He steps through the fog and he creeps through the smog, 'coz he's Snoop Doggy (who?) Doggy (what?) Doggy... that's right, it's Snoop Dogg! This week, the recently-crowned creative chairman of Priority Records released his tenth solo studio album Malice N Wonderland. To celebrate, we at DS have amassed ten lesser-known facts about the rapper, reality TV star, porn director and harbinger of the G-funk era.1. Born Cordazar Calvin Broadus on October 20, 1971, the former Rollin' 20 Crips gang member was nicknamed 'Snoopy' by his parents because of his physical resemblance to Charlie Brown's pet beagle.2. In 1992, he hooked up with former NWA man Dr Dre for his first release as Snoop Doggy Dogg - the theme from crime thriller Deep Cover. Snoop appeared on Dre's solo debut The Chronic later that year before dropping his own quadruple-platinum genre-defining Doggystyle in 1993.3. "Murder was the case that they gave me," Snoop rapped on that LP... and it wasn't just empty bluster. He and his bodyguard McKinley Lee were charged with murder after Lee shot rival gang member Philip Woldemariam dead. Lee pleaded self-defence and both men were later acquitted.4. That wasn't the end of Snoop's legal troubles though, with various weapons and drugs charges dogging him (ahem) since then. The Home Office also banned him from visiting the UK in 2007 after an incident involving a duty-free shop window and some whisky bottles at Heathrow. "It's not the fans," Snoop complained, "it's just a few people in white wigs and members of parliament".5. As well as his music career, Snoop has been a regular fixture on the telly in the past couple of decades. Highlights include a chronically laid-back-looking Snoop co-hosting a Beavis & Butthead 'Moron-A-Thon', sketch show Doggy Fizzle Televizzle and reality telly series Snoop Dogg's Father Hood. Brilliantly, the fifth episode of the latter featuring a family trip to Germany was titled 'For Schnitzle'.6. "I keep hearing about muthaf**king Harry Potter," Snoop once said. "I'm like, 'Who is this muthaf**ker I keep hearing about?' I don't know him." As well a hit-and-miss movie career of his own (with roles in The Wash, Starsky & Hutch and Training Day), Snoop also produced and directed some mega-selling porn DVDs and claimed to have changed the industry forever. "I made a few. I know everybody like it, but everybody be afraid and 'shamed," he said of his temporary foray into the world of smut.7. Snoop Dogg was the undoubted musical highlight of the Live 8 event at Hyde Park in 2005. At around 6.30pm on live British telly, he rapped his way through 'Ups and Downs', 'Hey Hey', ''Drop It Like It's Hot', 'Signs', 'The Next Episode' and a superlative 'Who Am I? (What's My Name?)'. Countless "s**ts", "n***az" and "muthaf**kers" aired unedited as the Beeb were possibly too impressed with the G-funk flow to find their bleeper. "This is what happens when you let a Dogg off the leash," Jonathan Ross later quipped.8. Want to listen to Snoop in the car but worried about drowning out your helpful satnav? Fear not! With the recently-released Snoop Dogg voiceskin for the TomTom you can stay on the right path while getting your Doggy fix as he urges you to take a "sharp left... so fly" and other classic Snoopisms.9. As well as his on-off collaborative partnership with Dr Dre, Snoop has worked with loads of hip-hop stars, including 2Pac, Nate Dogg, Warren G, Pharrell, Eminem, Coolio and 50 Cent. Best of all though was this year's one-off track 'Rocket Experience' recorded with Quincy Jones, Talib Kweli, Soulja Boy and Buzz Aldrin (yes, that Buzz Aldrin!).10. Surviving clips of Britney Spears's abandoned 'Outrageous' video from 2004 show the pop superstar approaching Snoop on the B-ball court before jumping up to straddle his waist with her legs. She then proceeds to give his bearded face a luscious lick. Presumably Britters missed Snoop's 2001 Mystique Magazine interview where he reportedly said: "Britney would make a better prostitute than Christina. She's thicker. She'll make real money. I see her selling real fast." Outrageous indeed!
