Hip hop icon Snoop Dogg has spoken out about the importance of Twitter for contemporary artists, saying that it was their ‘Number One’ tool. Tha Doggfather, who has over three million Twitter followers, says it has become an essential medium for artists to communicate and interact with their fans. “I feel it’s the number one key in music right now,” he reckons. “Having that relationship with fans where it’s not based on your record label, it’s based on you. When you are tweeting, it’s not about what label you’re on, it’s about you dealing with your fans directly.”
Snoop, who has just been in Australia for the urban music festival Supafest, has just released his eleventh solo album, Doggumentary, and says that Twitter is tha shizzle fo’ rizzle, because it helps him stay down with the kids.
Snoop’s philosophy is that it’s about the songs as much as it is about the ganja the laydeez. “It was all about making songs. When you get to the point I’m at, some would say, ‘It’s time to retire’. So you try to find a groove that feels good. Once you get it, then you stay at it. Whether you have a successful album or a label that supports you or backs you, there is a relationship with the people who make you who you are. That’s way more important nowadays to me because that’s what the industry is broken down into – trust. If I trust you and have a relationship with you, and you are telling me you are putting a record out and it’s going to be good, I’m going to buy it because I trust you.”
