Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr., otherwise known as Snoop Dogg, has pretty much been a part of my life since Dr. Dre’s release of The Chronic in 1992. Actually, even before that (I’ll get to that later). Remember the first time you saw Snoop? You knew him as Snoop Doggy Dogg then. Well, remember when you asked yourself who is this tall, skinny sickly dude who can blast a lyric as good as anyone you’d seen at the time? His first solo release, Doggy Style, was the first hip-hop CD I bought on my own, without leaning on an older cousin or friend to pick it up for me.

I followed Snoop through The Doggfather and beyond. For better or worse, he’s become an icon. I even remember that day in 2004 when a friend of mine broke the news: Snoop was going to quit smoking weed. It was like Armstrong stepping foot on the moon, OJ on the run in a white Bronco; it was the unfathomable. My life turned upside down momentarily. Later that year, the Red Sox beat the Yankees on their way to a World Series win. Damnit, I should have seen it coming.

So yes, I look at this former drug trafficker, former murder suspect, former real-life pimp with the same fondness my dad probably carries for a red Radio Flyer wagon or a wooden marionette he used to watch on a small black-and-white TV. Talk about a generational gap. By the way, a whole-hearted thank-you to Wikipedia for this glorious piece of research: he [Snoop] eventually gave up pimping to spend more time with his family. Only in America.

Snoop started to break through the big screen in the ‘90s with some moderate success in supporting roles. Here’s a quick peek at some of Snoop’s better cinematic efforts.

Soul Plane
Okay, you know this movie is a piece; I know this movie is a piece. But Snoop walks around strapped so if he’s asking, this movie is A-okay in my book. Anyway, sometimes you’re in the mood for a bit of silly business. You know what I’m talking about. It’s late at night, you’re tired and you don’t want to think and you sit on your couch or in your bed and you wonder if you’re in the right state of mind to appreciate a movie of Soul Plane’s depth.

Training Day
Hey, look! A good movie! This is easily the best movie his Snoopness ever appeared in. He’s in a wheelchair which you would think reduces his Dogg powers but it is not so. He is in full pimp mode although he wusses out to Denzel’s character midway through the movie. But who wouldn’t wuss out to Alonzo Harris? King Kong ain’t got nuthin’ on him.

Starsky & Hutch
If there was one role Snoop was born to play, it was Huggy Bear. Like Pacino with Michael Corleone, like Hackman with “Popeye” Doyle, like Casper Van Dien with Johnny Rico… too bad the movie doesn’t entirely deliver.

Baby Boy
This is an underrated flick, maybe the last original hood movie made. It’s flawed, but at least it had something of a thesis. If anything, the movie was well cast and it doesn’t get any more authentic than the D-O double G playing an ex-con tormenting his ex-girlfriend and her new boo, Tyrese. Probably Snoop’s finest performance.

Deep Cover
Okay, Snoop doesn’t appear in this movie but he and Dr. Dre worked the soundtrack’s title song which played on my stereo approximately eight thousand times in the summer of ’92. And hey, it was either I talk about this or Bones. Anyway, I was twelve years old when I first watched this movie, buying the ticket under the rehearsed line, “It’ll be one for The Cutting Edge, please!" and then later scurrying into theater eight instead of seven.

The hip-hop culture was abounding, but not yet dominating. Several months later The Chronic would change nearly everything, at least in my eyes. I’ve mostly left that world musically as swiftly as I infiltrated, because too much of the music became predictable and phony, too many artists now use too many samples too many times as a crutch. I don’t even listen to much Snoop these days. But I’ll always love Doggystyle. Fo’ shizzle.

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Dre writes three times a week for Film.com. He’s an American gangster. Email him!

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