When Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg ask you to fly from Hong Kong to Los Angeles with less than 24 hours’ notice to interview them—you say yes. Well, first, you hyperventilate in the streets of Hong Kong, have a mini existential crisis, and then drop everything and hop on the next 13-hour flight home to LA. It’s Dre and Snoop, after all—two living legends whose collaborative project, Missionary (officially Snoop’s 20th solo album), delivers the final, hard-hitting mic drop to cap off a year of undeniable victory for the West.
I pulled up to a hidden studio in Los Angeles, discreetly tucked between industrial warehouses and surrounded by massive trucks. Walking inside, I immediately felt a different vibe than when I first met them months prior in London. There stood the iconic duo: Dre and Snoop, moving like they’d never left the ’90s. Missionary blasted through the speakers as they two-stepped in sync—a glass of gin in Dre’s hand, a blunt in Snoop’s—and a classic drop-top Cadillac parked casually in the background. There was a palpable synergy between them—something you could feel in the air—a brotherhood solidified by decades of tribulations and triumphs. Watching them pose for photos later felt like stepping back to the era when every street corner in Compton and beyond echoed with their music.
Missionary is the sonic reunion we’ve all been waiting for, a powerful testament to the indelible chemistry Snoop and Dre have cultivated over decades. Their bond, first solidified 31 years ago on Doggystyle, has matured and evolved, and this new project is the proof. Sure, Missionary has echoes of Snoop’s legendary debut, but don’t get it twisted: They’re not trying to chase the ghosts of the past. This is a bold leap into the next chapter of their GOAT journey. Unconcerned by the inevitable comparisons to the past, the duo is focused on crafting something that’s of the moment but also timeless. “We think about perfection amongst ourselves,” said Snoop. “We’re competing against us.”
After our conversation, their purpose came into sharp focus. This wasn’t the same duo we first met during Doggystyle—young and hungry, staking their claim in the game. Now, they’re seasoned architects of hip-hop. Entrepreneurs. Super Bowl halftime performers. Living legends. Snoop has transformed into America’s sweetheart, while Dr. Dre reigns as one of music’s most successful moguls. This time, their hunger felt different—deeper, untethered from accolades or commercial validation. They’re not chasing charts; they’re carving out something singular. As Snoop told me: “We always fill the void when we make music. We’re putting back the sound we created under his direction—and that’s exactly what we did.” Missionary delivers on that promise with old-school West Coast flavor tinged with maturity and groove that only Dre and Snoop could deliver. And trust me, they popped out and showed n*ggas how it’s done, just like we do on the West Coast.
JHW: The world has been begging for this reunion since Doggystyle 30 years ago. I know you’ve heard this question a lot, but I want to know: Why now?
Snoop Dogg: Why not? Not why.
Dr. Dre: That was going to be my answer. Not why, why not?
SD: We still in our prime. We still good at what we do and we just felt like we always fill the void when we make music. We trying to put back the sound that we created under his direction and that’s what we’re doing. We’re putting it back in the scene again.
DD: And it’s also all about timing. For some reason it just clicked for now. I’m doing some amazing music right now. And Snoop, he stays on his grind. Everybody knows what it is with his energy and his commitment and his work ethic and everything.
JHW: Snoop, you said you’re filling a void. Can you talk about what that void is?
SD: That void is Dr. Dre’s sound. When Dr. Dre makes music, his music don’t sound like nobody else’s music. And it’s a uniqueness about his sound that me and him make together and I’m just honored to still be able to do it at a high level and for him to be able to produce me.
DD: And also this is a different way of working, to be honest with you. I think it took maybe 20 years for Snoop to allow me to work with him this way. And the way we produced the record and the way we did the writing and the music and the whole nine is a different way of us working. And I think the audience is going to really get another taste for the next saga of what we’re doing. Especially making hip-hop records at this age, and it’s the shit. So yeah, you’re going to get another dose of us that I think is going to be really impressive.
JHW: You said it’s a different way of working. Can you paint the picture of what the process looked like and how it was different from making Doggystyle?
SD: I can paint it. Doggystyle was me being raw, him learning me and figuring me out and producing me.
DD: And I was still learning during that time as well.
SD: This is him on the top of his game producing for me. Not making a beat for me, but producing the whole song, every element of the song from how I say it to what I say to the way I say it, to the coming back in doing ad-libs, to making sure that it sounds right. Like your projection of your vocals, listening to every fucking word. ‘No, you got to come back and say this word like this because your energy wasn’t right.’ And when we listened to it back, I fucking love it because it challenged me and it put me in a position of where I’ve never been. People work with me and be like, ‘Oh, that shit was dope.’ This nigga be like, ‘Nope, do it again. Do it again until it’s perfection.’
DD: Yeah. And I feel like the first time we worked together on Doggystyle, I was still green. I was still learning the SSL mixing board and still learning how the musicality of everything was going. I was still learning. So I got it now. I always say, nobody’s ever mad at humility. I’m better now. I’m so much better than I was when we did Doggystyle. People are going to understand that when they hear the music.
JHW: So the process of sending him beats, do you send it to him and then he approves it?
SD: No way. We in the same room. For everything. Sometimes the beat is made right there on the spot and then we create the song on the spot. We are not on that ‘give me a beat and I’m going to put a verse to it and send it back to you.’
DD: That ain’t how we work. There’s a synergy. We are in the room together from ground up. That’s how it works.
SD: From intro to endo.
JHW: Speaking of intimacy, the album is called Missionary. The last one was Doggystyle. Is it called Missionary because it’s more intimate and vulnerable?
SD: He named both albums. He’s the credit. Give this motherfucker with his nasty ass. I’m all grown and shit and you going to pull me right back.
JHW: Were there any other positions or names being considered for the title?
SD: I was going to call it “Cowgirl,” but he didn’t really want that. No, I’m fucking with you. That’s not true.
JHW: So missionary was always the top?
DD: Yeah. Why not? I think it’s fucking fun and funny as shit. We’re just having fun and being creative. That’s what this whole shit is about. That’s just being in the studio together.
JHW: So when we were talking earlier, you said no, this is Snoop’s album, but you are a huge part of it. So when you produce an album, do you not consider yourself a part of that collaboration?
DD: I’m a part of it, absolutely.
JHW: So you don’t want to take ownership of the album?
DD: No. I’m the producer and I like to play the background. I don’t even know why I’m here doing this shit. This is his album.
SD: But the thing is, Dr. Dre, when we get together, because people like to hear us rap together. We got a couple of songs on there and we’re rapping together. That’s the part that he don’t be understanding is that people love me, but they love us when we are together.
DD: It’s different when we are together.
SD: It’s a stronger love. I can do a lot by myself, but when I’m with you it’s like I can be Robin and let you be Batman. You know what I’m saying? I can kick back.
DD: Yeah. We know what it is. Everybody loves it when we’re together. There’s a certain synergy that comes together when we get on stage or when we get in the studio together. It’s just some kind of magic that happens. I realized this when we were working on “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” and it was this one part that came in when I realized how much our vocals work together. And I’m like, oh shit, this is like a synergy or something that is really fucking special. So I just ran with it from there.
JHW: Would you say it was difficult or challenging to create this album knowing how high the fan expectations are?
SD: No, we don’t ever go into a record thinking about that. We think about perfection amongst ourselves. We are competing against us. This nigga don’t even listen to anything that we did that’s old. So you don’t never have to worry about that with him. I was playing our old record today, he said, ‘Man, turn that shit off and put on our new shit.’
DD: Yeah, that just happened today. I don’t listen to any of the songs I’ve ever made since 1985, which is when I started. I don’t even allow my family or anybody to play that shit around me. I think that just the process of recording is what I really enjoy. Just recording the albums, and I’m listening to it enough while we’re recording, and when we finish recording, I wake up listening to that shit once it comes out. I’m ready to listen to the next shit.
JHW: Not even for nostalgia?
DD: Maybe later when I’m kicking it with my grandkids or something like that. Maybe I might go back and start listening to the trajectory from 1985 and how my skills developed along the way. That would be much more entertaining for me to listen to what I was doing from then until now. And really listening to how my skills developed along the way. I think that would be more entertaining for me.
SD: Do you think your music sounds better now?
DD: Yes.
SD: I don’t.
DD: I think I’m making the best shit ever.
SD: I do too, but I think some of your old music is fucking amazing.
If he don’t listen to his old music, that means he ain’t listening to the music that’s out either. So his shit don’t sound like nobody’s. This nigga make records for what’s in for him, no matter what’s going on outside.
DD: Yeah. I don’t want to be disrespectful to anybody right now, but I’m not really inspired by what’s happening with hip-hop these days. It’s not for me. I’ve always said I’m not going to disrespect it or anything like that, but I haven’t heard anything that makes me go fuck, why didn’t I do that? I haven’t heard that in a long time, which makes my job easy to be honest.
JHW: Do you remember the last person or last album that you heard that you were inspired by?
SD: Stevie Wonder’s [Songs in the] Key of Life? [Laughs.]
DD: Well, if you’re talking about new shit, I would say good kid, m.A.A.d city and To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar were the last hip-hop albums that inspired me.
JHW: So if you guys could point to one moment from this album that makes you’re super proud of it, what would that be?
SD: It’s a song called “Sticky Situation.” I had to fight to get this song on the album.
DD: No you didn’t.
SD: Yeah, I did. It was in the other files and then I brought it back and then this n*gga mixed the fuck out of it. But it sound like a classic Dr. Dre song.
DD: I fucks with it now. I would say mine is another song that I almost took off the album, but Snoop said he would shoot me if I did. It’s called “Now or Never.” I think that’s one of the two songs that I appear on vocally and I really fuck with that now. His delivery and the lyrics and the way he came off on that one, I would say that was one of the ones that’s really impressive to me.
JHW: Why were you going to take it off?
DD: Because it’s really slow and much more mellow than the rest of the songs on the album. And I wanted to make it so every song on this album could be performed live. And this isn’t one of those songs, but it’s good enough to be on the record.
SD: Well, that’s the song that made me cry. No songs that I ever made made me cry. Real shit.
DD: I never heard you say that. This n*gga getting mushy.
SD: No, no, not like that. ’Cause we was at the little thing with Interscope when we was playing the record and they had asked me, ‘What song means the most to you?’ And I said that record. And I played it, and when I played it, the motherfucker made me cry. There’s certain shit that’s being said in that verse that’s deep to me.
DD: Yeah, I agree with that. I fucks with it because the way the vocals move, it’s a rollercoaster ride. And BJ The Chicago Kid came through on the hook and he made it sound amazing. That’s the bridge between Snoop’s verse and my verse and that made me say, okay, alright, that goes on the album. Along with the threat Snoop gave me.
JHW: Snoop, what do you think was important when you were making Doggystyle that’s not important anymore?
SD: I didn’t have no importance with Doggystyle, my importance was staying free. I was going through some legal things at the time. So my focus was just trying to be the dopest rapper that I can be. Me and Dr. Dre was having so much fun drinking gin in the studio, mixing and mingling. I was in the moment. It wasn’t about importance, none of that shit. I was just a young rapper following his direction, just like I’m an old rapper following his direction.
JHW: And there’s also a song with Sting. I know he’s become your mentor, Snoop. How did that relationship develop?
SD: Well, I’ve been a fan of Sting since I was a kid, so when we did the record, it was an interpolation of his song and we was thinking who could we get on it, and we said we might as well go after Sting. And when we sent it to him, that motherfucker sent the record back how fast?
DD: I don’t know. We were just trying to get the song cleared and he sent us a song back with his vocals on it.
SD: He sound harder than me on that. I’m like, damn Sting, you cold-blooded with this shit. To me, it shows the growth of who I am and where I’m at to have a duet with somebody like that.
DD: Yeah, Sting is one of our heroes and it was amazing for him to jump on the song. And he actually sang our lyrics that he wrote. So it is amazing that he was down to do that.
JHW: That’s incredible. What has he taught you, being your mentor and collaborating on this with you?
SD: I had got a chance to spend time with him on The Voice and I learned how to be a better listener from him. Even at the stage of his career, he was still able to listen and receive information. So I like that about him, and I’m still able to do the same thing to take my star and say put that shit to the side and go back to being a student for a minute.
JHW: A question about “Pressure,” because it revisits your inspiration from Slick Rick. How has his writing still resonated with you nearly 40 years later?
SD: The way Dr. Dre used my voice as an instrument was key on some of these records and the style definitely was created by Slick Rick, and I’m good at emulating it and getting close to it and having my own version of it. I just feel like Dr. Dre knows how to use my voice like an instrument rather than just rap on this song. ‘No, give me some personality on this song.’ ‘Nah n*gga, your energy wasn’t right.’ ‘Nah, you should say it like this.’
DD: And we’re both fans of Slick Rick in a major way, and we know that’s one of Snoop’s heroes.
SD: Dr. Dre laid the ref to that. You oughta hear his version of that.
DD: No, she can’t hear that. I’m rapping trying to sound like Snoop on the ref. You’ll never hear that.
JHW: Snoop, you and Meth were like all-stars in the ’90s. How did it feel to bring him on “Skyscraper”?
SD: Man, Dr. Dre love Meth like I love Meth. So it was an easy call. I’ve maintained a relationship with Method Man since ’93. So this is like my family member. So to be able to call somebody and say, Meth, we need to get you on this track because you my peer, I don’t really want nobody young on this. I want my peer, somebody that I naturally love and respect that Dr. Dre respects as well. And he went in, he went bodyguard hard.
DD: We had him on the Zoom. I said, ‘Listen man, I saw you fucking bench pressing, you look strong.’ I said, ‘You look like you could bench press a Prius.’ And he just actually came through for us. We have a short movie for the release of Snoop’s album called Missionary and Method Man came through just the other day and did all the voiceovers for us.
JHW: Oh, I’m excited to see that. Can you share more about the short?
DD: So the concept is me and Snoop, we’re basically hit men and vigilantes and we solve problems for people that can’t go to the cops. And we’re telepathic and we can hear what everybody’s thinking. And we’re just using this music shit. For example, this interview, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, we’re just using that as a cover to cover up what we really do for a living.
JHW: Is there some truth behind this?
SD: We do make hits. [Laughs.]. We are hit men.
JHW: On the song with Method Man, you rapped: “Raise a glass for the coast, we the last of the GOATs.” What do you mean by that?
DD: I got to hear the answer to this.
SD: You have to know what it is. It’s only very few of us around, and we know who we are and we respect each other. Just the other day, we was on a interview with KRS-One and Kurtis Blow. Those are GOATs. They’re the last of the GOATs, and we’re the last of the GOATs. So everybody that’s under that moniker know who they are. Those who haven’t got to that status going to feel some kind of way,
DD: Hopefully, in my opinion, we’re not the last of the goats, and there’s another fucking Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Eminem and Ice Cube in their fucking bedroom or in their garage right now. It’s like a 16-year-old kid that’s going to come out and do some shit that’s even bigger and more spectacular than what we’ve ever done. And I feel like that’s the case right now. There’s probably some kid right now banging on his drum machine, a keyboard, that’s going to do some shit that is going to make us go like,
What the fuck is that?’
SD: Yeah, he or she is out there.
JHW: And there’s no one that you feel is semi-close to that GOAT status?
DD: Right now? As far as production and writing goes, as far as hip-hop goes in the whole shit, to be perfectly honest with you: No. I don’t mean that to be disrespectful in any way about anybody that’s doing their thing. That’s just my truth.
JHW: So Snoop said, “Fuck being lyrical, I’m a walking miracle.” What inspired that line?
SD: Because sometimes the lyrics get lost, especially in the industry right now. Lyrics aren’t that upfront. It’s more about jingles and whatnot. So we want to let it be known what it really is, and what it’s really about. If you’re really an MC, this is what matters. Your song structure, your bars, the way you deliver, your timing, your cadence, all of that shit matters. We from the old school. We from the birth of hip-hop. So just trying to reassure people that when you listening to this, understand what we coming from. We coming from the point of an MC and a DJ.
DD: What the fuck happened? Why do people still give a fuck about me and Snoop after 30 and 40 years? That’s the answer to the question. He is a walking miracle. You know what I mean? It’s just like why the fuck am I in the game for 40 years? It’s like, on some real shit, I started in 1985, right? So it’ll be 40 years in this shit. And let me pat myself on the back for a minute. I’ve been successful in the hip-hop business more than anybody ever in hip-hop history. Right? There’s been people that have been in the business long before me, but successful up until now, and people still give a fuck. Right? How the fuck does that happen? Why the fuck do people still give a fuck about us? Yeah. He’s a walking miracle.
JHW: True GOATs.
DD: That’s the truth.
JHW: On “Gun Smoke” we got vintage 50 and Eminem. What was it like enlisting them for this performance?
SD: That’s Dr. Dre’s all-star team. All three of us love Dr. Dre’s production and we all felt like we needed a record where we all got something together. We loving each other, we appreciating each other, and it just made sense. Dr. Dre’s at the top of his game right now and these are three of his all-stars, and it only made sense for me to come together on this record “Gun Smoke.”
DD: It’s a brotherhood. We all show up for each other. None of us has ever said no to each other.
JHW: Do they make any critiques when they hear the sound or anything like that? Or are they fully in as soon as you call?
DD: The critiques come from Eminem. It’s like a friendly competition among us. And it’s healthy. You’ll hear it. Like the way 50 showed up on the first verse. Then Snoop comes in and then Eminem shows up and you know what the fuck it is with him and that ink pen.
SD: He going 75 bars of madness. Fuck all of y’all. And after he listened to it back, he may be like, ‘Give it to me again. I need eight more bars.
DD: No, he fucked around and Eminem learned the technical parts of the studio. And now, he’s like can you turn my vocal up two db?
SD: We’re students. We love being in Dr. Dre’s school, we have a great time in class.
JHW: So Dre, you use dancehall in a very strategic and pointed way. You do it so well on “Fire.” What do you love about dancehall?
DD: First of all, the artist that I work with on the record is Jamaican. Her name is Cocoa Sarai. So she’s doing the hook on the song. So that was motivating that whole kind of bounce on it, because she’s in the studio while we’re creating the beat. So I’m basically following her.
SD: Dre got a great team. Shout out to the ICU, the team behind the scenes. The writers, producers, the whole crew. They so energetic. They so dope. They go on boats, they go to different places.
DD: We go out in the middle of the ocean sometimes and record. We on the boat sometimes for two weeks and there’s a studio there. Nobody can go anywhere. For some reason Snoop won’t come out on the boat.
SD: I’ve watched the movie Titanic.
DD: We’re just there with a motherfucking microphone and keyboards and the whole shit just constantly recording. And that’s what it is. A lot of the music comes from that because we’re all in this confined situation.
SD: It’s no ego in the room and everyone got to agree.
DD: Yeah. I got a sign in my studio that says, ‘Your ego is not your amigo.’
SD: That’s what makes it fun for me to drop my Snoop Dogg persona and go over there and just really be a student and be a kid again. That’s the fun of being with Dr. Dre.
JHW: So when you’re choosing this creative circle of writers and vocalists, what are you looking for? How did you choose those specific people?
DD: Well, it kind of just happens. It’s just like somebody knows somebody and then we meet ’em. It’s just, like, your talent gets you in the room. Your personality keeps you there. That’s how it works.
SD: And Dr. Dre is the master of utilizing a room. Like this room right here. Some of y’all may think y’all not talented in music, but he could find something in every last one of you motherfuckers in here. And you know I ain’t lying.
DD: You’re on cowbell. You’re on tambourine. We going to figure this shit out. It is gumbo.
JHW: Snoop, who’s in your dream blunt rotation? Dead or alive.
SD: I really want to smoke with and do a record with Sade. I think we would have a nice time smoking and then going right into a session that Dr. Dre produced.
DD: I love Sade.
JHW: That’s one person. Maybe two or three more?
SD: Michael Jordan.
DD: Not Michael Jackson?
SD: I smoked next to Michael Jackson.
JHW: Okay, Michael Jordan, Sade, is there one more person?
SD: Muhammad Ali.
JHW: Dre, who’s in your dream blunt rotation? Dead or alive?
DD: I’m going to go with [Kurt] Cobain. Ella Fitzgerald. I really like this version of her singing “’Round Midnight.” Thelonious Monk and George Clinton. But I smoked one time with Snoop.
SD: What happened to you?
DD: I fucking realize what God looks like. I’m never smoking with this motherfucker again.
JHW: Snoop, on the last song you say, “Call this my victory lap and this might be my last dance.” Are you hinting at retirement?
SD: What? What is that? We don’t know what that word is. I don’t know how to golf.
DD: Why do people say I’m retired? What the fuck is that? Why do you say I’m retired? Look, I’ve seen motherfuckers say I’m retired and then come out of retirement the next month. What the fuck? Why say I’m retired? Retire and do what?
View news Source: https://www.complex.com/music/a/jillian-hardeman-webb/still-dr-dre-snoop-dogg-complex-cover
