With a name like Calvin Cordozar Broadus, it is wise to choose a street alias. Something that expresses the animal instincts of the ‘hood, but also has a playful tone. Something cartoonish, with at least one peculiar spelling. Something like “Snoop Doggy Dogg.”
Whether heard on malt liquor advertisements or defending himself in courtroom testimony, Snoop Dogg’s voice just sounds like a pimp’s. As a young Crip coming up in a gritty coastal patch of Los Angeles sprawl, Snoop was just another gangsta who could throw a rhyme or two together. Then in 1992 he was discovered by Dr. Dre—and subsequently, by an MTV-glued generation of suburban white teenagers whose parent’s money bought millions of copies of his debut album, Doggystyle.
Like many musical artists, Snoop branched out into film, from cameos to starring roles. While I laughed continuously through Soul Plane and acknowledge his entrepreneurial spirit for the pornographic film, Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, my favorite of Snoop’s film appearances is his first in 1994.
Murder Was the Case is many things at once. It is a short film, a multi-platinum album, a hit single, a music video, and a modern gansta morality play which exhibits an egocentric Thanatos Fixation of colossal proportions. Released at the height of gang-related murder in America, many theaters refused to show the film for fear of attracting an unruly audience.
The infamous Charlie Murphy co-stars as a cuckolded hothead with a 9mm and a beeper (the 90s were a fantastic techno-transitional period), and Snoop plays himself, as usual. Though the movie is only 18 minutes long, the plot is extremely complex, utilizing multiple parallel universes, subtle dialogue, and bizarre metaphysical symbolism—including a white Devil who also portrays a shirtless Jesus.
Of course, this film was simply a momentary morbid obsession for Snoop. Despite his various gangsta activities, the real Doggy Dogg continues to create music and appear in films. At age 39, the multi-millionaire has skillfully maintained his street credibility through various gun and drug-related criminal charges, while also appealing to a mainstream audience whose patronage allows him to retire to his mansion.
Though loved worldwide, he has been banned from both the UK and Australia, and was recently banned from playing in the Netherlands due to his unlawful reputation. Local Dutch authorities wanted to ensure “the open and friendly character” of the music festival. Perhaps Europeans are alarmed by the propensity of American youth to emulate their ‘hood-grown heroes, and do not want murder to be the case they are given.
Or maybe, as some have claimed, all white people are racists.
Murder Was the Case — 1994 — Pt. 1
Murder Was the Case — Pt. 2
