Washington, September 15
Renowned rapper Snoop Dogg released his debut album and welcomed his first child in just a nine-month timespan in the 1990s. However, this led to maintaining a balance between fatherhood and his music career. He recalled the contribution of his friend Tupac Shakur in the upbringing of his child, reported People.
In August 1994, the 'Gin and Juice' rapper welcomed his first son, Corde Broadus, following the release of his chart-topping album Doggystyle in November 1993.
Snoop recalled warmly the aid he had from his renowned friend and colleague, Tupac Shakur, with his son.
"I was working on Tha Doggfather," said Snoop, referring to his sophomore album, which was eventually released in 1996. "So when Corde was old enough able to pee and all that other, I started taking him to the studio with me. ... So I'm raising him around all of the homies."
This is when Shakur met Snoop's son and began assisting with his upbringing. "Tupac loved him. It's like his nephew. Tupac was a better dad than me," Snoop recalled. "We've been up here in the recording studio for three hours and we ain't got him nothing to eat. It's like I'm up here rapping and.. I'm not being a father. He was training me."
Shortly after these studio sessions, in September 1996, Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas. This ended his tenure with Corde and Snoop. At the age of 25, he passed away from wounds he had received in the shooting six days later.
Snoop welcomed his second son, Cordell Broadus, the following year in 1997. He used the advice he got from his late friend Shakur to be a good father to both Corde, now 30, and Cordell, 27.
"I put them in football and I watched them work together. Football helped me to become a real good father because I was around other men who were single parents, or either had a great wife, or was a grandfather raising their son's kids -- so much I could learn from them," Snoop recalled.
Later, after his sons began to play football, the ace rapper founded the Snoop Youth Football League in 2005 to give inner-city kids the chance to play football, reported People.