Snoop Dogg has opened up about what he learned from Nipsey Hussle and reflected on the time he turned down a role in the N.W.A. biopic.
During an appearance on The 85 South Comedy Show, Snoop was asked what he learned from Nip, who he influenced and was often compared to. “To be you,” he said at the 50:30 point of the podcast, as seen above. “That’s the G-est shit he ever did.”
Using an example of how committed he was to staying true to himself, Snoop explained that he reached out to Nip to play him in Straight Outta Compton. “They was doing Straight Outta Compton movie right? So Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, all them n****s calling me. ... ‘Man, we trying to get Nip to play you in Straight Outta Compton! He ain’t getting back to us!’ [I’m like] ‘Aight, let me holla at the lil homie.’"
When he met with Nipsey about the role, he was overjoyed to tell him about the offer but he wasn’t interested. “I’m happy as fuck to tell him,” Snoop said. “He like, ‘No disrespect big homie, but I can’t play you in the movie ’cause then people just gon’ know me for being you. I gotta be me. All that’s with all due respect.’ And I was like damn that was gangsta. I [called Dre and Cube back and] said, ‘Y’all gotta go find somebody else!’”
The role ultimately went to LaKeith Stanfield, who found more mainstream fame the following year when Atlanta kicked off.
Last month, it was reported that Universal Pictures has started development on a Snoop Dogg biopic, with Allen Hughes attached to direct. “I waited a long time to put this project together because I wanted to choose the right director, the perfect writer, and the greatest movie company I could partner with that could understand the legacy that I’m trying to portray on screen, and the memory I’m trying to leave behind,” Snoop said in a statement. “It was the perfect marriage. It was holy matrimony, not holy macaroni.”
