After a number of previews were shared over the past week, Snoop Dogg's full interview on Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk is here.
As previously revealed, the episode sees Snoop address his comments directed at Gayle King, which he later apologized for, and how he's coped with the death of Kobe Bryant. "I want everyone to know I invited Snoop to the table, and I invited Gayle King to the table," Jada explained at the start of the interview. "Gayle King has an open invite for whenever she wants to come."
Despite Jada's close relationship with 2Pac, who was also close with Snoop, she revealed that she's actually never met Snoop before. "I've had a bit of a complicated relationship with you from afar... But there's two times in your career where I really just had to cheer for you hardcore." She congratulated the rapper for speaking out against Suge Knight, and then she said the second time she "rooted" for him was when he apologized to Gayle King.
"It was just a matter of me losing control," Snoop said when asked about why he responded to Gayle's comments about Kobe's 2003 sexual assault case the way he did. "We still haven't swallowed Nip. That's still in our hearts right now. We still hurt behind that, and then Kobe and his daughter. ... I lost a grandson, a grandmother. I gotta be strong for everybody. You gotta turn it on. It's time to be Snoop again, but what about when I want to cry? What about when I'm hurt and I'm feeling bad, and I feel disgusted and I want to be angry and I want to just blurt out? I can't. I let my emotions get the best of me."
Snoop has made it clear he didn't think it was the right time for King to bring up the allegation against the late Lakers legend, which is why he reacted the way he did. "A lot of black men felt attacked," Jada added. "When somebody becomes a superhero, it's our job to protect that superhero," Snoop continued. "Automatically we feel like we're targeted."
He admitted he could have worded his comments towards Gayle, in which he called her a "bitch," a lot better than he did. "And I'm a man, it don't bother me to check me," he said. Ultimately he wanted to "protect" Vanessa Bryant and her children, because she was still grieving at the time King brought up the allegation in an interview with WNBA superstar Lisa Leslie.
As a result of his comments, Snoop's mother contacted him to let him know he crossed the line. "When this thing happened with Gayle, I got calls from Tyler Perry, Puff Daddy, Van Jones, like powerful black men, and they didn’t bash me, they was just like, 'Brother, we got your back if you need [anything], but we think that you shouldn’t have said it,'" Snoop revealed. He contacted Gayle to let her know he wanted to meet with her to apologize in person, rather than just over social media or on the phone.
Jada went on to introduce messages from both Iyanla Vanzant and Jemele Hill, thanking Snoop for his apology. The conversation later shifted to misogyny, with the rapper addressing some of the language in his music career. "Pac and I used to get into his usage of 'bitch' and 'ho,'" Jada said.
From there, Snoop talked about the death of Pop Smoke briefly. "Low blow right here, 20-year-old," he said. "It's trifling if you don't have the right people around you. That's why you gotta have the right representation, and you gotta know who you are when you getting into this industry. The music you represent represents you as a person, as well. Until you learn how to separate the two and become him on record, him in real life. And it be hard to get to that part because you so, 'My records are selling 'cause I'm so real and I'm so this and I'm so that.' But then that comes with it."
Watch the latest Red Table Talk in full above.
