Snoop Dogg supports Hollywood writers' strike, blames streaming platforms for less pay

Rapper Snoop Dogg recently opened up about the ongoing Hollywood Writers Strike. He also commented on the revenue models that streaming platforms work through, and how detrimental that is for the artists. Snoop’s comments comes against the backdrop of the currently ongoing Hollywood Writers Strike, in which 11,500 Writers Guild of America members started a strike on Tuesday. 

Snoop Dogg spoke with Variety’s executive music editor Shirley Halperin and media enterprise Gamma’s CEO Larry Jackson. During the conversation, Snoop said artists should take a lesson from the writers on strike. He blamed streaming to be the culprit, saying that it’s the reason why most writers are struggling to make money. “The writers are striking because [of] streaming, they can’t get paid. Because when it’s on the platform, it’s not like in the box office,” said the rapper. 

He added that he doesn’t understand how people can get paid with a business model that doesn’t pay artists much money. Snoop Dogg asked for an explanation for why artists don’t get paid with a million dollars despite delivering billions of streams. He gave his own example and said that it’s the problem for major artists like himself who deliver major streaming numbers

“I don’t understand how the f**k you get paid off of that shit,” said the Sexual Eruption rapper. He added, “Somebody explain to me how you can get a billion streams and not get a million dollars. That’s the main gripe with a lot of us artists is that we do major numbers… but it don’t add up to the money”. He also called out YouTube during the conversation, revealing that 500 million streams through YouTube shorts only led him to achieve only $16,000 in revenue.

Snoop Dogg on the West Coast vs. East Coast rap debate

The rapper was recently part of a discussion with Stephen A. Smith. He was asked about which one of the two - West Coast and East Coast - impacted hip-hop the most. The rapper said that it is “definitely East Coast” for him since East Coast created the foundation for the genre, and it’s the epicentre of the whole culture. He added that a lot of the rappers from the West Coast imitated those from the East.