Opinion: The Dogg Better Not Disrespect The Gays Down Under
With the continued scourge of anti-gay hate speech on the field, and in the light of the groundbreaking announcement from Mitch Brown – making him the first AFL player to identify as bisexual – the choice of Snoop Dogg as the AFL grand final entertainer is looking increasingly… unfortunate.
Snoop Dogg’s career has spanned more than three decades, and, like many rappers who came up in the early 1990s, some of his lyrics reflect homophobic attitudes common in hip hop at the time.
In the early Death Row Records era (1990s), Snoop, like many West Coast rappers, used homophobic slurs. These weren’t usually central themes, but they did appear in diss tracks and casual references, in line with a broader culture of machismo in rap at the time.
For example, in the 1998 track Doggz Gonna Get Ya, he raps, “I can’t believe that Dogg would dis me, that f****t that punk he soft or sissy.”
Critics cite artists like Snoop, Dr. Dre, and others in that era as reinforcing homophobia through the casual use of slurs, even if they weren’t targeting LGBTQIA+ people specifically.
Outside of his lyrics, in the 2000s and 2010s, Snoop made homophobic comments. For example, he suggested in interviews that hip hop culture wasn’t ready to accept openly gay rappers. In a 2013 Guardian interview, he said Frank Ocean was “pioneering” but that he didn’t believe hip hop could embrace a gay rapper. While not a direct slur, it’s a long way from advocating acceptance and openness.
In 2014, Snoop shared (then quickly deleted) an Instagram/Twitter post featuring a photo of two men in bed, accompanied by: “…go suck ya man n get off my line f. A. G.” The slur “f.A.G.” was directed at the men, and although the post was removed within about 30 minutes, it circulated widely.
In the 2017 video for Moment I Feared, Snoop portrays a caricature of another rapper – widely interpreted as Young Thug. He repeatedly asks if the character is gay, culminating in the phrase “moment I feared” which appears to mock homosexuality, with some critics describing this depiction as a “knee-jerk gay panic”.
Most recently, during an appearance on the It’s Giving podcast, Snoop expressed discomfort when his grandson asked how two women could have a baby in the Pixar film Lightyear:
“Aw s**t, I didn’t come for this s**t… it threw me for a loop.”
He admitted the question “scared” him, and said he now hesitates to go to the movies because LGBTQIA+ representation “throws [him] in the middle of s**t that I don’t have an answer for.”
This demonstrates his lingering discomfort with LGBTQIA+ representation even though he has performed alongside openly queer artists, expressed support for marriage equality, and avoided the kinds of slurs common in his early career.
The exact fee for Snoop Dogg’s Grand Final appearance remains unclear, with reports suggesting either $2 million or up to $5 million AUD. Is this money well spent? The match is already sold out, and the broadcast deal is in place – it’s unlikely his performance will improve the AFL’s finances.
Worse, his performance could aggravate the already touchy subject of homophobia in the AFL, and send the wrong message to fans, young and old alike.
At DNA, we hope that Mitch Brown will be a guest of honour at the Grand Final, and that his contribution to the sport’s cultural awakening will be recognised and applauded. And perhaps he’ll get to shake hands with Snoop Dogg before the show and say, “Welcome to Australia, and if I hear any of that homophobic bullshit, I will floor you like a tired, slow mid-fielder in the fourth quarter.”
