After months of backlash over his performance at President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration Crypto Ball, legendary rapper Snoop Dogg is finally breaking his silence — and he’s not apologizing.
In a fiery interview on The Breakfast Club, the 53-year-old hip-hop icon addressed accusations of being a “sellout” for appearing at the event, which many critics interpreted as an endorsement of Trump. Snoop made it clear: he’s not backing down, and his latest album, Iz it a Crime?, is his direct response to the controversy.
Snoop’s new album Iz it a Crime?, released May 15, channels his frustration over the backlash he’s faced. According to the rapper, the record is both a personal expression and a rebuttal to critics questioning his authenticity or principles.
“You gon’ deal with hate when you get to the top,” he said. “Me, personally, I answer it with success and love. That’s my answer to any hate and negativity that comes my way, ’cause it’s the strongest force that can beat it.”
“I DJ’d at the Crypto Ball for what, 30 minutes?” Snoop said, brushing off the criticism. “Made a whole bunch of money, made a lot of relationships to help out the inner city and the community and teach financial literacy and crypto in a space that it don’t exist.”
The Doggfather emphasized his decades of community work — a contrast, he argued, to how people judged him based on a single performance.
“For 30 years, Snoop Dogg been doing great things for the community… being all I can be. That’s 30 minutes versus 30 years. Get your priorities right.”
Despite years of publicly criticizing Trump — including a notorious 2017 music video where he depicted shooting a figure resembling Trump — he now insists his perspective has shifted. But his performance, he says, was not political.
Snoop Dogg’s evolving relationship with Trump is one of the more surprising storylines in pop culture. After years of calling the former president a “punk” and saying he “shouldn’t be in office,” Snoop’s tone began to shift following Trump’s 2021 pardon of Michael “Harry-O” Harris — a former Death Row Records figure whose release Snoop personally advocated for.
“Donald Trump? He ain’t done nothing wrong to me,” Snoop said in an interview with The Sunday Times earlier this year. “He has done only great things for me. He pardoned Michael Harris… so I have nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump.”
“Even if I would’ve done it for him and hung out with him and took a picture with him, can’t none of you motherf—ers tell me what I can and can’t do,” Snoop said defiantly.
“I don’t represent the Republican Party. I don’t represent the Democratic Party. I represent the motherf—ing Gangster Party — period, point blank.”
Snoop revealed how he dealt with online trolls who accused him of selling out: by confronting them directly.
“I would post s—, and I’d see motherf—ers like, ‘Oh, he a sellout.’ You know what I’d do? Jump right in their DM with a video: ‘You b—- a– … What’s happening? I’m Snoop Dogg… what you wanna do?’”
According to Snoop, many of those same critics quickly backtracked, admitting they were fans.
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