed me up in suits, Louis Vuitton, Gucci — s### I couldn’t even spell or pronounce! All this Italian s###,” he continued. “Just look at how I’m standing next to cuh when I’m wearing it. I’m trying to figure it out! I’m like, ‘Do I look right? I hope I don’t look sweet ’cause these pants tight as a muthafucka!’’
Nonetheless, Snoop Dogg says once he “got comfortable” with the look, he understood what Tupac was doing.
“‘OK, this n####’s teaching me how to be a star,’” he recalled. “Like, levels and layers. ‘We know you gangsta, dawg, but can you go higher than that? What if a n#### call you to be in a movie where they want you to be a lawyer? What if a n#### wants you to be a detective?’”
Snoop Dogg Credits Tupac With Teaching Him How To Become A Star
Elsewhere in the interview, the Doggfather recalled joining ’Pac in the studio shortly after his release from prison in 1995. It was then he got to see the “Hit Em Up” hitmaker’s work ethic himself.
“We make a song, we in that muthafucka listening to it for like four hours. Got b###### up in there. N##### like, ‘This s### banging!’” Snoop said. “We got in this n#### room, he on his fifth song. This n#### make a song, as soon as it got off, ‘Pull the next beat up! We ain’t finna be listening to that s###, that’s the engineer’s job to mix that s###. Next song.’”
According to Snoop Dogg, he learned star quality for Tupac.
“[He was] not one of them n##### that’s in the studio like, ‘Man, get all these n##### outta here!’ He entertained that s###,” Snoop added. “I wasn’t a star ’til I was next to him; he showed me how to be a star. This n#### was a star. Snoop Dogg was famous, but I didn’t know how to be a star.” Check out the interview below.