Perhaps the most recognized performer of the gangsta rap tradition, Snoop Doggy Dogg emerged in 1993 with two commercially successful albums on controversial Death Row/Interscope Records. Notorious for his violent and explicit lyrics, Snoop Doggy Dogg became a central target of political censorship and attack soon after his appearance on the rap scene. Despite his initial commercial success, the rapper's career began to flounder after gangsta rap fell out of favor in the latter half of the 1990s. By 1998, Snoop Doggy Dogg had changed his name to Snoop Dogg, switched music labels, and toned down his graphic and controversial act in an effort to maintain his status in the industry.

Born Calvin Broadus in 1971, he was nicknamed Snoop as a child and raised in an urban ghetto in California, suffering through a childhood of harsh social realities. One month after his high...