Snoop Doggy Dogg, Snoop Dogg, Nigaracci and Snoop D-O-Double-G. These were how we came to know the famous rapper from California. But did anybody know his real name? Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. Who would've known that this West Coast hip hop MC would become a protégé of Dr. Dre.

With singles from his debut album Doggystyle, and his second album Doggfather, the world had a first taste of the Snoop Dogg music.

From then on, the public has heard various other albums, singles and even collaborations from this great rapper. Alongside his musical fame though also came controversies that made him more well-known worldwide.

The rapper got involved in drug related cases, assault charges and even was involved in a rape and a murder case. Fortunately of the two major cases Snoop Dogg was involved in, he was absolved or the case was dropped off. A short film though was made from one of these cases and this was titled Murder Was the Case. This was released alongside a soundtrack in 1994.

Recently though, Snoop Dogg has steered away from these controversies and even declared that he would be "giving up drinking and drugs." This was in 2002 and a year later he released the album, Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$ which produced the single From the Church to the Palace Snoop Dogg. From this point on, the rapper had also steered away from his more known works consisting of gangsta rap and involved in alternative and hiphop productions.

Being known as the most "well-connected" rapper of all time, this also enabled the rapper to work on several collaborations with other famous and great artists. Among this was with Pharrell Williams with Drop It Like Its Hot. Other works include singles with Justin Timberlake, Coolio and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.

Snoop Dogg thats that was another collaboration which was a Snoop Dogg ft r kelly tats that song. 'That's That' feat. R. Kelly - Snoop Dogg comes from his latest album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment which was released just last year. Snoop Dogg thats that tries out the beat from one of the scenes in the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America. The song supposedly also underwent a major reconstruction in its production stage as Dr. Dre heard of the first draft and demanded Snoop to change some of the lyrics. Snoop says of Dr. Dre "He helped me fix this song I did with R.Kelly. It was a hit record before I gave it Dre, but now it's a super hit record."

Another song off the album was vatos by Snoop Dogg. Vato, which is a Chicano slang for homie hoped to bring together African-Americans and Hispanics. vatos by Snoop Dogg touched on the racial conflict between the two groups. The original track had Pharrel Williams in the vocals but this was later changed to the artist B-Real, who is of Mexican and Cuban ancestry. In the song vatos Snoop Dogg also worked with Chicano rapper Kid Frost and had Edward James Olmos in the video.

Aside from his music though, there are still a lot of things the rapper is busy about. Before, Snoop had ventured into pornographic films and eventually founded his own production company, Snoopadelic Films.

One thing that Snoop is also passionate about is his vehicles. Everybody knows of the Snoop Dogg Vehicles that the rapper proudly rides around with. He has a large array of automobiles that even had one magazine featuring the rapper and the Snoop Dogg Vehicles. But Snoop doesn't just ride these vehicles the normal way, these Snoop Dogg Vehicles are geared up for lowriding. And because of this, the rapper is also known as "one of the strongest proponents of lowriding culture."