SNOOP DOG AND MARTHA STEWART
BY TATE RAUB ILLUSTRATION BY CASSIDY WOODS
Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg first met in the late 2000s. Ever since, they have become one of the most well-known and unlikely friendships in celebrity culture, and the world can’t get enough.
At 13-years-old, Stewart, now 82, began modeling and did so through her college years to help pay her tuition. After graduating from Barnard College in 1962, she worked as a stockbroker in New York City for many years.
After leaving Wall Street, Stewart started a catering business from her home in Westport, Connecticut. She made all of the food from scratch and, in 1982, published many of her recipes in her first cookbook, “Entertaining.” More than 625,000 copies were sold, and Stewart has published 98 cookbooks since.
In addition to her cookbooks, Stewart published the first issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine in 1990. It was a great success, and in 1996 Stewart founded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. The media conglomerate went public in 1999 and made Stewart the first self-made female billionaire in the United States.
In 2001, the biopharmaceutical company ImClone Systems sought but failed to get FDA approval for an experimental cancer treatment drug called Erbitux. Before the news broke, one of the founders of the company told close family and friends who had invested stock in the company to sell their shares.
Following an investigation, Stewart was found to have sold 4,000 ImClone Systems shares and was convicted on several felony charges in 2004 for insider trading. She spent five months in prison, five months on house arrest, and paid a $30,000 fine. Stewart lost, regained, and again lost her billionaire status by the time she served her sentence, but the criminal charges did not ruin the lifestyle empire she had created.
In the years after Stewart’s sentence ended – 2008 to be exact – hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg was a guest on “The Martha Stewart Show,” on which he and Stewart made mashed potatoes. The rapper returned to the show the following year to make brownies and joked about the “most important” ingredient in the recipe, among other marijuana-themed innuendos.
Snoop, whose real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr., rose to fame in 1992 when he caught the attention of Dr. Dre. The famous producer and rapper featured the then-21-year-old Snoop on tracks “Dre Day” and “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” on his album “The Chronic” as well as the single “Deep Cover.” Snoop, now 51, released his first album, “Doggystyle,” in 1993, and it became the first debut album to enter at number one on the Billboard 200 chart.
Snoop was arrested in connection with a drive-by shooting at the same time as when he was recording “Doggystyle.” After many years in and out of court, he was cleared of all charges. However, this delayed the release of his sophomore album, “Tha Doggfather,” which was released in 1996. Snoop has released a multitude of projects, but in total has 19 studio albums under his belt.
In addition to music, Snoop has collected a number of film credits, including “Training Day” (2001), “Turbo” (2013), “The Addams Family” (2019), and “The Addams Family 2” (2021). He has also been featured on the animated television series “The Boondocks” and “The Simpsons.” Other TV appearances include the reality show “Snoop Doggs’ Father Hood” (2007-2009), “Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg” (2020), and the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show with Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar.
Also among Snoop’s television credits is “Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party” (2016-present). After Snoop’s appearances on Stewart’s cooking show, the duo had mostly flown under the radar other than a few interactions on social media. Their big reunion came when Snoop and Stewart participated in Comedy Central’s roast of Justin Bieber, which was hosted by Kevin Hart in 2015. Since the release of Snoop and Stewart’s 2016 VH1 cooking show, they have hosted guests such as Seth Rogen, Ashley Graham, Wiz Khalifa, and more.
A couple of years later, Stewart wrote the foreword for Snoop’s 2018 cookbook, “Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes From Tha Boss Dogg’s Kitchen.”
“Snoop and I have a special bond that dates back to when he first appeared on ‘The Martha Stewart Show’ in 2008,” Stewart wrote. “Our relationship was born from our connection to food as we whipped up some cognac mashed potatoes and green brownies.”
Other interactions between these two friends have included Stewart instructing Snoop how to plant a tomato plant, baking Christmas cookies together over Zoom, playing the “Best Friends Challenge” on “The Tonight Show,” judging a Halloween food competition, and co-hosting the Puppy Bowl in 2021 and 2022, to name a few.
Another fan-favorite partnering of the two is their simultaneous ad campaign and collection of BIC EZ Reach Lighters that feature custom Stewart-themed and Snoop-themed designs and the tagline “Perfect for candles and more!” The ad campaign launched in 2021, and as of April 20, 2023, now includes Willie Nelson.
Over the years, Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg have individually become household names despite their totally different fields. However, the duo has fostered both a great friendship and new facets of success as business partners; in 2023, it’s hard to think of one without the other.
