Snoop Dogg is making amends with the LGBTQ+ community, weeks after sparking furious backlash for saying he was “scared” to go to the cinema due to LGBTQ+ representation in children’s movies.
The 53-year-old hip-hop star has teamed up with LGBTQ+ media monitoring organisation GLAAD to “send a powerful message to LGBTQ youth” on annual awareness day, Spirit Day.
Spirit Day takes place on 16 October, and aims to raise awareness of bullying and bullying-related suicides of LGBTQ+ youth.
Snoop Dogg has collaborated with queer musician Jeremy Beloate, who appeared on last year’s season of The Voice US, on which the rapper is a mentor, to create new song “Love Is Love”. The song features as part of Snoop Dogg’s animated children’s series, Doggyland.
The song and its accompanying music video centres messages of acceptance of all family units, including those with same-sex parents. The music video, which features the colourful animated dogs from Snoop Dogg’s series, appears to feature two women parenting a young puppy child.
“Love Is Love” is sung by Beloate, who appears in the video as new Doggyland character, Zippy. The pack is led by Bow Wizzle, voiced by the rapper.
The lyrics of the disco-tinged Kidz Bop banger start with: “Love! Love! Love! Love who you are.”
“What makes us special is that we’re different,” the song continues.
Speaking about his collaboration with GLAAD, the “Drop It Like It’s Hot” performer said: “At the end of the day, it’s all about love — that’s what we’re teachin’ the kids with ‘Love Is Love.’
“Partnering with GLAAD for Spirit Day just felt right, because spreading love and respect for everybody is what real gangstas do. We’re showin’ the next generation that kindness is cool, inclusion is powerful, and love always wins.”
Snoop Dogg’s work with GLAAD also includes a conversation between him and Beloate about the reality of being a young LGBTQ+ person, bullying, and advice for queer youth.
In the chat, the 16-time Grammy Award nominee shares his belief that children should be “taught what love is” regardless of what their family looks like.
“It’s a beautiful thing that kids can have parents of all walks and be shown love, to be taught what love is,” he says. “Being able to have parents from all walks of life, whether it be two fathers, two mothers, whatever it is, love is the key.”
Snoop Dogg’s collaboration with GLAAD is a sea change from his comments on LGBTQ+ inclusion back in late August, when he criticised the same-sex kiss that is included in Toy Story spin-off Lightyear.
The 2022 film features a brief kiss between characters Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba) and her wife Kiko.
Speaking on the It’s Giving podcast, the “Gin and Juice” rapper said he watched the film with his grandson, who began asking him questions about how the lesbian couple would have had a baby.
“Aw s**t, I didn’t come for this s**t,” the musician recalled thinking at the time. “I came here to watch the god-damn movie. Y’all throwing me in the middle of this s**t that I don’t have an answer for… It threw me for a loop.”
He went on to say that he was “scared” to go to the movies as a result.
The rapper was widely criticised for the comments, and appeared to issue an apology of sorts via a comment posted by his official Instagram account. However, a representative later claimed that the comment was not posted by Snoop Dogg.
At the time, screenwriter Lauren Gunderson, who helped to write the minor queer plot in Lightyear, defended the scenes.
“As small as that detail is in the film, I knew the representational effect it could have,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Small line, big deal. I was elated that they kept it. I’m proud of it.”
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