SNOOP DOGG [Part 5] (February 2007) | Interview By: Nima

   

Our thanks go out to Snoop for allowing us once again to speak with him to provide you, our readers, with another interview you have all been waiting for. As Snoop said last year;

"Dubcnn: Where they give it to you raw & exclusive"

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Interview was done in January 2007

Questions Asked By: Nima

Snoop Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

Full Interview Audio Here [Part 5]
 

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Missed or need a refresher of Part One; Snoop Dogg Interview Part 1 (November 2006)

Missed or need a refresher of Part Two; Snoop Dogg Interview Part 2 (November 2006)

Missed or need a refresher of Part Three; Snoop Dogg Interview Part 3 (January 2007)

Missed or need a refresher of Part Four; Snoop Dogg Interview Part 4 (January 2007)

Dubcnn: We gotta get back to what's going on right now. You recorded the "Big Squeeze" album. How did you come up with the idea to that record?

Well, I was searching trying to find a deal for Warzone and a deal for the Western Union, and I kept running into these closed doors that didn't want to open for my eyes and what not, as far as giving them the right appropriate deal, so I was like "What can I do to create an atmosphere to get these niggas a deal?" My train of thought was, I know how to produce, I know how to make beats, I know how to make songs, these niggas is dope, let me just produce a whole muthafuckin' album, from start to finish, with me producing every song on the album, calling these niggas to do songs, concepts that I come up with, that they come up with, that we come up with, that's gonna let people know that these niggas is worth having a deal, and they need to be out, they need to be heard right now!

So, once we started cooking, niggas laughed in the beginning cause they saw me on the drum machine, it looked funny! Cause you're so used to seeing me rap, so it was like me stepping out of my realm, but at the same time, the shit sounded good and it was feeling good! So my nigga Kurupt, he's jumping on every muthafuckin' beat I make and the shit me and him is making is blowing the shit out the water that these real producers is making for him! So niggas is asking to be on the tracks now, Katt Williams comes to the studio, I'm playing some beats he's like "Nigga that muthafucka banging!" So we do another one with him, Kurupt get on the end of that, boom!

Damani comes to the studio, I'm like "Cuzz, let me cook you up something for this Sony situation cause they act like they don't really know what they doing with you and they don't really wanna deal with you right now. Let me make some hot shit on you to get you hot!" Cooked up one with him! Bad Lucc came by, I'm making a rock & roll beat, he's like "I got something for it!" Boom, he puts his verse down, boom, I put the hook on it, we party like rock stars! Everybody else came through. And before you know it, JT came back down, JT got on some shit, so it's like, me just knowing exactly what's missing right now as I listen to the game, it's no music right now as far as a crew from the West Coast, just a bunch of muthafuckas stepping up to you, 10-11 muthafuckas, two groups, solo artists, singing females! I got a new girl named Azuré from Inglewood.


Dubcnn: I just spoke to her, we're gonna do something on her.

I produced two tracks for her, got her on the album as well, cause I felt like we were missing that beautiful West Coast hood female that could really say something and hold her on. So I put her on the record, did a couple of raps myself where I did a verse here a hook there, just to make the shit feel good. I felt like this record right here is not a compilation record, not a mixtape, it's an introduction to this new West Coast, period. Not to get into no conflict with the little homies that say they the New West Coast, I'm just saying what I'm providing. I'm not trying to take they name or take they fame, I push what they're pushing for. All the homies with the New West Coast movement, I'm with that! I'm just saying, to me, it's like the first introduction to the whole world of what that shit can really be.


Dubcnn: So the record is dropping in March right?

Nah I'ma drop the record in April, we moved it back to April 11th, just so I can get some time on shooting a video for one of the songs, I like the Azuré called "Party Started", I wanna shoot a video for that, give it a different feel. Then I might wanna shoot a video to the Kurupt & Kam song called "Pop Pop Bang". Once I shoot them two videos, then I'll know exactly how I wanna do it. I just feel like I need a visual look on this as well.

Then I put together a DVD called "Niggarachi Presents Cooked Up Dope", where it's showing me make these beats before they become songs. These are beats that are actually off this "Big Squeeze" album. So it's seeing the production and the birth of the song before it becomes a song. Then you see the initial song become a real hit record and people listening to it, shooting videos and everything. So it's showing the whole development, so people don't feel like Snoop Dogg just came to the studio and hired a guitar player and a keyboard player, this is showing me make the beats from scratch, to putting words on it, to putting artists on it, boom, there you have it!


Dubcnn: Terrace Martin and a couple of other producers helped too, right?

Yeah, they came through and did a few pieces for me, but like I said, this is me. The whole thang. I ain't trying to take no credit from nobody, or steal from nobody, but I wanted to do this project like this, so that way I can get the full on what it is, I wanted to produce it all and do it all myself, cause I've always been one to give opportunities, and this time I wanted to give myself some opportunity to help these other artists shine.


Dubcnn: I heard I'm on the album!

Yeah I got you on there! I slid you on there! I put you on the record cause I felt like you're a valuable source to us, and I know you know we're a valuable source to you, cause we stamp what you doing! The minute we say "Fuck dubcnn!", niggas gonna be like "Well, Snoop said fuck 'em!" That's real spit! So it's like, as long as we saying "Nigga dubcnn, go there nigga! That's the hotline!" I'm sending niggas to you! All the time! "Yeah go do a interview with cuzz' and them." I'm sending real niggas to you, little homies to you! So it's like, it's an outlet to where you getting the real feel. Everybody don't want to interview the little homies, they just wanna interview the stars. But you're giving everybody a shot!

When me and you get down, I'm not doing this for the label, I'm doing this for me and you. The label might be like "This interview has been done already! Ain't nothing to talk about!" But me and you, we've been missing each other, so it's like I gotta give you this second half, but then I'ma give you this first half of this Niggarachi The Big Squeeze, so now you got the finishing half, and you got the beginning half to pump that up! So that way, when we go into the release of this new record, you got interviews, I'ma send you some of that new music so you can be popping some of that new music on the front page as well!


Dubcnn: That's wassup man, that's how it's gotta be done! You recently became real tight again with JT The Bigga Figga. Not saying that you weren't tight, I mean that you hooked up with him, he's been rolling with you, and I believe that he's Vice President of your label now. How did all these business ventures happen?

Well, I first met JT The Bigga Figga at Minister Farakhan's house after Biggie got killed and we had a peace meeting over there. I just liked his whole swagger, his whole style. I bumped into him a couple of more times, we did thangs together, and I just liked his business hand, his gangsta hand, his everything. So once I started putting together my plight for Tookie Williams, I went to the Bay Area and JT was out there with about 500-600 muthafuckas doing the same thing, without me and him even communicating! So I just felt like that was God talking through us, from when we had our meeting at Minister Farakhan's house, as far as us being leaders, and what we're supposed to be doing, as far as our mission, trying to save brothers, and wake people up. So once me and him connected on that, he fought the fight with me, he was there everyday, showing up, showing me love and support.

Once we lost that battle, we just continued to say we're going to keep moving together. So he brought me a couple of business ideas and moves. I told him when I dropped the "Blue Carpet Treatment", I don't want nobody to beat me in San Francisco, with record sales. I don't give a fuck who's coming out that week. Nobody. So I put him on a mission, he did what he had to do, and put the street team on it, we formed Uncle Snoop's Army, which is my street team around the whole globe, where I find niggas that wanna work and put my shit out there, and they get free tickets to the show. I got him to do that and I blew everybody out in San Francisco with the first week of record sales and the second week of record sales.

So it was like, that let me know that he needed to be my vice president of my record label. Cause if he knew how to work some Snoop Dogg shit, he was really gonna know how to work my artists shit. He was doing it with the same approach as an independent artist, as a low budget underground artist, so I was like You know what? That's what I'm about to put out. Can you show me how to open up the MySpace's, and the PayPal accounts and all the shit that I didn't know nothing about, that my label knew about, and they were never really telling me. They were just making money off me, taking all my songs and putting them on iTunes, this and that, giving me 10 cents and 15 cents when a nigga really could've been making dollars and a bunch of money off shit. So he made aware of a lot of shit that people around me weren't making me aware of and were making money off me, because my name is so big. As opposed to me being hands on, and I'm a hands on type of nigga.

He opened my eyes to the MySpace and dealing with the public and the producers and the artists and the muthafuckas who really wanna be in contact with Snoop Dogg. I wasn't giving a fuck about no internet! Nigga fuck the internet! This was my slogan before I got hip to the internet "Nigga I don't got the internet, I got tell a nigga. 1-800-Tell-A-Nigga." Cause I wasn't aware of all of the shit that you can get off the internet. I was computer illiterate. Until my nigga put me on it and showed me all kinds of avenues and ways and tricks and turns. I was like "You know what? This is the kind of shit that can really set up a record label, a business and an artist." This is where I've been going wrong with, trying to put out these records. I never really had the right push, it was just me taking my name and my game, and throwing everything out on the project, as opposed to having other muthafuckas work it from the ground up. If you work it from the ground up, it's gonna be alright.

Like right, "The Bigg Squeeze" is being talked about, because it's being worked from the ground up! It ain't just being thrown out like "Here go a release date, throw it out, Snoop Dogg said buy it!" It's being talked about, interviews, songs, snippets, everything! So when the shit do come out, it's gonna do 100,000 easy! And in the independent world all you wanna do is 50-100,000! Feel what I'm saying? It ain't the numbers, it's the feeling. Cause if I got 100,000 muthafuckas buying my CD, that means that those 100,000 might maybe flip that to a million. See I think small.


Dubcnn: Where can new artists submit music for you to listen to?

MySpace.com/niggarachibeat. The page I just put up, that's what it's for. But in the beginning, it's about me putting my beats out there, trying to find artists to actually sing and rap over my beats and see who's worth getting a deal. Because it's always so many people coming at me at the shows "Snoop Dogg! I'm the hardest muthafucka you ever met! I can sing! I can do this or that!" And I can't really stop and listen to you... "Let me spit 16 bars!" Nope, time out. So I put together a muthafuckin' CD with 12 beats that I produced, the CD costs $500, you send me $500 to the PayPal account, you get the CD with the 12 beats, you put 12 original songs on them beats, then send the muthafucka back to me in MP3, I listen to it, whoever got the dopest album gets the deal with me. An internet deal where I put you niggas out on the internet.

Now you niggas is in the game, and you're Snoop Dogg's artist, and you blew up and you can go get you a real record deal. I'm just talking about internet. Now, if I don't sign you or give you an internet deal or don't like the shit that you spit on the beats, you're still able to take these beats and go shop you a deal and get you a deal somewhere else. It's just, those are my beats and I own the beats, so whatever you get your deal with, Snoop Dogg produced the beat. I don't even want no money, I just want my credit for producing the tracks. So you can go get you a deal off these beats if I don't get you a deal, for $500. It's the muthafuckin' deal of the century! And some of the beats got me on the hook already, where I done halfway gave you a hook to make it easy for you.


Dubcnn: So is everybody getting different beats? Cause otherwise you're going to end up with a bunch of albums with the same beats on them!

No! This is universal it's for the whole world. I don't care if a thousand niggas got the same beat and they all from different parts of the world. It's about me trying to find that one particular artist, or those two particular artists or the groups, that sound good on these beats, to where it's like "Ya'll need a deal!" It's like the fuckin' American Idol, how many niggas really get a chance to get close to Snoop Dogg in the real world, where you can really rap on a beat that he produced, and he will listen to you and he might give you a deal! And once somebody really gets a deal and really gets off the ground, niggas will be like "Yeah cuzz, I didn't know Snoop Dogg, I sent my shit in and cuzz gave me a deal!"

Then more niggas is gonna believe it and word is gonna spread. Ain't no other artist off my magnitude doing no shit like this! This is personal homie! This is where I'm really in contact with the fans, where people can really call and I pick up the phone and hear you. The first couple of days I put that website up, I was directly on there answering calls and everything! Just so niggas could know it was really me! Handmade beats on there, handmade intro where it's like "Boom!" The first 3-4 days, I let niggas download four beats that I produced, and said "Ya'll just do what ya'll wanna do on here, these beats is four beats I'm giving ya'll to show ya'll I got love. The next couple of beats I'ma charge ya'll but take these right now." That's love homie! Niggas ain't doing that!

Watch how many niggas gonna start doing that after me! Cause they're going to lose, cause I'ma start winning, cause everybody's gonna be like "Shit, I'm fuckin' with Snoop, he's giving niggas internet deals!" I don't even have to sign you, nigga! I'm just gonna put your shit out! Give me your PayPal account, when your shit sells you're going to get your money, I'ma get my money, I'm putting your shit out, Snoop Dogg Presents bla bla bla over the internet.


Dubcnn: Before we end this off, can you go ahead and give a few last words to the fans, whatever you want to say?

Look here, it's 2007, Snoop Dogg's still doing it. Be on the lookout for anything that got Dogghouse on it, Doggystyle on it, Snoop Dogg on it, just get it! I got the new album "The Big Squeeze", where I'm producing the whole album from start to finish with all of my new exciting artists, gangsta shit, R&B shit, solo shit, whatever you're looking for! Just real West Coast gangsta music.

And at the same time, we got all the MySpace pages that we opened up, the Niggarachi beat page, if you're trying to become a rapper, or artists trying to be seen and heard, hit us up! We got that beat CD, $500 for 12 beats, put your lyrics on it, send it back to us, if you're hot, you get an internet deal, if not, go shop and get yourself a deal off of one of the Snoop Dogg hot beats! Who else gonna give it to you like that?

Then we got the Snoop's Candy site, for all the females that's out there listening, cause I know all the girls be trying to get to me, they be getting caught up with all these rappers and all these MC's and DJ's. So I put together a site strictly for the ladies, called "Snoop's Candy". So all the females that wanna become models, actresses, wanna be in videos or just want their picture up on my site or want to become one of my friends, hit us up, it's for all available women, mainly single women, so holla!


Dubcnn: You just said female... so we gotta get in something about the Lady Of Rage, I forgot to ask about her!

Oh yeah, Lady Of Rage, she's in the Crippin' Kitchen right now cooking! She's on Boss Lady Ent., that's my wife's label, but I'ma mastermind her project and put it all out, so I should be dropping something on Rage in a couple of months, just to let people know that she's still here. We're just trying to make sure her shit sounds all the way right!


Dubcnn: Aight man, appreciate your time!

All the time!

That's it for now...rest assured however this wont be the last of our epic features with Snoop Dogg

Until then stay with dubcnn as we continue to revolutionise Hip-Hop online.