The Snoop Dogg song Diplo had no idea he was involved in
Legendary Long Beach rapper Snoop Dogg has a rap career spanning over 30 years, with collaborations alongside countless multifaceted producers. So much so that his collaborators haven’t always been aware of the songs they’re involved in.
In the early days of his career, Snoop joined forces with Dr. Dre to produce the entirety of his debut album, Doggystyle, in 1993. That first project served as the blueprint for his subsequent collaborations with DJ Pooh, Master P, DJ Quik, The Neptunes, and many other prominent beatmakers in the industry.
In 2009, Snoop released his tenth studio album, Malice n Wonderland, which continued his legacy with a crew of producers that included Battlecat, The Dream, Teddy Riley, Lil Jon, and Tricky Stewart. The following year, he reissued the album in the form of No Malice, which boasted brand-new songs and remixes.
One of those tracks was a collaboration with Kid Cudi called ‘That Tree’, which was produced by Diplo. However, the whole thing initially came as a surprise to the DJ/producer after he hadn’t even sent a full beat to Snoop. During an interview with MTV News, the producer opened up about his relationship with Snoop’s manager and the origins of ‘That Tree’ that was simply born from some loops he put together.
“I’ve known Snoop’s manager Ted Chung for a while, and I actually met Snoop through the Swedish singer Robyn at the Grammys last year,” Diplo said. “We exchanged information because he’d heard of me, and I kept in touch. When Ted came around asking for beats, I didn’t have any, so I gave him some small loops, and Ted actually just looped the loops over again.”
Diplo revealed he didn’t know anything about ‘That Tree’ before hitting the studio with Cudi, explaining, “Cudi was like, ‘I just did a track with Snoop over your beat.’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I had no idea that Ted had taken the small loops and they’d rapped on it, so Ted eventually sent me back a vocal and I kind of constructed a track around that.”
He added, “It didn’t make that album because of deadlines, and it wasn’t in the right shape. But they liked the track and really wanted to use it, so I did some more work on it, and that’s why it’s just coming out now.”
The music video for ‘That Tree’, directed by Erick Peyton, has over 11million views on YouTube. Speaking of the visual, Snoop explained how they tried to show the fun they like to have and, of course, their mutual love of marijuana.
“It’s kind of hard to explain,” he said. “It’s like Romper Room. It’s kiddish. It’s really fun. Me and I like to have fun, so we wanted the video to depict that. It’s not a real serious video. There’s no champagne room. There’s no money being thrown or a bunch of girls. It’s just me and him having a good time.”
He continued, “It’s basically a song talking about what we love. It’s a hard world we live in. Sometimes the only way we can get away is through that tree. We search the whole globe trying to find happiness, and sometimes, it sits right there in front of us in that tree.”
Snoop went on to collaborate with Diplo at length in 2013 on Reincarnated, his reggae album under the Snoop Lion alias. Diplo was operating under his Major Lazer group at the time and had already been making waves with his EDM and dancehall fusion.
“Snoop Dogg is an icon, man; he’s bigger than the music,” Diplo said in 2012. “What we’re doing is a reggae record. It’s like Snoop Dogg and Major Lazer together. It’s all reggae, and he’s singing, and he’s doing a fucking awesome job, and I never knew it, but he had his heart in every song.”
He added, “We’re going to get back into the production of it next month, and I’m really proud of that record. It’s the first record I’ve ever executive-produced, and his crew is amazing.”