For Snoop Dogg — once gangsta rap’s most hated punching bag, now beloved ambassador, Martha Stewart’s best friend, corporate salesman and America’s favorite uncle — carrying the Olympic torch was one other surprising chapter in his greater than 30-year profession. But the surreal sight of Calvin Broadus smiling carrying the famous symbol running through the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis on the final stretch before Friday’s opening ceremony outshines all others.

“It was emotional for all of us to see the champion hold the torch and go up there,” Snoop Dogg said of the honor, referring to the late boxer Muhammad Ali, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1960 and moved the world when he lit the Olympic torch during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.“It’s my own version. I don’t want to get too emotional, but I know it’s special. It says a lot about America, in terms of where we are in the world,” later adding, “I would never have dreamed of something like that.”

It was no surprise that Snoop Dogg was in an unusually reflective mood during his conversation with NBC sportscaster Mike Tirico. The 52-year-old’s journey is a tale of hip-hop, redemption, black joy and the coronation of the ultimate unifier of popular culture.

In true Snoop Dogg style, NBC hired him as a special correspondent to seem at the Games following his hilarious Olympic commentary with comedian Kevin Hart in 2021 during the delayed 2020 Olympics. Clips of the couple reacting to a rerun of the equestrian competition became an fast viral classic. In short, Snoop was Snoop.

Regardless, it can’t be overstated how improbable it’s to look at the artist formerly generally known as Mr.1-8-7 on undercover“who single-handedly drew the ire of politicians, community activists, black religious leaders, law enforcement organizations and girls’s groups in 1993 by becoming Mister Rogers in blue Chucks.

In 1993, a young Snoop Doggy Dogg was basking in the record-breaking glory of his multi-platinum album, which sold over 800,000 copies in its first week, the most for a debut album at the time. Snoop Dogg was also public enemy primary in 1996, charged with first-degree murder along together with his bodyguard in the fatal shooting of Philip Woldermariam. While awaiting sentencing, the hottest rapper in the world was met with negative public response from all sides, including legendary Grammy Award-winning singer Dionne Warwick.

Warwick invited Snoop Dogg, Death Row Records president Suge Knight and other rappers to her home to debate what she considered the West Coast MC’s misogynistic content. Warwick challenged Snoop Dogg and his crew to call her a “b*tch.” Snoop Dogg was shaken. “We were as gangster as you can get, but that day at Dionne Warwick’s house, I think we were beaten by gangsters that day,” he recalled in a 2021 CNN video.

Even after Snoop Dogg was acquitted of murder in 1996, his story could have thoroughly ended tragically before the latest millennium began. After a really heated argument with Knight, he told Master P that he planned to release a brand new album titled . The No Limit Records founder gave Snoop Dogg a sobering, life-saving speech that modified the course of his profession, and he has sold over 37 million albums worldwide.

“You won’t live to see this album come out,” Master P told him before offering the struggling saddler a record deal. Snoop Dogg moves his family to New Orleans and change into a soldier without limits was just certainly one of a series of intriguing and sometimes mind-boggling side missions that put him on the path to the Olympics. In 2005, he founded the Snoop Youth Football League to maintain kids ages 5 to 13 off the streets of Los Angeles, producing several college and NFL stars, most recently Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud.

Snoop Dogg appeared on business executive and TV personality Stewart’s show culinary program in 2008starting the strangest of strange business partnerships for couples. They co-led for 2 seasons on VH1 starting in 2016.were presented in 2021. National campaign for BIC’s EZ Reach lighter and Skechers’ 2023 Super Bowl ad. He recorded a reggae album, , using the reggae persona Snoop Lion, which led many fans and critics to query whether the guy was real. He most actually was.

And so we come to Snoop Dogg, Olympic favorite and living proof of hip-hop’s limitless possibilities. This unlikely event is particularly significant considering that 56 years ago, black sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who won gold and bronze medals in the 200 meters, respectively, were virtually banished from track and field after raising their fists in silent protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. It was an extended time coming, considering the racist treatment that Olympic heroes like sprinter Jesse Owens, tennis player Wilma Rudolph and Ali faced at home.

Today, Snoop Dogg has company. The legendary Public Enemy hype man and reality star Flavor Flav has change into the official face of the US women’s water polo teamwho will likely be competing for his fourth consecutive gold medal. Rapper Cardi B appeared in Olympic promotion video in July with world sprint champion Sha’ Carri Richardson and gushed about the track star’s return. Richardson was suspended from Team USA in 2021 after testing positive for THC, a banned substance.

“I’m really, really proud of you,” Cardi B told Richardson. “Because you came back stronger than ever with your talent. You’ve evolved.”

He evolved. A robust word that Snoop Dogg can greater than attest to.