Snoop Dogg

American musician, the embodiment of ’90s gangster rap. His debut album, "Doggystyle," 1993, went quadruple platinum. Born Calvin Broadus, he grew up in a broken home in a poor section of Long Beach, California. His mother nicknamed him "Snoop Dogg" when he was a toddler due to a pronounced resemblance to "Snoopy" from the comic strip "Peanuts," and the name stuck. As a teenager, he began rapping with his friends, did well in school and played football. Eventually, however, he joined the Crips street gang and was arrested for dealing cocaine. He spent the next several years in and out of jail for petty crimes before turning to music. Although his first album was a huge success, the drive-by shooting death of Phillip Woldermarian by Snoop’s bodyguard in August of 1993 forced the musician to spend the next two years fighting the murder charges. He exploited the upcoming trial by making a short film based on his song, "Murder was the Case," and released a soundtrack that debuted at number one in 1994. At the trial in February 1996, he was cleared of all charges. His second album, "Doggfather," 1996, received a lukewarm response, and his star waned. Snoop Dogg married his long-time girlfriend, Shantay Taylor, in June 1997. They have two children. The black rapper left Death Row Records in January 1998 after two of their artists, Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. were killed by hoodlums, feeling that his own life was in danger. On January 28, 2005, a make-up artist filed a $25 million lawsuit in Los Angeles claiming that the rapper and four of his associates sexually assaulted her after they taped an episode of "The Jimmy Kimmel Show" in 2003. The woman claimed she had been drugged prior to the incident. A month prior, in December 2004, the rapper filed a suit against her charging that she was trying to extort money from him. He was arrested on October 26, 2006 at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, CA on suspician of posssessing marijuana and a handgun. He was freed on $35,000 bail. Link to Wikipedia biography