Snoop Dogg Makes Peace With Soulja Boy on ‘Pronto’

When Snoop Dogg was making 'Malice N Wonderland,' his tenth studio album and follow-up to 2008's 'Ego Trippin',' the rapper had to own up to his beef with Soulja Boy Tell 'Em. Snoop Dogg wasn't exactly a fan of the pubescent Atlanta-based rapper when the teen blasted onto the hip-hop scene with the homemade Internet-hit 'Crank That.'

"I can honestly say I was hatin' on everything [Soulja Boy] was doing," Snoop admits, "because I had a grandfather's mind -- how a grandfather can't really understand his grandkids, like, 'What ya doin! You know you not suppose to be doin' that!" After initially deeming Soulja Boy a "bubble-gum rapper" Snoop surprisingly found himself swallowing his old man attitude.

"I was like, 'I didn't understand where you was coming from," Snoop says of eventually apologizing to Soulja Boy in-person, "'but as I understand you, nephew, you off the hook. I really want to make some music with you because I feel like I'm on the same page as you.' He was like, 'Snoop Dogg, man, I grew up listening to you. That would mean the world to me."

If this sounds like a different Snoop Dogg than the one on 1994's 'Doggystyle' or 1997's 'Tha Doggfather,' it is. "I didn't even give a fuck about no rappers at all. I was all about me -- that was my attitude back then," Snoop says of his younger self. "I'm from east side Long Beach. Won't nobody opening no doors for me. I had to come in kicking down doors, drawing down on people, riding with Dr. Dre -- 'Whatever, whoever want it, let's have it!' – that was my mentality because that was how I lived." Three kids later, a twelve year marriage, and multiple platinum records later Snoop finds himself at the top again, with 'Malice' at the taking the Number One spot on hip-hop charts.

"I don't want to be secluded and be the best," Snoop says. "I want to spread love. As I became a grown man and had success life set into a different pace to where I wanted to live for something more, so I couldn't have the attitude of 'I don't care. F--- it!' because I had my kids looking up at me. I had to personally better myself by becoming a better individual, by being able to be peaceful and talkative and communicate with other rappers."

And so Snoop followed through on his promise to Soulja Boy and the result is the 'Malice N Wonderland' track 'Pronto.' In the studio Snoop found himself being humbled once again by the budding rapper. "He took off on the first verse," Snoop says of working with Soulja Boy. "I did the second verse. I heard his third verse and I was like I got to change my verse because he's coming in a little harder than me. I went back did my second verse over. We put it all together and when you played it you could just feel the magic in the room." The magic was so intense it inspired the song title.

"The one thing about a hit record," Snoop says, "when it come on you automatically know – 15 seconds or less. If it take you more than 15 seconds, it ain't a hit record. It should get your attention in the first 15 seconds and that's what this record did to me. It got my attention pronto, like immediately, like full speed."