Snoop Dogg’s Creating a Blueprint For Living in The Metaverse

What up, y’all. Let’s talk about Uncle Snoop today.

Last weekend, I watched a Snoop Dogg music video that had scenes taking place in the Metaverse, and it got me thinking: Snoop is the biggest celebrity involved in that space. Period.

While everyone’s afraid to get involved, Snoop is diving in headfirst. It makes a ton of sense considering how his brand has evolved over the years too.

But before we talk about Snoop’s presence in the Metaverse, let’s level set for those unfamiliar with the term.

Think of the Metaverse as a catch-all term for a place where Virtual/Augmented reality blends with real life. If your job is remote, you’re lowkey there already; All you need for your next call is a VR meeting room, and BOOM. You’re in the Metaverse.

How Did Snoop Get Here?

When it comes to brands collabs in hip-hop, Snoop is the king of partnerships, and for good reason. For years, I wondered why Snoop was so active in the brand space; after all, it works well for him. But it wasn’t until recently where he revealed his music publishing situation, that shed light on why Snoop is so open to new opportunities.

For those who aren’t in the music industry, think of “publishing” as a musician’s pension. Once a song gets released, it generates money forever. Literally. That money, referred to as royalties, goes to whoever owns the audio recording (usually the record label) and to whoever owns the lyrics/the beat – the publishing (usually the artist, if they don’t sell it).

A few weeks back on the Million Dollars Worth of Game podcast, Snoop Dogg revealed that he hasn’t had his music publishing since before his career began (see the :29sec mark).

Unfortunately, in Snoop’s case, his publishing was signed away on day one. And once your publishing belongs to another person or entity, it is difficult to get it back. The best way to make money, as he states, is by going on the road to perform.

However, the silver lining is that not having his publishing pushed Snoop into doing unique partnerships, which ultimately helped him become a cultural icon. His success in Web 3.0 even shows him using the catalog he regained after buying the rights to Death Row Records, his original record label.

Snoop’s Metaverse Partnerships

The Sandbox

Before writing this piece, I instantly thought about Snoop’s partnership with the The Sandbox. For those who are new to the world of crypto – the Sandbox is a Metaverse gaming platform where you can use NFT Avatars (like the ones above) to participate in virtual reality games, and even build property for people to visit.

In laymen’s terms: The Sandbox is an online game with collectibles.

In this game, Snoop Dogg has his own mansion where he throws parties, drops music videos, etc. and using your avatar you can visit his world to party with him! If that isn’t enough, it seems like the partnership morphs every few weeks and a new piece of the story gets added so if you miss one of the NFT drops you’ll still have a chance to get in on another drop later.

BACK ON DEATH ROW

In 2019, after being defunct for years, it was announced that Hasbro (the parent company of Toys R’ Us) purchased the rights to Death Row Records; That’s hella random, but not at all farfetched if you research what’s happened to the music rights of black music in the past (a lot of soul music from the 70s belongs to overseas entities).

Nevertheless, news broke in February that Death Row Records had a new owner. In a bit of poetic justice, it was also announced that the owner of Death Rows assets was none other than Snoop Dogg.

And what was Snoop’s first act as the new owner of Death Row Records? An Album drop paired with an NFT collection! I won’t drop the NFTs here because the ownership convo’s around copying and pasting are kinda weird (they out here suing people) but you can view the collection HERE

Gala Music NFT Drops

On top of releasing the Back On Death Row album, Snoop also created an NFT collection in association with Gala Games and their Decentralized recording arm Gala Music.

The NFT collection they sell “the stash box” grants winners access to an exclusive VIP benefits including a Snoop Dogg record that they would be able to play whenever they were on the Gala Games platform, and upon collecting all 17 they can gain access to even more perks like a BBQ or concert at Snoop’s home — something exclusive to the holder of the NFT.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Overall if we really want to see what innovation in the Web 3.0 space is about, we should look to Snoop Dogg. He’s unafraid, and reaping the benefits that come along with that. While I’m sure Snoop has more in the works, this is yet again another example of how hip-hop leads the way.

Peace.