Snoop Dogg has been toying with the idea of an anthology of his life for years, and he says it is finally in the making.
Additionally, the West Coast rap icon is pushing more and more towards TV with an upcoming comedy show with Kevin Hart, according to Deadline. Hart revealed during his NBCUniversal’s Upfronts presentation that the show is currently in development.
Many significant rappers in history have had their own biopics hit the big screen. While Snoop Dogg has always been portrayed in supporting roles in these films, he is yet to have his character play the lead. In a new interview with Yahoo, Snoop talked about his desire for his own feature. Instead of just a 2-hour film, however, Snoop would love to have an anthology series that could produce a number of seasons documenting his story even before his conception.
On the topic of his own biopic, the rapper began, “It depends on whose eyes is told through,” he said. “You know, if it’s told through the right eyes, through the right lens, and it makes the most sense for me. But I think what makes the most sense to me is the ‘Snoop Dogg anthology,’ the life story of Snoop Dogg, where it starts with my mother and father meeting each other before I was even born, to me being born, to me growing through the ‘70s and ‘80s and the ‘90s. Me being the ‘Black Forest Gump,’ so to speak, seeing me in all of these highlighted moments in American history.”
The Long Beach rapper goes on to share that his team is already developing the series and ironing out the details. “I don’t want to rush to it just because [Straight Outta Compton] was successful, just to come behind it,” said Snoop. “I want to take my time and make sure that I’ve put together the right infrastructure of how I became me — you know, the people that inspire me, my upbringing, my mother, my father, my friends, community influences, inspirations that shaped and molded me. I don’t see it being a biopic, because I can’t give all of this great information and entertainment in two hours. But if I give it to you in an anthology, you’re likely to get six or seven seasons of this.”
RELATED: Snoop Dogg Biopic Could Be An Anthology Series, Teams With Kevin Hart For Comedy Show
In the past, Snoop has had some great actors play him in biopics for other rappers. Oscar-nominated actor Lakeith Stanfield played the rapper in the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton in 2015. Earlier in 2009, rapper and actor Anwan Glover portrayed Snoop in the Biggie biopic, Notorious. In the Tupac biopic All Eyez On Me in 2017, Snoop was played by Jarrett Ellis. For his anthology series, Snoop would want someone as dedicated as Jamie Foxx to take on the role. In a previous interview with the Associated Press, Snoop said the actor who gets to play him would have to win him over.
“I don’t know who could play me,” the rapper admitted. “I think it’s gonna have to win me over. When I think of someone playing you, I think of how Jamie Foxx played Ray [Charles]. That was like, spot on. So I would have to find me a Jamie Foxx or somebody that can actually become Snoop Dogg on screen and give me all of that element.
Elsewhere in the Yahoo interview, Snoop said the upcoming series would depict the transition between the ’70s and ’80s when the environment went from one of love and community, even among various ethnicities, to an era riddled with drugs and violence. “Definitely my childhood in the ‘70s, seeing how people loved each other, seeing how racism really didn’t exist to a maximum, how I grew up in school with different nationalities, teachers with different colors, and we loved them,” Snoop said about what would be portrayed in the series.
“That era of the ‘70s taught us how to love and how to be kind to people. Then the ‘80s era, that’s when the cocaine, drugs, violence, my teenage years and all of the things that were brought to our community by the government and the C.I.A. — that has been revealed now,” he added.
While there is no ETA on the “Snoop Dogg anthology” just yet, the rapper has fans excited to see his life story told in a whole series that could go on and on rather than the usual biopic. However, the possibility for a film might not be completely out of the picture. After the success of Straight Outta Compton, the rapper said he’s not quite ready for his own film just yet. “Nah, I’m still creating the Snoop story,” he said in an old interview. “It’s still happening as we speak…I don’t feel like I’m ready for that. I feel like I got more to do. And when I’m able to settle down and look at it and then say ‘Okay, I wanna document my life and my career and whatnot’ then I will do it.”
Could we be getting both or has Snoop settled on the idea of his anthology series alone?
