Lodi dodi, Snoop Dogg likes to sauté
Rappers like the West Coast legend are becoming fixtures on the food scene
MIAMI — Rapper Snoop Dogg furiously stirred flour into a creamy béchamel sauce, a whisk in one hand and a microphone in the other during a cooking demonstration with chef Guy Fieri.
He tossed herbs into the mac and cheese and spicy wing dishes with the dramatic flair of Emeril Lagasse, raising his hands in the air, spinning around after taste tests and occasionally singing lines from songs like Drop It Like It’s Hot as a crowd cheered wildly.
Wearing black shades, his dreads in a ponytail, the pioneering rapper rushed off the cooking stage and emerged 20 minutes later at a nearby beachside DJ booth, also part of the recent South Beach Wine and Food Festival, spinning tunes, including many of his own, while a stagehand passed out joints to the sweaty, enthusiastic crowd.
Snoop may seem an unlikely guest for a festival where highbrow foodies come for US$500-a-plate dinners to mingle with chefs like Jose Andres and Daniel Boulud, but it’s emblematic of the widening intersection between food and music that Snoop and other rappers and hip-hop stars are capitalizing on, where unlikely pairings form shows like VH1’s Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party (carried in Canada on Gusto) and rappers like 2 Chainz drop cookbooks along with their albums. Mobb Deep rapper Prodigy, who served time in prison, recently came out with Commissary Kitchen: My Infamous Prison Cookbook, which includes a recipe that mixes Ramen noodles and Doritos. You can even buy Rap Snacks, honey jalapeno potato chips with Fetty Wap’s face on the bag.
On a recent episode of Snoop and Martha Stewart’s show, she roasted a whole pig, proclaiming the new way to eat pork was “nose to tail.”
“Nah, nah, nah. In the ’hood, we say from the rooter to the tooter,” says Snoop, who helped Stewart make a Cuban mojito, busting out a quippy rhyme before toasting the audience.
Earlier this month, Miami rapper Rick Ross tapped Stewart to announce the debut of his new album on Twitter. The queen of homemaking also included a photo of her holding a cake with Ross’s album cover on top.
Rev Run of the rap group RunD.M.C. has also become a fixture on the food scene with the Cooking Channel’s Rev Run’s Sunday Suppers. The father of six told The Associated Press that cooking is more about family time and less about the creative process for him.
“Music, like food, has no language barriers. When people hear music or eat tasty food, all of a sudden we have something in common,” he said.
Marketing experts say Stewart and the Food Network, which sponsors the South Beach festival, are using the partnerships to stay fresh and relevant.
“Some of the folks in the food industry are trying to appeal to a younger audience and associate their brands with that,” said Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst for the NPD Group.
But it’s not all about inking new business deals. Some artists were busy in the kitchen long before they started making music.
Rapper Flava Flav grew up cooking in his family’s soul food diner. Before bursting onto the music scene with the group Public Enemy, he went to cooking school and says he once was the head chef at the Nassau County Courthouse in New York.
“It’s like music — you’re always creating different tastes, different flavours,” he said.
He’s had several restaurants, mostly centred on his fried chicken, that have closed due to “poor management,” he said. Rockhouse Las Vegas is currently featuring his grub and he hopes to open another restaurant.