Snoop Dogg accuses NBA and NFL of treating black people like slaves, references lack of executive representation
Snoop Dogg is not happy with the NBA and NFL. Despite being a regular guest at NBA and NFL games over the past two decades, the legendary musician unleashed his bark on the two leagues yesterday.
The rapper, who is famous for hit songs 'Gin and Juice', 'Beautiful' and 'Drop it like it's hot' is frustrated by the lack of black representation in business, especially in the NFL and the NBA.
Snoop Dogg attacks the NFL and NBA on diversity record
Snoop Dogg spoke with the New York Times about his issues with the two businesses and the sports world with regards to diversity.
“Why don’t we have an owner in an NFL? That’s just racist. Period, point blank," he said. "We need to own an NFL team."
Currently, the NFL only has two owners who are minorities: Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan and Buffalo Bills co-owner Kim Pegula. Neither Khan nor Pegula are black, though.
Snoop went on to blast the NBA, comparing black people’s current situation in the league as akin to slavery.
"We got one half-owner in the NBA., Michael Jordan," he pointed out. "But the whole league is 90% black. So we (are) still the slaves, and they still the masters."
Former Chicago Bulls superstar and NBA player Michael Jordan is the only Black majority owner of a team. He owns the Charlotte Hornets, but several other NBA ownership groups feature high-profile black members like Grant Hill, Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O’Neal.
Black musicians control their futures
Snoop Dogg pointed to how black musicians have pushed back against this ownership model and taken control of their careers.
"That’s why in the music game, we took the initiative to say, (expletive) that. We’re the masters, and we own our masters," the rapper stated. "We’re going to negotiate with you the way we think it should be. We changed that industry years ago, with our mentality of having our own labels."
The 49-year-old hip hop mogul didn’t let the music industry off the hook either; he is not happy with the streaming business too, saying:
"I just don’t understand how you only get this little bit amount of money per stream. I just don’t understand the dynamics of those numbers, and how they can create these systems without Black people up top, while Black people are the ones generating the most money from these systems through the music."
Even the social media channel TikTok received criticism from Snoop, who believes the platform is stealing black culture to make a profit.
"All of the young Black content creators on TikTok have boycotted because they see that when they do the dances, they don’t get the attention or the money," he added. "But as soon as the White dancers do it, it’s the biggest (expletive) in the world and they on Jimmy Fallon. That’s not fair. It’s not cool to just keep stealing our culture right in front of us and not include us in the finances of it all," Snoop Dogg explained.
The NBA and NFL have not yet commented on Snoop Dogg's accusations.