Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre have long been one of hip-hop’s most prolific duo, and the West Coast icons share an unbreakable bond that goes back more than 30 years.
Out in London this week for the launch of their Gin & Juice cocktail line, Snoop and Dre stopped by Capital Xtra Friday (July 19) to put their friendship in perspective and reflect on some of the wild times in their journey.
“It taught me how to be professional, Dr. Dre has always been like a big brother to me,” Snoop gushed about his “Still D.R.E.” collaborator. “He’s taught me professionalism as far as how to separate from the hood and how to get on a business venture and look forward and not really pay attention to what’s behind you.”
He continued: “He’s always had the attitude and the spirit of ‘I don’t care what I made, it’s all about what I’m about to make.’ And that’s a good spirit that I took from him … Just being with him, he’s like a big brother, protector. I just love being with him in the studio and real life.”
Dre also told a hilarious story about a disappointing blind double date he and Snoop went on back in the day. Blind dates were more like they sounded before the days of social media, and the Doggfather hit the jackpot.
“When we got there, this girl opened the door and she was beautiful. I thought it was mine and it wasn’t. Snoop pushed me out the way like, ‘Nah, Cuz, that’s me.’ When I turned that corner and saw mine, I was really disappointed,” Dre shared. “And we drove for like an hour in Hurricane Katrina to get there and I was extremely disappointed.”
Dre turned the negative into a positive, as the next day they hit the studio and made one of their most famed collaborations when creating “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang.” “The good part about that is when we left that situation, the next day we went to the studio and made ‘Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang,’” he said.
Dre’s first single off his iconic The Chronic album (No. 2 on our Greatest Rap Albums of All-Time list), “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993 and topped the Hot Rap Songs chart.
All these years later, Dre and Snoop are still hard at work perfecting their craft in the studio. The Hall of Fame duo is teaming up for Snoop Dogg’s next album, Missionary — a flip of Snoop’s 1993 classic debut Doggystyle — which remains without a release date.
Snoop and Dre launched their Gin & Juice — named after their 1994 collaboration — cocktails and celebrated with a performance at a party for the endeavor in London on Thursday (July 18), where they brought out Eminem as a special guest, who performed “Houdini” and took it back to “Forgot About Dre” during his mini-set.
Watch Snoop and Dre talk about their relationship with Capital Xtra below:
