Grammy-Less Snoop Dogg Hosts a Rocking Pre-Grammy Party
Snoop Dogg has never won a Grammy, but the West Coast rapper has been nominated sixteen times, which is no small feat. (His new album, BUSH, is coming out soon, so let’s keep our fingers crossed for next year.) His general awesomeness was the reason that Levi’s selected the Doggfather as the headliner of its annual pre-Grammy bash. Both the denim brand and Snoop hail from California, which urged a lot of “West Coast!” shouts from the rapper last night as he took the stage at the Hollywood Palladium following a DJ set from Diplo and Skrillex. “Shout out to Levi’s,” Snoop quipped at one point. “50-motherf—-ing-1’s.”
The show, billed as Snoop Dogg & Friends, featured several special guests, including Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell (who wore a disappointingly normal-sized hat), Chaka Khan, Miguel, and OT Genesis and celebrated the launched of the newly minted Levi’s 501CT jeans, a “modern take” on the classic 501 with a straighter waist and taper leg. The rapper, clad in a velour purple jacket, bow tie and jeans, bounced through a slew of classic rap hits, from “The Next Episode” to “Gin and Juice.”
Everyone from T.I. to Vin Diesel to Leona Lewis to Michelle Rodriguez cheered Snoop on from the side of the stage, and somewhere in the audience, mysterious without their iconic helmets, were members of Daft Punk. The theme of the evening, besides previewing Snoop’s upcoming album, was unadulterated revelry. The drunken crowd shrieked as the rapper paused mid-song to murmur “Can we have a moment of silence for this small chronic break?” as he took a hit of weed. Later, Snoop urged the audience to repeated yell “I wanna get f—-ed up.”
Every year Levi’s has accelerated their pre-Grammy bash, moving to a much bigger venue this year after Miguel performed at the Fonda Theater last year. The party boomed until well after midnight, prompting a hangover-induced start to Grammy weekend.
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