Perhaps one of the best casting decisions made in recent Hollywood memory is awarding the role of Huggy Bear in the Starsky and Hutch remake to Snoop Dogg.Like his fictional character, Snoop always seems to run afoul of the law while professing innocence and somehow skirting serious jail time. You think he is on the good guy’s side, and maybe he is, but you’re never quite sure, which is the genesis of much of his appeal.
The rapper born in 1972 as Calvin Broadus was in and out of trouble throughout his late teenage years until he began rapping with one of Dr. Dre’s stepbrothers. The legendary Dre took the young Snoop under his wing, and Snoop quickly became one of gangsta rap’s premier stars.
His debut album, Doggystyle, was the first debut album to enter the Billboard charts at #1. Meanwhile, Snoop was arrested and charged with being an accomplice to murder, a charge he was later cleared of. More albums followed quickly after he was cleared, and even movie roles in films such as Old School and Soul Plane quickly developed.
Through 2005, Snoop had charted three #1 Billboard albums and a #1 single in Drop It Like It’s Hot. Fox had even optioned a movie based on his coaching his son’s football time. But the see-saw world that marks Snoop’s existence took on sinister overtones in early 2005 when he was named along with Disney (who produced the show) for allegedly raping a woman while backstage at a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2003.