Snoop Dogg manages Nike endorsements and a porn business
Wall Street Journal (subscription required) on how an aging rapper (OK, he's 30) is reinventing himself. Calvin Broadus was known to his fans as Snoop Dogg:
Among his most-profitable cinematic ventures to date is "Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle," winner of several adult-film-industry awards. In that movie, shot at his home, Mr. Broadus narrates as actors have sex. The scenes are interspersed with new Snoop Dogg music videos, which expose his musical artistry to a new audience.
"It's all done in good taste," he says. And it has made him some new friends. He was invited, for instance, to the Playboy mansion, where he hobnobbed with Hugh Hefner. "It's good for him to be hanging with that caliber of people that are real businessmen, instead of on the streets," a member of his security detail said the next morning.
...Mr. Broadus works with a small team of advisers. Stephen Barnes, his lawyer, handles the bulk of business negotiations, which have helped Mr. Broadus land a steady stream of movie parts and product-endorsements for Nike and XM Satellite Radio, among others. Ted Chung, a 25-year-old graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, handles the label business.