Snoop Dogg was born on October 20, 1972, in Long Beach, California, as Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. His parents called him “Snoopy” as a child because he resembled the Peanuts comic character. He was the second of three sons born to his mother.

Snoop’s father abandoned the family when he was three years old, and his mother struggled with drug addiction for the most of her life. She died at the age of 69 after a protracted fight with colon cancer.

After his parents left, Snoop travelled back and forth between the two coasts before settling down. He favored the San Francisco region and began rapping as a young adolescent.