Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon People

Rogues' Gallery
Hangover at the Mile High Club
Post boom-boom gloom. The heartbreak of taco theft -- what's next, kidnapping chimichangas? Plus: A helicopter you can park in your nostril.
By Douglas Cruickshank
[10/09/99]

People Feature
May the best sex win: Man vs. woman in the ring
The prizefight between McGregor and Chow will change boxing history forever -- take it from a guy who's strapped on the gloves and gone toe to toe with a "mad-dogging" female.
By Jon B. Rhine
[10/09/99]

People Feature
Freeman Dyson, frog prince of physics
The renowned physicist brings conscience and compassion to his books, which interweave scientific explanation and humanism.
By Kristi Coale
[10/09/99]

Nothing Personal
Sinkers swing
Titanic's leading ladies bare more than we can bear; Jesse sparks baldy-wig biz boom; Trump trumps nasty mensroom handshakers. Plus! Going, going, Ginsberg! Beat receipts hit the block.
By Amy Reiter
[10/08/99]

People Feature
Letter from occupied Bel-Air
Our fearless correspondent's first dispatch from the entertainment industry's demilitarized zone: hot tub adventures, Jay Leno's handshake and bad behavior with Trey Parker's digital camera.
By David Goodman
[10/08/99]

Complete archives for People

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Words of warning for the Dixie Chicks to heed. And in fact they, like Snoop, would experience many setbacks on the road to fame. Whereas the rapper's dues-paying would consist largely of jail time, the Chicks would merely be trapped in that big prison called Texas. From their beginnings on the bluegrass scene and their debut album "Thank Heavens for Dale Evans," the Dixie Chicks gained a loyal following for their traditional, rootsy sound, often compared to outfits like Riders in the Sky. But as their self-appointed chronicler frequently admonishes, that roots crap is never going to make you rich. "Most music critics now believe," Collins writes, "that the Dixie Chicks probably would have moved easily toward the musical center if not for Robin Lynn Macy." The group's original lead singer, Macy is the villain who stands in the way of the Chicks' destiny: "She didn't really care as much for what Nashville wanted or the country radio stations played as she did about keeping her vision of the group and the sound pure and untarnished by commercialism," Collins writes. If platinum blond success was ever to be achieved, those dark, nasty roots had to go. Macy was out.

Later in his own history Snoop, too, must distance himself from a collaborator to set a different course. Having left jail behind and hooked up with master producer Dr. Dre on hit records like the single "Deep Cover" and Dre's album "The Chronic," Snoop Dogg found himself on the roster of Death Row Records, run by Dre and the intimidating gangbanger named Suge Knight. "I was always proud to be part of a record label that was as successful and influential as Death Row, from a creative point of view," Snoop says. "But when it came to extortion and assault and hanging people out of windows to get them to sign over their publishing ... that kind of shit I'd just stay the fuck away from."

Politics and show business are inseparable these days, as both of these books demonstrate. Even before their recent breakthrough, the Dixie Chicks proved remarkably popular with presidents, vice presidents and presidential candidates. They've played for Bush (Sr.), Clinton and veep Al Gore, and even at a fund-raiser for candidate Ross Perot.

Snoop hasn't. But candidates looking for stump-speech material with a little street cred would do well to bypass the Dixie Chicks bio and head straight to "Tha Doggfather." Naturally, Snoop Dogg's philosophy would appeal only to certain presidential hopefuls. Pat Buchanan comes to mind. In a particularly entertaining passage, Dogg explains how he first came to realize white people couldn't be trusted. When rich white kids invited him home to play video games, he'd slip away to other rooms to steal watches, crystal or whatever he could grab. "And none of those white folks ever said a word about it. My opinion of whites took shape around those experiences, and what got hold of me was believing that you had to be careful around assholes like that ... You've got to be stupid to hang around with stupid people, and I'll tell you one thing, free of charge: If I owned a big fine house on the hill full of Gameboys and goat cheese hamburgers and crystal figurines, I sure as shit wouldn't let some little nigger kid from Long Beach have the run of the place without a full cavity search at the end of the day."

"White is white and black is black and I figure God must have made us different for a reason," states Snoop Dogg, future Republican candidate. "Word: I'm not saying the races don't have a common human bond. I'm just saying that bond isn't about compassion and equality and tolerance. What we all share together is the drive to get what's ours and keep it as long as we can."

Still, everything that rises must converge, and these days black Snoop and the white Chicks are part of the same big megastar aristocracy. The DCs got there after discarding yet another member, Laura Lynch, in favor of the younger, blonder, hipper Natalie Mains. Thus reconstituted, the Dixie Chicks were ready for Nashville's official blessing, and their "Wide Open Spaces" sold millions and won station-wagon loads of little statuettes.

Snoop Dogg hit the top with his first solo album "Doggystyle," but his royal procession still had a major pothole ahead of it -- namely, a minor-league gangbanger who called himself Little Smooth and was intent on making a name for himself at the now-famous rapper's expense. A showdown with Snoop's bodyguard puts an end to that, and it's back to court for our hero, this time on a murder charge. The trial drags on, Snoop meets Johnnie Cochran (who is defending a pal), and is found not guilty.

There's really nothing comparable in "All About the Dixie Chicks" (although one of them does have a dance with President Clinton). In fact, if you can only purchase one of these biographies, there's really no question about which one gives you more gangbang for your buck. "Tha Doggfather" is the clear winner for action, adventure, sex and even religion. Especially religion. ("We're all sinners, God says, and I always believe what God tells me. Because he's God.")

As for philosophy, Snoop is all for it, asking himself: "Where did I come from? Why am I here? What was here before me? That kind of shit ..."

And his personal credo: "Increase the peace. Spread the music. Elevate and educate. Word: it starts with you and me."

Or, as Ace Collins puts it: "Chick Power is a great thing!"

Isn't it all the same in the end? Don't answer that, Snoop.
salon.com | Oct. 11, 1999

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

  Get a printer-friendly version

  E-mail a friend about this article

  Backflip this article to find it again

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Search Salon