Artist Snoop Dogg

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Snoop Dogg

Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr., a.k.a. Snoop Dogg, has become America’s Hustla. Sure, he takes a Krusty The Clown approach to licensing his name and image, but Snoop’s the real deal. Along with Dr. Dre and Suge Knight, he revolutionized the sound, style, and business of hip-hop, for better (Doggystyle) and worse (Father Hood). His smooth vowel deconstruction shook up American vocabulary (see: “fo’ shizzle”), while his continual forays into new musical territory—his countrified “My Medicine,” the title track for the Bollywood movie Singh Is Kinng—deserve applause for being both interesting and surprisingly good. But for the most part, he’s still the same old Snoop: Snoop’s latest, Doggumentary, features a collaboration with Wiz Khalifa called “This Weed Iz Mine.”

Updated 07/20/2011