Lots of fans were disappointed when Snoop Dogg agreed to DJ at the Crypto Ball, one of the pre-inauguration events during the weekend ahead of that fateful Monday in January. It didn’t come completely out of nowhere – in an interview with the Times of London one year earlier, Snoop said of Trump: “He ain’t done nothing wrong to me. … So I have nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump.” But still some people felt that officially participating in inauguration festivities was a step too far. Snoop addressed the backlash at the time, then seemed to move on to his next projects mostly unbothered. Now that one of those projects has dropped, his 21st studio album Iz It A Crime?, Snoop is out on the promotion trail and once again fielding Trump-related questions, which prompted this answer when he appeared on The Breakfast Club last week:
Asked if the controversy over his short DJ set had bothered him, Snoop replied:
“No. I call it 30 for 30. I DJ’d at the Crypto Ball for what, 30 minutes? Made a whole bunch of money, made a lot of relationships to help out the inner city and the community and teach financial literacy and crypto in a space that it don’t exist.”
“That’s 30 minutes” he continued. “30 years, Snoop Dogg been doing great things for the community, building, showing up, standing up for the people, making it happen, being all I can be. But which one is it? 30 for 30. 30 minutes or 30 years?”
Snoop, who didn’t endorse any candidate for the 2024 election, said the gig had come about through other friendships but that “even if I would have done it” for Trump “and hung out with him and took a picture with him, can’t none of you motherf–kers tell me what I can and can’t do.”
“But I’m not a politician,” he pointed out. “I don’t represent the Republican Party. I don’t represent the Democratic Party. I represent the motherf–king Gangster Party. Period. Point blank.”
Snoop also revealed why he kept relatively silent in public as the anger grew over the gig.
“G sh-t, we don’t explain sh-t. That’s why I didn’t explain, that’s why I didn’t go into detail when motherf–kers was trying to cancel me and say he a sellout,” he said, later adding: “The things that I do in real life should matter to you more … not what I do when I’m DJing or making music or doing this and that.”
So what do we think of the smorgasbord of reasonings Snoop offers in this answer? For starters, I love that he’s basically adopting the British royal family’s infamous “never complain, never explain” motto. He wears it better, imo. As for the 30 for 30 argument, I kind of feel like he’s making a false dichotomy? He’s trying to say that his 30 years of community service should outweigh 30 minutes of DJing at a Trump event where he collected “a whole bunch of money” and says he made promising contacts. Does one cancel the other out, though? I don’t think those 30 minutes wipe out 30 years, but I equally don’t think those 30 years should be used as a pass or excuse. His last line also really caught my attention: “The things that I do in real life should matter to you more.” Is this not, sadly, real life? I can basically understand all of the angles Snoop is going for here, in a theoretical sense at least. And I think they would all hold water — in the before times. But the danger of Trump to all of our lives is too real and important. Snoop is not a politician; I’m not a politician; but right now all our lives are political.
Snoop’s got some words for everyone that came at him for his Trump inauguration set.
Watch the full convo right now on @AppleMusic. pic.twitter.com/iVrgAVJ0tC
— the Old Man Ebro (@oldmanebro) May 16, 2025
Photos credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
Snoop will always prioritize getting paid over anything.
As will many.
But Snoop’s own past self had harsh words for people like modern era Snoop. It’s not just our words that condemn him. It’s HIS.
He lost me when he said Trump never did anything to him. Selfish is the nicest thing I can say about that. He is no better than a Maga rat.
Snoop is saying he doesn’t care if the fascists are running the show, as long as he has his money and status as Martha Stewart’s bestie. All these rich a-holes stick together. They’re not looking out for the community. What a jerk.
Celebrities like him always seem to think the “free will” argument only goes one way. Yes, he can do what he likes with who he likes. BUT so can his fans. That’s the crux of the argument, people exercising their free will as consumers not to support him after that AND his flippant reaction afterwards.
And 30 minutes can COMPLETELY overshadow 30 years, it’s childish of him to act like it doesn’t. We don’t owe him unconditional support just like he doesn’t owe us.
Later days to this sell-out.. you don’t separate a person from their actions …regardless if it was just for the $$
I used to admire his hustle. Now I see him as a sellout. And he sold out to the worst person in the country. Snoop Dogg is dead to me.
What a selfish prick.
In her 1/16/25 Substack, historian Heather Cox Richardson made the following points: “Between 1981 and 2021, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the offshoring of manufacturing, and the weakening of unions moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%…During Biden’s term, the gap between the 90th income percentile and the 10th income percentile fell by 25%.” And the latest bill under consideration in Congress, emboldened by tRump, trades Medicaid and SNAP benefits for tax cuts that privilege only the wealthy – how does that affect Snoop’s community? I’d have more respect for Snoop if he’d made it personal, e.g. tRump pardoned one of my buddies in the music biz. But he doesn’t – his ignorance is his bliss. Just because he’s an old dogg doesn’t mean he can’t learn new tricks – how about making ‘community’ noise now?
I want to give a pass to this but I just can’t do it. Trump is racist AF and if I were a black man I could not support him.
Snoop Dogg sold out a long time ago. In that Ebro interview he says he did the DJ gig for his friend David Sacks. Sacks is not a great person either.
Snoop was ALWAYS awful 😖….so…
I love Snoop, but he’s a greedy little jackass sometimes, isn’t he?
Snoop is savvy enough to know that he did a stupid and wrong thing by cozying up to Trump. But his greed overcame his scruples/practicality and he did it anyway. Suck it, Snoop. You deserve it. And no one will ever forget. Trust and believe.
Those 30 minutes were used to legitimatize the people who want to punish and abuse his fans BUT he made money. He didn’t care until now when he wants to make money from his community again. Every time his song comes on the radio, I turn to another station. He can go kick rocks. I’m boycotting everyone that supports the Mango Man.
Out of all of the people who have turned maga for whatever their reasoning (or lack of ), his has really twisted my liver. He, like many others, is now on my boycott list. As a woman, a small business owner, and a person of color, this administration has made my life so much harder; me and millions and millions of others like me. Snoop knows and knew what him supporting – yes supporting – this administration would do. He can eat a bag of d*icks as he cries into his pile of money. Traitor.
Nah, he just comes across as sociopathic. Which I guess is a kind of Gangsta, but not the cool kind. It’s a shame, as I always used to enjoy him and his schtick. Now he is invisible to me
He’s a disappointment.
This guy’s a huckster. Crypto is a scam.