Celebrities are so like us, in some ways, and yet, in others, couldn’t be more different. If I tried to make art out of my mug shot (I don’t have one) and an old blunt (I don’t smoke), and sell said art for literally any amount of money, I would be laughed out of the VFW swap meet. When Snoop Dogg does it, though, that shit goes for a whopping amount of money.
AllHipHop reports that, on Monday, an art collection dubbed Ashes to Art sold for $148,100. The centerpiece of the collection is “Snoop Doggy Dogg Genesis Burn”— which, alone, sold for $70,000 — a piece that features the iconic rapper’s “1993 LAPD mugshot scorched with marijuana ash and sealed with a roach” that Snoop smoked, as well as a rare autograph.
The “Snoop Doggy Dogg Genesis Burn” is described as “a raw, reverent flashback to the moment a legend was born. At its core is Snoop Dogg’s official 1993 LAPD mugshot—scorched at the edges, flecked with marijuana ash, and sealed beneath a smoked roach burned by Snoop himself. This isn’t just a portrait—it’s a timestamp from the fire that forged an icon.”
I recently had a chance to chat with Snoop at a promo event he did with chicken finger chain Raisning Cane’s, and we spoke about how his new album “Iz It a Crime?” features several killer collaborators such as Jane Handcock — known affectionately as the First Lady of Death Row — along with other artists like October London, Blaqthoven, and LaRussell.
As for how he chose who he wanted to work with on Is It a Crime?, Snoop was very transparent that just because he’s been making music for decades doesn’t mean he’s not still a fan. “You know, the crazy part is that I’m still like a kid. So when I like somebody, I reach out to them and I let them know,” he confessed.
Snoop then joked, “So it be tripping them out because they feel like I’m so big of a star that… ‘why would you call me?’ Because it’s like, I got a writer who’s dope, who’s innovative, who’s moving the needle.
“I always like to be associated by affiliation with the new talent that’s coming up,” he added. “So that way, once they get solidified and established, we already got a relationship.”
The post A Piece of Art Featuring a Joint Snoop Dogg Smoked Just Sold at Auction for a Baffling Amount appeared first on VICE.
