Dionne Warwick, Snoop Dogg.Photo: Scott Dudelson/Getty, Christopher Polk/Penske Media via Getty
Dionne Warwickwasn’t happy withSnoop Dogg’s misogynistic rap lyrics in the 1990s — so she told theDoggystylerapper to his face.
In CNN Films' new documentaryDionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, both artists appear on camera to recount a story of Warwick organizing a meeting with several popular rap artists, including Snoop andTupac Shakur, to give them a piece of her mind regarding the lyrical content of their songs.
The “Sensual Seduction” rapper recalled feeling “scared and shook up” at the time. “We’re powerful right now, but she’s been powerful forever. Thirty-some years in the game, in the big home with a lot of money and success,” he said in the film, perBillboard.
Dionne Warwick.Ethan Miller/Getty
The meeting kicked off with Warwick instructing the rappers to call her a “bitch,” given their use of the term to refer to women in their music. “These kids are expressing themselves, which they’re entitled to do,” she said. “However, there’s a way to do it.”
Warwick then recalled telling the artists, “You guys are all going to grow up. You’re going have families. You’re going to have children. You’re going to have little girls, and one day that little girl is going to look at you and say, ‘Daddy, did you really say that? Is that really you?’ What are you going to say?”
Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur.
According to Snoop, who’s father to three sons — Cordé, Cordell and Julian — as well as a daughter, Cori, the interaction was a wake-up call to his ego. “She was checking me at a time when I thought we couldn’t be checked,” he said. “We were the most gangsta as you could be, but that day at Dionne Warwick’s house, I believe we got out-gangstered that day.”
Going forward, the rapper was inspired to change the tone of his musical output. “I made it a point to put records of joy — me uplifting everybody and nobody dying and everybody living,” said Snoop. “Dionne, I hope I became the jewel that you saw when I was the little, dirty rock that was in your house. I hope I’m making you proud.”
This isn’t the first time Warwick has looked back on the meeting, as she previously told the story onThe Real, noting that Tupac was also present. “They felt that I was, as they said, ‘dissing them,'” she said. “I wanted them to know that they were dealing with someone that — first of all, if I didn’t care about you, you would not have been invited to my home.”
“They all kind of knew that I was quite serious. We had something to talk about,” continued the legendary vocalist. “I was giving them a spanking, and they wanted to know why I was spanking them.”
source: people.com
