Snoop Dogg & The Hip-Hop Family Tree
I've been a part of a lot of dialogue recently, mainly in response to my previous articles relating to the concept of the Greatest Rapper of All Time. While some were incensed with my dismissal of some noteworthy artists, others really wanted me to elaborate as to why I felt the way I felt. One of the most inflamed comments were about Snoop Dogg.
I have nothing but respect for the Doggfather. I have been a fan of a lot of what he has done over his almost thirty-year career. He gave the rap world the blueprint as to how to maintain longevity and relatability. He is a living legend. That is not a fact that can be contested amongst ourselves. He is worthy of that title and has been for many years now.
But why isn't he in the conversation for the Greatest Rapper of All Time? Better yet, why do many of us disregard his career when we establish this famed list?
As I talked to my many friends and other rap aficionados, the answer that I heard a lot was that he didn't have a Grammy. It's sad but true. After seventeen nominations, it feels as if Snoop has become the Leonardo Dicaprio of the gramophone. Just like Leo, the people that he lost to tend to be sub-par. Just to prove my point, 1994 saw him and Dr. Dre lose Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Nothin but a G Thang" to Digable Planets. We could also talk about how he lost Best Rap Song of the Year on four separate occasions, but those being to all-time great songs (“Beautiful”, “Drop It Like It's Hot”, “Sexual Eruption” & “Young Wild and Free” losing to “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, “Jesus Walks” by Kanye West, Lil Wayne's “Lollipop” and '“N***** in Paris” by The Throne respectively). While some rappers, such as Jay-Z, use the golden award to flex their muscle, we have to acknowledge that Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., and Nas all don't have the biggest music award in the world but are still in the conversation, so what gives?
My multiple conversations have led me to create a theory: the Hip-Hop family tree. It's a tired trope of a project used in schools so that parents can somewhat be involved in a student's academic life, but it's a viable answer, at least for Snoop. I believe that rappers when they get to a certain point, become catalysts in the careers of other artists. That's the cosign. That's the endorsement. That's the features. Some artists would never become who they are if it weren't for the established performer that came before them. Very few rappers truly started from scratch and created their own family tree, as most are the product of someone else. A common and simple example would be the Birdman family tree: Birdman led to two rappers, that being T-Streets and Lil Wayne, but Weezy gave us Drake, Cory Gunz, Nicki Minaj and Rich Homie Quan through Young Money, which is an imprint of Cash Money. If we continue, we can now say that Drake has given the world PARTYNEXTDOOR, Majid Jordan and Baka Not Nice, who are all signed to OVO Sound.
I believe that the people that you bring into the game are an important part of your overall legacy. They continue when you're done or they become successful. It's your opportunity to not just be able to know your own sound but to be able to recognize that in others. Snoop Dogg didn't create his own tree, as he is the product of Dr. Dre, and that isn't why he isn't in the discussion, as Eminem is the product of Dre too, but it's the people that Snoop brought in the game that is questionable. The two best rappers that he brought into the fold were Nick Cannon and Shad Moss - the rapper formerly known as Bow Wow, and before that Lil Bow Wow. When you look at that, it's extremely underwhelming. While Bow Wow was a good rapper for his age, his music hasn't grown and he's fallen into irrelevancy. Nick Cannon has become a success, but more for his comedy, acting and apparent lack of rapping skills, as seen by his MTV Show "Wild N Out". Snoop Dogg may have great music, but he wasn't able to make someone else great as well like Dr. Dre, Eminem or even any of the other greats. In Hip-Hop, it isn't enough to create good music for your listeners because they will grow out of it, but you have to bring artists as well, who will captivate the next generation of listeners.
In conclusion, my exclusion of Snoop is disheartening. One of my personal goals is to be called nephew by Uncle Snoop himself. But the list is something that I'm trying to make as logical and as infallible as can be, even though we are dealing with a subject that is highly subjective and naturally competitive. Even with all of that, I can't deny that the impact that the West Coast representative had on the game alone is amazing, but his legacy is what makes him unable to be the Greatest of All Time.