Snoop Dogg Reveals Jay-Z Wrote All Of ‘Still Dre’ In Under An Hour
As one of most revered rappers in the game, Snoop Dogg’s career spans over nearly three decades. Music lovers were reminded of the West Coast rap icon’s illustrious legacy, courtesy of his highly-successful Verzuz battle against DMX. As such, there’s no shortage of legendary hip-hop tales from the Doggfather. This week, the 48-year-old appeared on The Breakfast Club to discuss his match against X and hip-hop transcending territories, among other topics.
Snoop revealed that he was actually supposed to go up against another New York rap icon: Busta Rhymes. The two were originally slated to put their hits up against each other but they couldn’t sync their schedules.
“We had some things that was preventing it from happening,” Snoop shared. “We had things going on on this side and things went on that side. It was hard to happen and it just was a lot going on. Me and Busta Rhymes really, really wanted that bad because we love each other and got great history together.”
The “Gin and Juice” rapper went on to explain how his battle with DMX came to be.
“But when that didn’t happen, DMX was on his way to California already to work with Swizz Beatz,” he continued. “So the idea became, ‘Shoot, if X is already on his way, dog for dog. I was like, You know what? That sounds like a real showdown.’ I’ve always had a love and a respect for X and I remember when he was running the rap game for two years straight and I had to take the back seat to him so I felt like this would be a very interesting battle because i had the rap game in the palm of my hands at one time and he did as well.”
Deeper into the interview, after he was asked whether he preferred to write for himself or let other people write for him, Snoop shared a surprising tidbit about one of his classic records.
The West Coast icon recalled that he and The D.O.C. were working on a song for Dr. Dre. They struggled to come up with lyrics for four days. Finally, Dre enlisted another rapper to finish the song and flew him in from New York. The writer penned the entire song within 30 minutes. Snoop said it was “flawless.” It turns out, that song was “Still Dre” and that rapper was none other than Jay-Z.
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Though The Breakfast Club hosts were aware that Hov contributed to the 1999 record, they were surprised to learn he wrote the entire song. Snoop credited the famed rapper’s ability to pen a West Coast song even though he’s from the East Coast to his love for Dr. Dre.
“Jay-Z is a great writer to begin with for himself so imagine him striking up for somebody that he truly loves and appreciates,” he noted. “He loves Dr. Dre. That’s what his pen showed you.”
Check out the rest of Snoop’s The Breakfast Club interview below:
