The reason why Snoop Dogg felt competitive with Jay-Z: “Who would shut down the mall?”
Although one is from the West Coast and the other is from the East Coast, Snoop Dogg has always had friendly competition with Jay-Z. The pair have been linked through Pharrell over the years, with the producer giving beats to both rappers that have gone on to be huge singles.
Despite having the mutual connection, Snoop and Jay have never rapped together over a Pharrell beat, which is something the Long Beach legend has long had on his bucket list. “What I didn’t get from [Pharrell] that I always wanted was a song with me and Jay-Z together on a Pharrell beat,” he said. “Because I felt like [Jay and I] heard his beats the best, you know what I’m saying? We did his beats the most justice.”
When asked if he felt competitive with Jay in terms of collaborating with Pharrell, he told GQ, “Yeah. Because that’s our producer; he’s our guy. I’m like, ‘Man, that shit you gave Jay-Z was hot. Now you think I can get one better than that?’ You think Jay’s saying, ‘How the fuck do you get this n*gga ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’? I’ve been hanging out with you, and you’re going to give him that?'”
Pharrell has been behind many of Snoop’s hits over the years, including ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot‘, ‘Signs’, ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Let’s Get Blown’ as The Neptunes. On the other hand, P has provided Jay with songs like ‘Frontin’, ‘Excuse Me Miss’, ‘I Just Wanna Love You’ and ‘Change Clothes’.
Both giants in their own right, Tyrese once claimed that Snoop is a bigger rapper than Jay. “Who’s a bigger rapper globally? The most famous of the two? Jay-Z or Snoop Dogg? Snoop is a genius,” he said on Club Shay Shay. “In your opinion, globally around the world, like if Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg was in a mall in Moscow, who would shut the mall down?”
He continued, “He just hosted the Olympics and came home with 16million new followers. 16 of them. He did that in two weeks! We are not talking about Grammys because he ain’t won one yet. Biggest fucking superstar in the world. That’s my big homie.”
Snoop once revealed that he’s never received an invite to Jay’s famous Roc Nation Brunch and joked that he’s too stylish for all the guests. “I know why they don’t want me to come, ’cause I’ma be the sharpest,” he said on the F3LLAS Podcast. “They know when I walk in, my outfit gon’ turn everything out. So they’re like, ‘Keep that n*gga away.'”
Confirming he has a good relationship with Hov, he added, “Nah, it’s all good. I fuck with Jay — that’s my guy. I just ain’t had time to slide through to one of those brunches. Maybe next time we can all go together, we’ll roll up in there together. Just come in there with a linen outfit — I think you gotta have on linen.”
Snoop collaborated with Jay in 2009 on a remix of ‘I Wanna Rock’ from More Malice, the deluxe version of his Malice n Wonderland album. However, Scoop DeVille was on the production, not Pharrell.