My sister’s baby-father was the man on the Long Beach Poly Football team…that meant something. Things may be different now…I’m not as up to date on the exploitation of child athletics and who is the best of the exploitees, but for most of my life, Long Beach Poly was one of the top schools in regards to High School athletics in the whole country, and football was their focus above all else. My high school years were the Desean Jackson era. There were several other pros there as well, but he’s probably the most recognized. Far before me, my sister’s baby-father was the man. He never went pro, injuries got in the way of that but he was forever respected in the city by all, including one of his classmates named Calvin. Calvin would go on to become Snoop Dogg, but as his star rose, he never forgot about his city and the people he grew up with.
Having a connection to insider information landed a then nine-year-old me on the set of Snoop’s first music video at Long Beach’s VIP Records. Before they shot the video, the relatively empty parking lot became packed to the point where I see the video now, and you can’t find younger me anywhere in the crowd. I probably shouldn’t have been there, but hindsight being 20-20, had I not been there I may have never had all the great times I had as a music journalist or a radio show host. My city plays a large part in who I am, and Snoop Dogg plays a large part in what my city is.
Waking up and seeing video clips of Snoop carrying the Olympic torch brought a lot of thoughts to my mind. I immediately skipped past all the “What the Olympics represent,” or “If a Black man should be proud to represent this country,” shit. I get it. I hear you. I understand. But the first thing I thought about was that video. Who I was at the time, who he was at the time, how long ago that was, and how much has changed. Then, he was a rising star. Now, he’s unarguably the biggest rapper in the world. Maybe not the hottest currently, but in the history of rap nobody is bigger than Snoop Dogg. Me…a lot has changed since 5th grade. I’ve been a lot of different places, done a lot of different things. In the pursuit of betterment, sometimes I’ve found myself trying to fit in to achieve certain goals. But watching Snoop Dogg Crip walk with the Olympic torch, grow to become the biggest rapper ever being nothing other than who and what he is…there is most certainly a lesson to be learned in that.
