Snoop Dogg doesn’t always drop it like it’s hot when it comes to brand partnerships. The "Gin and Juice" rapper has maintained his stardom not just by landing on the top 10 with hits in all of the past four decades, but also by nabbing up some sweet business deals, from collaborating with Martha Stewart to making his own cereal—but he has a selective process when choosing the projects he tacks his name onto. His latest venture: Petco, which makes for an on-the-nose-punny duo.
This past Wednesday, the animal retail company announced its collaboration with Snoop Dogg—Petco Picks by Snoop: A line of “Munchies” treats like canine peanut butter, toys, and other pet accoutrements that are Snoop Dogg–approved. In a commercial Petco shared to its Instagram, with the caption "It takes a Dogg to know a dog," Snoop Dogg embodies a dog, playing with a logic puzzle, looking at birds, and asking “Wait, what’s money?” It’s a nod to his early-’90s hit “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” from his album Doggystyle. But the reality is that Snoop Dogg knows exactly what money is, and he has the $60 Petco dog food bowl with his name on it to prove it.
While Petco declined to share with Fortune how much the deal was worth, Snoop’s business savvy has led to a multimillion-dollar empire that made him worth a reported $124 million in 2007, according to the most recent data available from Forbes. It’s likely that his net worth is higher now considering the Snoop brand has since stretched to pervasive levels. He’s launched a coffee and cannabis lines, plus he bought his own record label. He's also associated himself with Beyond Meat, Skechers, Corona, SodaStream, and more, becoming a commercial staple to rival the Geico gecko, Progressive’s Flo, and the “Does this ever happen to you” narrator.
“I’m trying to be one of those examples of someone who creates his own everything, owns his own everything, and has a brand strong enough to compete with Levi’s and Miller and Kraft and all of these other brands that have been around for hundreds of years,” Snoop said in a 2021 interview with the New York Times.
He’s picky when it comes to brand deals and endorsements, though. “It’s got to be fun. And it’s going to make funds. So long as the word ‘fun’ is involved, it’s cool,” he added.
That feeling was mutual for Petco, which also wanted to have fun with the concept but "with someone who was more than just famous,” Katie Nauman, the company's chief marketing officer, told Fortune. She added that Snoop is a “beloved pet dad,” a Petco customer, and an individual with a “celebrated reputation as the D-O-double-G, Tha Dogfather himself.”
But Snoop Dogg’s quest for an entrepreneurship empire is also in part about closing the Black wealth gap. An outspoken advocate for defunding the police, Snoop Dogg noted in the Times interview that he once went to jail for the now highly profitable cannabis industry he has since entered. He noted the hypocrisy in how many went from demonizing weed to capitalizing off it; because of this, he explains, it’s important for people who look like him to be at the “top of the chain” and not just brand ambassadors but “brand owners.”
He's also been developing his business acumen as the music industry changes. As A.I. invades creative sectors and destabilizes the definition of originality, it's threatening the idea of what is copyrighted and what an artist is owed. Snoop recently made news for calling out streaming services during the Milken Institute Global Conference for this very reason, criticizing how the company profits aren’t translating to real payouts for artists. He said in no uncertain terms that the current state of streaming payments isn't "working for the artist right now,” noting that maybe one of the many business people in the room might “do something about this so that the next artists don’t have to struggle or cry or figure out how to get to [their] money.”
His words echo past comments about how businesses tend to cut Black people out of true profits. In the Times interview, he noted that he's looking for equity and real profits from whatever he makes or signs onto, making the Snoop brand about true involvement and ownership. Shrugging off simple brand deals, he said, “I want some equity. Give me a piece of the pie. If I can’t get no equity, [expletive] you and your company.”
Presumably, Petco is doing just that.
