Dr Dre has some pretty cool pals who have ended up forging their own friendships over the years – he’s kind of like a platonic matchmaker in the rap game.
Snoop Dogg and Eminem got on like a house on fire when the legendary hip-hop producer introduced them back in the 1990s, after he took a chance on the upcoming musician who grew up in Detroit.
They even got in the studio together while Slim Shady was putting together his 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP alongside Dre and Xzibit for the track ‘B*tch Please II’.
But it was that song which reportedly sparked an awkward feud between the pair – as a ‘miscommunication’ is said to have occurred while they were relaying with each other via Eminem’s longtime manager, Paul Rosenberg.
Discussing the beef in 2022 on the Paul Pod podcast, the 8 Mile star said: “I think that there was a miscommunication at the time in regards to him being on my album.
“I think he had wanted to do something with me and maybe gave you [Rosenberg] the idea… you said something to the effect of, ‘Well, let’s hear what the song is first’. And he said the way that he took it was… that I don’t f**k with him.”
Rosenberg said he couldn’t ‘remember exactly the circumstances’ but added that the suggestion that Eminem disliked Snoop was ‘obviously not the case’.
The Lose Yourself rapper responded: “Doggystyle changed my life. I’ve looked up to him forever.”
He then revealed that the pair ended up patching things up between them properly when Dre was hospitalised for a brain aneurysm in January 2021.
Eminem added: “When that thing happened with Dre, we were like, ‘Bro, this is stupid’. This is stupid as hell to be feuding right now.”
Fans will fondly recall how the music icons later graced the stage alongside Dre, Mary J Blige, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar in February 2022 for the Super Bowl half time show – proving that the beef was definitely squashed.
Snoop Dogg then stuck his neck out to defend his fellow rapper just a couple of months later when he was asked why Eminem doesn’t ‘do s**t’ anymore during an appearance on the Full Send podcast in April that year.
The Gin and Juice lyricist said that after all the graft he has put in, Slim Shady is now in a position where he can be selective about what he does with his time and can stay out of the spotlight.
Snoop explained: “He do what he have to do, but I think when you’ve been the biggest rapper in the world for so many years, it’s like what more can you do?
“You know? I think it’s… he’s finding his moments now, finding when he wants to come and when he wants to drop and pop because, you know, his fan ain’t going nowhere.”
Snoop then went on to explain why it was that other rappers felt they could disrespect Eminem, saying it was because ‘they know he’s sitting in his shell right now’.
“And what they gonna do is make him pop that motherf***ing shell open,” the West Coast star said.
“People take shots at rappers like that because that rapper is invisible for the moment, but that is the way to getting back visible, when you start poking the bear. He still is who he is. Do not get it f**ed up.
“You poke the bear with your nails, you get your nails broke.”
