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Snoop Dogg: Los Angeles
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Los Angeles Indie Label Baby Ree Records Shaking Up Industry With Aim of Becoming 'West Coast Motown' LOS ANGELES, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Multi-Platinum producer/artist Damion "Damizza" Young (Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Korn) is giving the record industry a wakeup call. The 32-year-old Baby Ree Records CEO -- described by the LA Times as "One of the most powerful executives in the music business" -- has a landmark independent distribution deal through Universal/Fontana and is evolving his label into what he describes as the "West-Coast Motown." He's releasing a remarkable album by some of the greatest blues players in the world, the L.A. Blues Alliance CD "What A Life." This super-group of musicians was hand picked by Grammy and Emmy-winning producer/composer Mike Post (Law & Order, Hill Street Blues, etc.) and consists of highly sought-after musicians Keb' Mo, W.G. Snuffy Walden (Emmy winner) Sunny Landreth, J.R.
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On August 25, 1993, Snoop Dogg was arrested on suspicion of being an accomplice in the killing of reputed gang member Philip Woldemariam in Woodbine Park in the Palms district of West Los Angeles. Broadus' bodyguard actually pulled the trigger and claimed self-defense at the trial. Both were acquitted.
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His 1996 follow-up "Tha Doggfather" further established the artist, who proved with the derivative single "Snoop's Upside Your Head" that a musician need not be completely original to be groundbreaking. After a highly publicized split with the troubled Death Row Records (who lost star artist Tupac Shakur to gunfire and CEO Suge Knight to prison), Snoop defected to No Limit, an up and coming independent label out of the southeast poised to take over the rap world. Under that aegis, he released 1998's "Da Game Is to Be Sold Not to Be Told", a creatively disappointing effort that made no new strides but at least gave fans some new material that delivered the performer's hypnotizing flow. The following year's "Top Dogg" similarly failed to thrill but Snoop's final No Limit platter "Tha Last Meal" (2000) saw the writer and performer return to form with such intoxicating slow burners as the hit "Lay Low". That same year Snoop set out on his own with Dogghouse Records, while Death Row released a compilation of Snoop Dogg tracks with an incendiary title ("Dead Man Walking") designed to both intimidate and make money off of one of their few still-successful former artists.
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The premiere single, produced by Pharrell, titled "Vato," featuring B Real from Cypress Hill is a gritty street record that tells an everyday story from the rough LA streets that only the Dogg himself can tell. The video for the single, which was directed by Phillip Atwell, plays like a short cinematic film with an important underlying message: the need for black and brown unity, especially in the wake of violence in recent months in Los Angeles. With Snoop starring as an O.G. and B Real as a Latino gang member, the video ... boasts guest appearances by rap veteran Kid Frost and Oscar nominated actor Edward James Olmos to bring attention to an unfortunate, but real issue that continues to plague communities today. Through this groundbreaking video, Snoop is looking to leverage his street credibility and knowledge to launch a much needed push for unity.
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On 11 April 2003, Snoop was unhurt after a drive-by shooting on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, California. He was riding in a motorcade of five vehicles with seven armed bodyguards when three men in another car fired multiple rounds from a semi-automatic handgun. One bodyguard was injured in the incident. [1]
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An exclusive party in Los Angeles last week hosted by Snoop Dogg, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas and Wilmer Valderrama. Among the guests were Justin Timberlake, Paris and sister Nicky Hilton, Jesse Metcalfe, Carmen Electra, Matthew Perry and Sugar Ray Leonard.
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