Behind the scenes with Snoop Dogg at the Olympics: 'It's me being me'
PARIS – Two black vans pull up to the front entrance of the Musée de l'Homme, and the star of the 2024 Paris Olympics gets out of one at almost 11 p.m. on the dot.
“Snoop!” a well-timed bystander yells. “We love you!”
Snoop Dogg has arrived for his NBC prime time hit inside, where the network has taken over the museum and turned it into its on-camera headquarters from these Games.
Martha Stewart is waiting inside. Snoop greeted his friend and he described to her Noah Lyles’ photo finish, which happened an hour beforehand. Snoop saw it in person. He’s been everywhere and anywhere, with everyone and anyone, during his time at these Games as a correspondent extraordinaire. He hasn’t been sleeping as much as he has been relaxing.
“This ain’t the town to sleep in. This ain’t the time to sleep,” Snoop said once his work for the day was done. “It’s the time to be on it like you want it.”
Bouncing around from different events and being in the thick of the action, watching athletes do their thing, is something Snoop loves, he said.
Snoop and Stewart walked through the space that is usually a five-star restaurant, Cafe de l’homme, which NBC has temporarily turned into a makeshift on-site control room on the first floor of the museum. (Nearly all of the art has been temporarily relocated.)
They listen to instructions from senior director Mike Sheehan, who also runs Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” studio shows. Production assistants pour champagne, Veuve Clicquot, for a teaser shot of Stewart and Snoop clinking their glasses.
“That’s real champagne,” Snoop remarked.
More: Olympics pin featuring Snoop Dogg is a hot item in Paris
Snoop and Stewart – Snoop has called her his "homegirl" and the two have been friends for more than 15 years, appearing together on everything from comedy roasts to Skechers commercials – and their entourages traversed the balcony to sit down with NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico on the official prime time set. Tirico was in stitches the entire time thanks to the duo’s antics.
Three years ago, Snoop went viral alongside Kevin Hart for their equestrian dressage commentary. On Sunday, Snoop returned to his “crip walking” bit because he and Stewart attended the dressage competition at Chateau de Versailles a day earlier.
“This is real and it’s authentic,” Tirico said of the “Snoop experience” in Paris. “It jumps through the screen. He loves the Olympics. He loves America. And he loves these athletes. I think we’re living that every time he goes out and does a piece.”
Snoop could not sit still. If dancing while sitting was an Olympic sport, he’d have a gold medal. At Versailles, he learned to love the connection between rider and horse. He also claimed to have conquered his previous fear of horses.
“This is a celebration of the finest athletes in the world, and he has made it so accessible to everybody,” Stewart said. “That’s his talent. Everybody loves him.”
'This is what I do every day'
NBCUniversal couldn’t even wait until the Olympic year began to start hyping Snoop, as the corporation announced Snoop’s role on Dec. 31, 2023.
Snoop has developed into a social-media sensation during the Games. Among the highlights are his badminton analysis, swimming under the watchful eye of Michael Phelps (definitely not edited) and carrying the Olympic torch.
His bit with Hart is a major reason behind his Parisian presence with NBC. Snoop referred to his Tokyo experience as a “layup drill.”
“But now this is the game – the real game. And when the lights is on, that’s when I shine the best,” Snoop said. “So this opportunity wasn’t nothing but a chance for me to show the world what it looked like when you put the right person in the right environment. Sports, entertainment, the globe, this is what I do every day. So that’s why it’s not hard for me to do it and it’s not like an act. The bits that we do, they’re comfortable, they’re not stressed or forced. It’s me being me.”
The former Death Row Records star gave a shoutout to an NBC executive for shooting down his original idea of buttoning up alongside Tirico in a more formal role.
“When it’s from the heart,” Tirico said. “It's easy.”
Snoop is not only talented, Tirico said. He brings the curiosity of a reporter and the ideas of a producer to the table. He rarely shoots down pitches from others and is always trying to improve his segments.
“That license to color outside the lines is what makes greats great, and he knows how to do that and keeps it looking good,” Tirico said.
That Snoop has become the social-media and cultural sensation of the Paris Olympics hasn’t surprised Tirico because he sees the work behind the scenes.
“He’s added more than I ever imagined he would,” Tricio said.
'I'm a family guy'
Snoop has quickly connected with the parents of Team USA athletes in a way most other talent or reporters couldn't in television feature-type settings. Families being the avenue for his coverage became apparent during the various trials he covered in June, Snoop said. And it was a natural fit for him and maximized his skill set.
“Because I’m a family guy. This is the Olympics. And this was the Olympics where the family was actually going to be there,” said Snoop, referencing the Tokyo and Beijing Games that prevented families from traveling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Footage of Snoop celebrating alongside Meghan Dressel, the wife of swimmer Caeleb Dressel, while Meghan held their newborn in her arms with giant noise-blockers over the baby’s ears became an early image of the Olympics.
“When you get somebody who’s a star who’s willing to be part of the team ... you fit right in," Tirico said. "That makes it easier to work with them.”
Snoop comes in, does his highlights and acts like anybody else who comes in to do a segment on the show. He always brings energy.
“In the past, it was a serious essay about something," Tirico said of how guest spots have evolved in Olympic broadcasts. "Now it happens to be one very recognizable, popular celebrity connecting with athletes and parents. So maybe a little bit of the methodology has changed, but the essence of it, the core of it, it’s still the same.”
From the aftermath of the opening ceremony, Tirico said, the conversation surrounding Snoop went from “What are you doing?” to “Why haven’t you done this before?”
Since May, Tirico was confident Snoop would hold his own on the big stage.
“This good?” the “Sunday Night Football” play-by-play announcer said, “I wouldn’t have known.”
'I do the unthinkable'
Snoop – government name Calvin Broadus Jr. – filmed promotional content with his selected group of “Snoopians,” athletes such as skateboarder Jagger Eaton, beach volleyball tandem Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng, gymnast Simone Biles and Lyles, the track and field sprinter. Snoop bussed from Paris to Lille, France, with the men’s basketball team.
Los Angeles, the host of the next Summer Olympics in 2028, last was the epicenter of the Games in 1984. Snoop was 13. He rattled off the American heroes of those Games: Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses and Mary Lou Retton (“Mary Lou, what it do,” he said).
Snoop said back then he never could have imagined attending an Olympic event. Watching from home was his front row seat.
“I remember it being exciting because the whole two, three weeks the whole city was in an uproar,” Snoop said.
Now he has the whole country feeling the same across the Atlantic Ocean.
“I think it’s just me mastering me,” Snoop said.
All he’s done is walk the path in front of him. The first stop on that journey was him narrating "Planet Earth" and other National Geographic programs. The first time many people heard him call an athletic endeavor was Jake Paul’s boxing match against former NBA player Nate Robinson.
“Remember, I’m a rapper. Ain’t no rapper ever did what I’m doing,” said Snoop, who has collaborated with artists ranging from the late Tupac Shakur to Katy Perry. “So there’s limitations to the field that I come from. 'Rappers aren’t supposed to do this. Rappers aren’t supposed to do this.' I turn it into, 'I do the unthinkable.'"
Within an hour of his arrival, Snoop’s work – including an 11-minute group interview with reporters from USA TODAY, the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press – was finished. He climbed into the black van to drive him back to his hotel. More people yelled at him and asked for pictures.
“This is my everyday life,” he said.
Snoop has loved Paris for three decades now. All of the attention he’s received here and back home is nice, he said. But he also knows the Olympics is more than an entertainment icon from “LBC.”
“I just love that the attention is on the positivity, the unity, the sports, the athlete and the way the world is coming together,” Snoop said. “That’s the attention I love.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Behind the scenes with Snoop Dogg at Olympics: 'It's me being me'