Snoop Dogg must have a clone. How else could he keep up with appearances when everyone wants to either be him or be his friend? But he manages to oblige by being everywhere, seemingly all at once.
(I have questions, such as: Does he even have time for gin and juice any more?)
Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr. will touch down in Dallas for "Merry Jane Presents Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa: The High Road Tour" with his mini-me and movie co-star. The show stops at Gexa Energy Pavilion (1818 First Ave. in Fair Park) on Friday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $26-$110 at Live Nation.
As with all things worth talking about, there's bad news and there's good news. Recent news has about 50 people taken from a show Tuesday night for "alcohol poisoning," according to Page Six, and according to NBC, more than 40 hurt when a railing collapsed at a show Aug. 5. Almost-as-recent news has him partnering with pal Martha Stewart and VH1 for Martha & Snoop's Dinner Party, which is just so much oh, God, please let it live up to its title.
Oh, wait, there's more: There's also the matter of a not-bad-at-all new CD, Coolaid.
(And who can forget the photo furor from an Instagram post with a Texas trooper at South by Southwest in 2015?)
Snoop's face has, is, and will be all over the place. We don't have clones, so here's just what I spied this year with my own two eyes.
All over TV
Television isn't so much a vast wasteland to Snoop as it is a big playground. Snoop lends his inimitable talents to animated shows on a daily basis: Listen as he plays himself or versions of himself on Mike Tyson Mysteries (that's a real thing, yo); Smoove Move the snail on Netflix's Turbo FAST; and Street Dogg on Sanjay and Craig.
One can't forget Coach Snoop, a nine-episode documentary series this year on AOL.com that followed him and his Snoop Youth Football League.
There was so much Snoop on TV this year that he should have his own channel. Wait. He kind of does, on You Tube with westfesttv, which features GGN: Snoop Dogg's Double G News Network and a nature show called Planet Snoop that is also featured on Jimmy Kimmel as a segment called "Plizzanet Earth."
Around North Texas
Snoop was in Dallas in April for his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame as it celebrated a record-breaking WrestleMania 32. He's well-known as a fan of almost anything that ends with a score, even playing in the BET Experience 2016 Sprite Celebrity Basketball Game this year, coaching his son's youth football teams and guesting on sports talk shows.
Taking important meetings
Snoop's middle name -- or perhaps just another stage name -- should be "Ubiquity." Whereas other pop icons have to lay low so they can stage comebacks, Snoop is so beloved that he never has to go anywhere. And people listen. Look, there he is at the Democratic National Convention headlining a "unity party." And, over there he's on the front lines of a peaceful protest. And, look, right after that, he and fellow rapper The Game organized a community summit, "Time to Unite: United Hoods + Gangs Nation," that brought police and the community together.
Mogul
He has a website devoted to cannabis in culture, Merry Jane. The good-looking site, with constantly pluming smoke as a backdrop, features articles on news, culture, music and health. And where other rappers have a fashion line or branded liquor, Snoop has branded "cannabis products." The line is called Leafs by Snoop. And it has lots of socks and slippers.
You can buy it all at the Snoopermarket. True story.
