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Music

A Year of Lil Wayne: Today We Celebrate Snoop Dogg

Obviously, our national hero Snoop and Wayne are on a David Banner song together.

Day 176: "Speaker" feat. Akon, Lil Wayne, and Snoop Dogg – David Banner, The Greatest Story Ever Told , 2007

On Monday, Snoop Dogg released a video making fun of Donald Trump. This morning, in an unprecedented breach of presidential etiquette that goes against a decades-long tradition of "Snoop Dogg is the best" being a publicly held position, Donald Trump tweeted about it and Snoop's "failing career." The right, of course, hate Snoop Dogg because they hate weed and black people, and they are presumably even more incensed at the idea that after years of being told that their racist jokes about Obama being an ape were racist, suddenly it turns out Snoop Dogg is allowed to say mean shit about the president just like Americans have been every year since 1789.

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But we don't need to dwell on the political implications of this or the general number of turds that come flying out of Republican politicians' mouths any more than we already have. Suffice it to say, today drew a line in the sand between Trump and any remotely cool person ever. It's telling that the two GOP politicians who have weighed in most vocally are the party's two most-hated nerds, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. It's Snoop or the dickheads, and frankly it's our moral responsibility to be pro-Snoop.

So, let's talk about Snoop and Wayne. Going by the law of Lil Wayne being connected to every rapper ever and multiplying it by the law of Snoop Dogg also being connected to every rapper ever, there's obviously a link between the two. Most notably, there's a weird tension. For one, Snoop was briefly signed to Cash Money rivals No Limit in the 90s, and he is also probably the world's most famous Crip, as opposed to Wayne and Birdman, who vocally flash their Blood bona fides whenever possible. There have been a few rumors of beef between the two (a Google search reveals several analyses of Snoop's supposed subliminals for Wayne, which Snoop has debunked), and it's true that there is arguably a genesis for it. Wayne coined the phrase "drop it like it's hot," and Snoop borrowed it to make his most successful record ever. Wayne then rapped over that beat on a song called "Nah This Ain't the Remix."

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On the other hand, both love smoking weed, both were pioneers in rap's acceptance of Auto-Tune, and both have had long and incredibly successful careers, constantly reinventing themselves. In 2014, Wayne went so far as to say that he wanted his career to look like Snoop's or Willie Nelson's. Also, again, Wayne coined the phrase "drop it like it's hot," and Snoop borrowed it to make his most successful record ever.

Whatever all of that means, Snoop and Wayne have, despite their respective ubiquity, appeared on almost no songs together—and have done so only under the curatorial auspices of someone else, specifically Outkast and David Banner. The David Banner song, "Speaker," well, it's not the best song by literally anyone involved (Akon sings the hook). And Snoop and Wayne never face the camera while the other is rapping in the video, which seems like further proof they don't really get along. But, hey, look, this is history that this song even exists, and we will all make a point of enjoying it on this day, the Lord's day, the day in which Snoop Dogg is our national hero. Lil Wayne has made music with him, even if he possibly did so begrudgingly, and that puts Lil Wayne in the Good People column. Don't you want to be in that column and not in the one that hates weed and Snoop Dogg? That's what I thought.

Photo: Screenshot of Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg in the "Speaker" video via YouTube

Follow Kyle Kramer on Twitter.