It wasn’t until Dre’s album The Chronic that the world met Snoop Doggy Dogg (later reduced to Snoop Dogg, “reincarnated” as Snoop Lion).
While we associate “chronic” with Dr. Dre, the term’s origins actually began with Snoop mishearing that a friend’s cannabis was “hydrochronically” grown:
“It was really hydroponic and we fucked around and misinterpreted and we said it the wrong way,” Snoop explained. “They don’t know the origins of how fucked up I was when I said it.”
[cue laugh track]
Lured by Snoop’s drawling stoner charm, we’re easy to forget that, underneath the swagger, he’s an over-the-top, “hard-in-the-paint” thug. Yes, he’s a notorious pot-smoker—but he’s also a talented musician, capable actor, driven businessman, proud football coach, and a faithful father of three.
While Snoop doesn’t physically match the profile of a “jacked-up” Alpha male, his impenetrable style & success do beg the question:
How much control does weed have on our masculinity?
Hydrochronic T-Killer
Following Snoop’s goof-up, “chronic” was marketed by Death Row Records (label company behind Snoop, Dre, Tupac, & crew), using weed to symbolize the hypermasculine, dope peddlin’, G-Funk thuggin’ attitude of the ‘90s West Coast rap scene.
In this sense, to “smoke the chronic” (and thus rep Death Row) was to resist the “oppressive” anti-pot, white-collar, white-skinned political/legal forces of CA and abroad.
Superficially, the chronic scene relished in the stoner’s “outlaw” status, transforming bong rips into a manly badge of honor… however, in doing so, the term inadvertently became an oxy-moron due to one major oversight:
Weed doesn’t enhance masculinity. It diminishes testosterone.
Woah, slow your roll… What does that mean?
According to animal & human research, this works in at least two ways:
- THC, the primary active ingredient, inhibits GnRH secretion & several testicular enzymes, directly & indirectly lowering T production.
- Weed also possesses estrogenic effects, which can potentially lead to man boobs. Granted that these effects were performed on isolated rat cells and haven’t been replicated in a human sample… and were shown to be reversible within 24 hours.
Contrary to Death Row’s notion of chronic working like Popeye’s spinach, chronic marijuana-use theoretically leads to a significant decrease in testosterone production—which results in decreased libido, increased hair loss, lack of energy, compromised muscle & strength gains, and negative mood changes.
Having said that, while Snoop Dogg definitely smokes the chronic, we wouldn’t accuse him of showing any decreased-T symptoms—unless the “drug-free” version of Snoop is at a T-level that’s unimaginably high.
Essentially, the question of Snoop & marijuana grinds down to him either having A) an incredibly Alpha make-up or B) a lifestyle that offsets the negative effects of weed.
…Or both?
Snoop’s Sticky Icky OOH WEE
On comparing the reasons why famous pot-smokers choose to smoke, Snoop Dogg has perhaps the simplest answer:
“It makes me feel the way I need to feel.”
In other words, to Snoop smoking pot is no different than breathing air—it simply is what it is. Not to say that he doesn’t occasionally weigh in on the politics of weed use & legalization—“Legalize it n if that means tax it then do it”—yet, the illegality of pot has done nothing to deter Snoop from smoking it.
And it shows on his criminal record:
- Beginning with his first felony charge following high school (“possession of cocaine”), Snoop Dogg developed an ongoing bad romance with the law that sees him for a number of marijuana misdemeanors, illegal firearm possessions, trafficking of illegal substances (namely marijuana), and a couple assault charges. His open relationship with Mary Jane and his thug-like behavior had him banned from the UK, Sweden, Norway, and Australia—the latter for no specific crime, but simply due to his criminal reputation.
Ironically, Snoop Dogg justifies his public weed smoking by contrasting it to violence: “It’s not me shooting nobody, stabbing nobody, killing nobody.” However, he might have a point considering that a vast number of those criminal charges wouldn’t exist if his sticky icky was free from the law.
But exactly how much sticky icky does Snoop smoke on a day-to-day basis?
According to a reddit AMA Snoop Dogg did with his fans through his username “Here_Comes_The_King,” the rapper-ternt-Rastafari smokes an alleged “81 blunts a day x 7.”
[INSERT 81Blunts JPG]
Run that through your head for a second… now run it through a calculator:
- If Snoop averages 8 hours of sleep per night, he’s smoking one blunt every 12 minutes. Even if he were up all 24 hours every day, that only gives him an average 18 minutes between finishing blunts. And this includes the time it takes for him to roll the damn things.
Now, it’s not unfathomable to think that someone’s rolling Snoop’s blunts for him—he’s Snoop Doggy Dogg for shit’s sake—or that he’s constantly puff-puff-passing with his crew… but no matter how you slice it: 81 blunts per day is a shit-ton of weed.
Bear in mind, too, that Snoop is a busy-ass man: Aside from the song writing, producing, recording, touring, etc. that comes with his musical endeavors, Snoop Dogg also stars in movies/TV shows, directs films (including a porno), guest stars on talk shows, narrates Planet Earth, coaches & directs his own Snoop Youth Football League, and fathers 3 kids.
Where the hell does he find the TIME for 81 blunts per day?
Sober or not, his level of activity is borderline superhuman. Some could even make the case that he gets through it by smoking pot.
So, does this mean marijuana has little control on our masculinity or is Snoop Dogg the exception?
It’s hard to say.
Either way, the one thing we do know: We wouldn’t have Snoop Dogg without weed.
Conclusion
We’ll neither deny nor admit that Snoop actually smokes 81 blunts per day. Instead we’ll settle with this:
Snoop Dogg smokes a lot of weed AND is a very busy man.
Scientifically-speaking, Snoop Dogg is an enigma. We could argue that his staying active offsets the negative effects of weed, but we could also argue that it’s simply his genetic make-up. Again, it’s hard to say.
Our gut feeling: Weed has both positive and negative effects on our manhood, none of them extreme enough to send us reeling in either direction.
When you also consider that Snoop is nearing his mid-40s (it’s sad to see our gangsters get “old”), it’s hard to imagine that he’s not addressing his naturally lowered T levels through dietary methods and/or T-boosting supplementation.
And while we always recommend taking these necessary steps towards maintaining T levels, we don’t think you’ll be set too far back by occasionally dabbling in the hydrochronic T-killer.
…Which, admittedly, makes for a pretty decent rap name.
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