Hip-hop has seen a plethora of solid brotherhood throughout the decades, and one of them is Dr. Dre's bond with his protégé Snoop Dogg. The pair have bonded for over 30 years—for good and bad—and they're recently making buzz for their showstopping performance at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, along with top names in hip-hop and R&B like Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, and Mary J. Blige.
Friends who performed at the Super Bowl halftime show together, stay together. With that being said, there is still a lot to say about Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's dynamic. They have been through all the good and the bad in the game, so it's safe to say that their bond is something special. To sum it up, here's a simplified timeline of their mentor-and-student relationship, and how two friends became hip-hop legends in their own rights.
6 How Snoop Dogg And Dr. Dre Met
It was the early 1990s, and Snoop Dogg was forming a rap group with Nate Dogg and Warren G. The latter was Dr. Dre's younger stepbrother. The group, called 213 after the telephone code of their area, recorded homemade tapes after tapes. One of the projects includes Snoop's freestyle over "Hold On" by R&B vocal group En Vogue and landed on Dre's hands, and the rest is history.
Interested in Snoop's raw talent, the two took their musical chemistry to test on the theme song of the 1992 film Deep Cover. They linked up again on Dr. Dre's debut record, The Chronic, under Death Row. Snoop used this as the pad that launched his career, crafting his debut album Doggystyle a year later.
5 Dr. Dre And Snoop Dogg's Song 'Deep Cover'
"Deep Cover" was a career-defining track. Not only it was the song that propelled Snoop Dogg's career, but it was also Dr. Dre's first track since breaking up with N.W.A. It peaked at fourth on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart and was a solid introduction to Snoop Doggy Dogg.
However, Snoop revealed during a 2015 interview that Dre hated the cut and almost scrapped it entirely. Speaking to Michael Rapaport on Snoop's GGN web series, the two dived into his relationship with Tupac, Snoop's first blunt and his encounters with former N.W.A. soldiers Ice Cube and Eazy-E, and more. According to the rapper, Dre hated "Deep Cover" so much to "the point that he almost didn’t want to put it out."
4 Dr. Dre Produced Several Albums For Snoop Dogg
Since then, the pair ended up collaborating on not one, but many, many projects together. In addition to their iconic collabs "The Next Episode," "Still D.R.E.," and "Nuthin' but A G Thang," Dre even produced Snoop's albums outside Death Row, Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told and No Limit Top Dogg.
"It made it cool for white people to listen to rap," he said as he reflected upon Doggystyle’s 25th anniversary in an interview with Revolt. "I’m just being point blank about it. They was listening to rap back then, but they wasn’t listening to no real n****s."
3 Snoop And Dre Ultimately Became The Focal Points Of Death Row's Rise
The success of The Chronic and Doggystyle, shortly enough, put Death Row and West Coast hip-hop on the map. On top of that, Tupac Shakur's arrival to the label added more strength to what's already an immovable hip-hop label of the West. Together, the trio sold millions of albums and propelled Death Row to where it was at.
Unfortunately, the repetitive cycle of violence in the label prompted a mass exodus from its own artists, and Tupac's sudden death in 1996 became the trigger that lose it all. Dre left Death Row to form Aftermath Entertainment in the same year. Snoop left in 1998 and found a home in Master P's No Limit Records.
2 Dr. Dre's Words For Snoop Dogg At Hollywood Walk Of Fame
Fast-forward to the 2020s, and the two have now become hip-hop legends of their own rights. Dre spoke highly of Snoop when the latter received his Hollywood Walk of Fame star back in 2018 and humbly bragged what an immovable duo they were.
"Back in the day, Snoop came to me at a very low point in my life," recalling, "I had no money for food. I didn't even have furniture in my house ... Snoop is always there for me, ready to work, and constantly motivating and pushing me and making me believe I could do it. I mean, I could always hear his voice in my head. I cannot imagine where I'd be in my life if I had not collaborated with Snoop."
1 Snoop Dogg Purchased Death Row
It seems like the pair's dynamic is getting stronger and stronger this year. Not only did they perform at the biggest stage in the U.S., but Snoop also finally acquired the rights to the Death Row Records trademarks ahead of the release of his forthcoming album and the Super Bowl halftime show. Per BBC reports, it also marked his third album with the label since his departure 26 years ago, and it came just at the right time.