Snoop Dogg Capers: Field ‘Planet Snoop’ Against ‘Planet Earth,’ Buy Bankrupt Roscoe’s House Of Chicken And Waffles, Join WWE Hall Of Fame

Snoop Dogg has been multi-tasking in his own unique way: launching Planet Snoop against Planet Earth, offering to buy bankrupt Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, and joining the World Wrestling Entertainment’s Hall of Fame lineup. Thus, the impassioned marijuana advocate continues the ongoing narrative of his spliffy capers.

According to the Tufts Daily, Snoop Dogg’s website Merryjane.com featured his new nature series, Planet Snoop, for the first time on March 24, 2016. The show is reportedly an offshoot of a recurring Jimmy Kimmel Live! segment called “Plizzanet Earth,” where the 44-year-old rapper provides commentary on viral nature videos.

The Snoop Dogg segments developed a regular following on YouTube, garnering millions of hits and inspiring fans to circulate an online petition to bring him on board Planet Earth. The petition on Change.org, calling for Snoop to narrate through a season of the popular nature series, netted over 65,000 signatures.

When the creators of Planet Earth failed to respond, Planet Snoop was born. Unlike the British-narrated Planet Earth, Snoop Dogg’s version is online, banking on a potential for going viral. With each episode running a minute to a minute and a half, it is diluted to the fight scenes, the main draw of nature shows. And listeners are enticed by a mellifluous snoopy voice-over.

In an account by HipHopDX, Snoop Dogg’s decision to buy Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles came as a knee-jerk reaction to the devastating news that the rapper’s preferred eatery was going bankrupt. A reporter accosting Snoop Dogg and hip-hop producer Warren G outside Los Angeles’ Lure Nightclub on March 29 broke the news that the restaurant might fold.

First talking to the reporter, Warren Griffin III was joined by Snoop Dogg joking about the interview being too serious when the bad news regarding Roscoe’s came up in the conversation. Shocked by Roscoe’s folding up, the Doggfather quickly made up his mind, and announced his intention.

“Bankruptcy, Roscoe’s went, no they didn’t? I guess Ima have to buy it, man and make it Snoop Dogg’s Chicken and Waffles.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, the bankruptcy causing Snoop Dogg’s concern, came after the black-founded restaurant chain was ordered to pay $3.2 million to Daniel Beasley for giving Latino employees preferential treatment over black workers. Black ex-employee Beasley claimed he was fired for going against systemic racism and became homeless as a result. A jury awarded Beasley close to $1.7 million in damages and $1.5 million for his attorney’s fees.

What pushed the chain over the edge before Snoop Dogg’s intervention was owner East Coast Foods’ debts totaling between $10 million and $50 million. Its assets of less than $50,000 were not enough to save the seven-restaurant chain from bankruptcy.

Roscoe’s earned a showbiz niche through its mention in films, television, and music. Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 crime drama Jackie Brown features Samuel L. Jackson’s character offering to feed a flunky at Roscoe’s. Late rapper Notorious B.I.G. brings up the culinary institution in his “Going back to Cali” piece. Snoop Dogg dined both Larry King and David Beckham at Roscoe’s on a television reality show.

Meanwhile, according to the Vine, Snoop Dog will join the likes of Mike Tyson and Arnold Schwarzenegger at the WWE Hall of Fame. Becoming the first musician to join the wrestling elite, the rapper will be inducted at an honorary ceremony to take place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on April 2, 2016.

Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., aka Snoop Dogg, who has made the legalization of cannabis his main preoccupation, has appeared on a talk show sandwiched between Martha Stewart and Justin Bieber, and sung at a women’s wear fashion show in Paris. He now has added to his mixed bag of interests, environmentalism, chicken and waffles, and world wrestling.

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]