Snoop Dogg’s life story is officially headed to the big screen. The rapper, actor and business mogul and Universal Pictures announced the upcoming production of a biopic on Wednesday.
“What’s his name? Snoop Dooogggyyy Doooooggg,” Universal Pictures tweeted. “That’s right, we’re partnering with the Dogg Father himself @SnoopDogg to bring his legendary life-story to the big screen.”
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for MTV/Paramount Global
Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., also confirmed the news, tweeting out an article of the announcement with a simple word, “Finally.”
“Black Panther” co-writer Joe Robert Cole will write the film and Allen Hughes, who directed the 1993 film “Menace II Society,” will direct the biopic, according to The Associated Press. In a statement to the outlet, Snoop said he “waited a long time to put this project together.”
“I wanted to choose the right director, the perfect writer, and the greatest movie company I could partner with that could understand the legacy that I’m trying to portray on screen, and the memory I’m trying to leave behind,” he told the AP in a statement. “It was the perfect marriage. It was holy matrimony, not holy macaroni.”
Snoop’s fame spans decades. He got his start in the early ’90s, releasing his first album, “Doggystyle,” in 1993. He has since released 19 more albums, most recently, “B.O.D.R. (Bacc On Death row)” earlier this year. The latest studio release was released shortly after he acquired the record label he helped found and debuted on, Death Row Records.
The now-51-year-old also starred in several movies in the late ’90s, including “Da Game of Life,” “Ride,” “Half-Baked,” and “Urban Menace.”
And while his career and iconic persona have made him a cultural phenomenon, it has not come without controversy.
The rapper has been accused multiple times of sexual assault. In 2004, a makeup artist filed a $25 million lawsuit against Snoop accusing him and several of his entourage members of drugging and raping her two years prior. She also alleged that one of his associates beat her up after a taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2003. Snoop filed his own lawsuit shortly after, saying she was trying to extort him.
That woman’s lawsuit was dropped within a year and no criminal charges were ever filed. Snoop’s lawsuit against her was also dismissed.
Another lawsuit against Snoop was made this past February just days before his Super Bowl halftime performance. A woman said that the rapper and his “spiritual advisor” sexually assaulted her in 2013 after offering her a ride home from a club. She claimed his associate attacked her the next morning and that later that day Snoop assaulted her in the women’s bathroom at his studio, where she was auditioning to be a part of his YouTube talk series.
That case was soon voluntarily withdrawn and then dismissed, but refiled in July in Los Angeles federal court. A representative for Snoop said her complaint was “full of false allegations and deficiencies.”
