Snoop Dogg Talks Tupac Shakur’s Influence on His Journey to Fatherhood

In the ’90s, Snoop Dogg celebrated the discharge of his debut album and his introduction to fatherhood at the identical time. Nine months after releasing his hit album “Doggystyle” in November 1993, the West Coast rapper welcomed his first son, Corde Broadus, in August 1994. Reflecting on this era of his life with People MagazineSnoop Dogg has revealed that his friend and rapper Tupac Shakur helped him find the balance between fatherhood and fame.

“I was working on Tha Doggfather (his second album). So when (Corde) was old enough to pee and do shit, I started bringing him to the studio with me,” he told the publication.

Snoop Dogg reportedly raised Corde “among his buddies,” and Shakur recalls meeting his son on the studio and quickly becoming a part of the village he was raised in.

“Tupac loved him. It was like his nephew. Tupac was a better father than me,” Snoop recalled. “We sat there (in the recording studio) for three hours and didn’t give him anything to eat. It was like I was rapping and f**king, I wasn’t a father. (He) trained me.”

Featured Stories

Sadly, Shakur’s time with Snoop Dogg and his son was cut short. In 1996, the rapper was involved in a drive-by shooting that ultimately claimed his life. Despite his death, Shakur’s influence on Snoop Dogg’s parenting continued when he welcomed his second son, Cordell Broadus. Understanding the facility of community in parenting, “Drop it Like it’s Hot,” his late friend says, inspired him to sign his sons up for football.

“I put them in football and watched them work together. Football helped me become a really good father because I was around other men who were single parents, or had great wives, or were grandparents raising their sons — there was so much I could learn from them,” Snoop explained, eventually becoming a football coach. “So football and all of that was a blessing for me as a father because it taught me how to be a father.”

Snoop Dogg says that besides fatherhood, Shakur taught him a “different kind of work ethic.”

“I’ve always had a good work ethic as far as being on time, being on time and being professional. But he just showed me how to be a little bit faster… (and) not (just) fall in love with it, but fall in love with the art of being able to do it and keep doing it,” he said in Instagram post. “I feel like it’s something that’s been passed down to me and now I’m showing it through my work… And I’m passing it on to the younger generation to show them that you can do the same thing.”