Snoop Dogg Thought Dr. Dre Was a Prank Caller When He First Called to Work With Him

Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre's legendary partnership almost never happened, because Snoop thought he was a prank caller when he first reached out.

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One of the many ways the world has changed over the last few decades was with the dawn of caller ID. Once you could see in advance who was calling you on the other end, it made it a whole lot easier to ignore unknown numbers and screen calls through your voicemail.

But things were simpler when Snoop Dogg was on the come-up, and his first interaction with Dr. Dre contained a little more mystery, if you believe the stories they both told as part of their appearance in the upcoming HBO documentaryThe Defiant Ones.

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Dre, who claims to have heard an old Snoop mixtape at a bachelor party, was blown away when he first heard Snoop's music, and he told his stepbrother Warren G they needed to bring him into the fold. "This is a fucking diamond in the rough," said Dre, "and we need to polish it up!"

When Dre reached out to Snoop, however, the Long Beach native was skeptical that the call was authentic. "This ain't no motherfuckin' Dr. Dre," he said, hanging up the phone on his eventual partner. It allegedly took a follow-up voicemail from Dre to convince Snoop it was really him, and it was a wrap from there.

Can you imagine if that first phone call had actually been the end of it? Snoop was a known drug dealer at the time, and if he never linked up with Dre in the studio, there's no telling where his life could have headed. Instead, Snoop and Dre formed one of the most successful and iconic partnerships in the history of rap, with his laid-back flow fitting perfectly over Dre's G-funk sound.

You can watch the full clip above, and remember kids—always remember to check your voicemail. There could be a life-changing opportunity waiting on the other end.

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