How Diddy and Snoop Dogg squashed their beef in Dublin
The Irish peace process, while imperfect, has been widely posited as a model for ending other conflicts around the world. But the contention that it also served to inspire the winding down of the East Coast–West Coast hip-hop feud is quite the surprise.
But that, ostensibly, seems to have been what happened. In 2007, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Snoop Dogg met up in the Irish capital city of Dublin, where they were set to perform some gigs together. A mere decade before that, such a concert would have been unthinkable—yet here they were now, leading representatives of the rival east and west coasts, presenting a unified front.
Diddy and Snoop reportedly met in Dublin literally a day after two leading figures of the Irish peace process, the unionist Ian Paisley and the Irish republican Gerry Adams, had gotten together to try and establish a settlement to their dispute. The rappers, it’s been claimed, were inspired by that.
Diddy and Snoop commissioned a film to capture their time together in Ireland, during which they could both be heard reflecting on the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. These killings, they agreed, were particular lowpoints in the conflict between their coasts.
A conversation between Snoop and Diddy is captured in a hotel in Dublin, with Diddy referring to their conflict as “something tragic in the hip industry.” Snoop, gesturing towards their newfound peace, said, “You guys are witnessing something you probably thought you’d never see… from one gangsta to another, enjoy this motherfucking moment.”
Their shared string of concerts, Diddy noted, was significant for hip-hop. “It’s an historical thing for us to come together. We are giving the fans a piece of history. [The fans] are going to think about two young brothers who got together and toured around the world. This is hip-hop history, yeah.”
Diddy and Snoop, at other points in the film documenting their time in Dublin, are shown to be praying together and even holding hands. Diddy praises God “for the love” that the two men now have for one another.
During the trip, Snoop also drew a connection between the history of Irish resistance to British colonialism and the struggles of the Afro-American community against US state oppression. “It’s a beautiful place,” he said of Ireland, “because these people over here fought for their freedom for 800 years. They fought for their country all this long time, just like my people.”
Snoop and Diddy’s mini-tour had initially been scheduled to stop off in the UK, too, but those plans had to be scrapped. That was because Snoop had gotten into a fight at an airport in London a year beforehand and, consequently, was banned from entering the country.