This was February of 2014. A group of us, including Malcolm White, were sitting in the Oyster Bar at Hal and Mal’s in downtown Jackson just past 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night. Snoop Dogg, the famous rapper and oft-times cannabis proponent, was supposed to have gone on stage at 9 in the big room, but had yet to arrive.
Malcolm’s cellphone rang. He answered. I heard only one side of a two-sided conversation between Mal and Snoop’s road manager.
“Yeah,” Mal said. “We’re just sitting here waiting….”
Mal raised his eyebrows, held up his phone, pointed at it, and listened for a few seconds.
“Yeah, we got a big crowd here, over 900 folks, and they’re getting a little anxious…”
The fact is, a few angry folks had already approached Mal asking for their money back.
“Snoop is just now leaving McComb, you say? He’s bringing a crowd? Oh boy…”
Mal listened some more, his expression becoming more than a little incredulous.
“Two hundred chicken wings! Man, it’s going on 10:30 on a Tuesday night in Jackson, Mississippi. We’ll have plenty to drink, some snacks, but there’s not gonna be 200 chicken wings. Y’all, come on…”
‘The star of the Paris games’
About 90 minutes later Snoop showed up with a busload of family and friends in tow. He went on just before midnight. He rapped and danced around the stage for 90 minutes. The sold-out crowd, dancing and singing along, loved him.
That was just a decade ago, so I called my good friend Malcolm this morning and we reminisced about that night. I asked him: “Ten years ago, did you have Snoop Dogg hosting the 2024 Olympics in Paris on your bingo card?”
“No,” Mal answered. “I did not.”
Neither did I.
But here he is night after night on our TV screens. With apologies to Simone Biles, perhaps the most athletic human being ever, Snoop Dogg has become the centerpiece of these Olympics. As an Associated Press report put it: “Snoop, 52, has become the star of the Paris Games, ascending to new heights with several memorable moments. He’s carried the Olympic torch, captivated the audience as NBC’s primetime correspondent, swam with Michael Phelps, attended the U.S. women’s soccer game with Megan Rapinoe, danced with Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, and cheered on Caeleb Dressel alongside the swimmer’s wife and son.”
NBC reportedly is paying Snoop $500,000 a day, plus expenses. He’s come a long way since that Tuesday night gig at Hal and Mal’s 10 years ago.
“I’m pretty sure we got the family discount,” Mal says.
Some readers might wonder why Snoop, a California native already quite famous in 2014, was at Hal and Mal’s on a Tuesday night. Here’s the scoop, directly from Malcolm in his book “The Artful Evolution of Hal & Mal’s,” published by University Press in 2018: “We have hosted thousands of great artists and presented many memorable shows, but I get asked about Snoop Dogg more than almost anybody else. Calvin Broadus, Jr. (AKA Snoop Dogg) was born in 1971 in Long Beach, Cal., but his father Vernell Varnado, is from Magnolia, and his mother was born Beverly Tate in McComb. When he visits his people in southwest Mississippi, he delights us by dropping in at Hal & Mal’s, thrilling the sellout crowds and causing the stay-at-homes to marvel that he is playing our place.”
Arden Barnett, of Ardenland productions, booked the show and has booked Snoop for other Mississippi venues. Says Barnett, “He’s just as he appears. He has always been great, always as nice as can be, just about the nicest guy in the world.”
That niceness comes across the TV screen and also in person.
Archie Manning and his sons count Snoop as a pal. Manning met Snoop years and years ago when both participated in a celebrity flag football game at the Super Bowl. Snoop has appeared on the Manning’s ESPN Monday night football broadcast and has done a Corona beer commercial with Eli Manning.
“Snoop says he wants to be my fourth son,” Manning said last week. “He calls me Daddy Dogg. He’s a huge sports fan.
Snoop sent Manning a taped video greeting recently on the occasion of Manning’s 75th birthday. Eli Manning talked about the birthday video during his Jackson visit last week for his induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. “It was pretty cool, about what you’d expect,” Eli said. “Put it this way: I don’t think all that smoke was coming from any blown out candles.”
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