How Master P saved Snoop Dogg’s life: “He allowed me to find my way to happiness”
Snoop Dogg released his classic first two albums, Doggystyle and Tha Doggfather, on Death Row in 1993 and 1996, respectively. Both LPs were critical and commercial successes, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 chart. However, he left the formative label on bad terms amid Dre’s exit and issues with Suge Knight.
The Long Beach rapper then signed a deal with Master P’s No Limit Records, dropping his following three albums, Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told, No Limit Top Dogg and Tha Last Meal, on the imprint. Snoop was once planning to release an album called Fuck Death Row over his problems with his former label, but P talked him out of it. By doing this, Snoop credits him with saving his life.
“Do you realise that that saved my life?” he told The Breakfast Club. “Master P saved my life. I was gonna put an album out called Fuck Death Row and Mack 10 was gonna give me a million dollars to put it out. I would go up there [to the office] to see Mack 10 and when I would go up there, I would have to pass by Master P’s No Limit shit. I passed by one day, and Mystikal was in there.”
After one session, Master P asked him how much money he wanted for his work, and he said $1,500. “I come back the next day, Master P wrote me a check for $35,000,” he revealed. “So I’m like, ‘Oh, I like this n*gga’s style.’ He called me to his office, he said, ‘What you working on?’ I said, ‘I got this album called ‘Fuck Death Row.’ This motherfucker hard.’”
P told him, “You ain’t gon’ live to see that album out.” Ultimately, Snoop decided the idea was stupid and would lead to nothing but “mass destruction.” In another interview with HipHopDX, Snoop gave The Colonel his flowers for giving him an opportunity after Death Row and teaching him his ways.
“I credit him for saving my life, giving me a second chance, teaching me the business, enabling me to be Snoop Dogg and have fun and live and not have beef and have controversy in my life and allowing me to find my way to happiness,” he explained. “That’s what Master P did for me.”
Master P acknowledged Snoop’s comments on one occasion but refused to take full credit for helping him out. Instead, he put it down to Snoop’s eagerness to evolve and elevate himself as a person and artist, leading him to now own the label he was planning to diss—a full circle moment.
“We have to stop thinking out of emotions! We all We Got!” he wrote in the caption of an Instagram post. “@snoopdogg is successful & where he’s at today is because he didn’t let pride stand in his way & wasn’t afraid to change and grow, salute to my brother and partner. #GODISGOOD look how God work now he own that same record company.”