Details emerge about insane amount of money Snoop Dogg is receiving to appear at Olympics
The legendary rapper is reportedly getting an absurd sum per day to promote the Olympics
US rapper Snoop Dogg has been one of the stars of the Olympics despite not being a competitor. The beloved musician has featured heavily on American TV network NBC's coverage of the Paris Games, attending a host of events ranging from women's gymnastics, beach volleyball, water polo and (of course) equestrian.
In Paris, the rapper has carried the Olympic torch, appeared as NBC's prime-time correspondent, swam with Michael Phelps, attended a US women's soccer game with Megan Rapinoe, danced with gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles and cheered on Caeleb Dressel in the swimming alongside the athlete's wife and son, while also featuring heavily in the stands at his beloved equestrian. And he is reportedly being paid a small fortune by NBC to be part of the Paris festivities.
According to US journalist Henry McNamara, the rapper is earning US$500,000 a day (approximately AU$770,000) plus expenses to be in Paris promoting the games. "Sat next to an NBC exec at dinner, he said Snoop gets paid $500k a day plus expenses to be here promoting Olympics. From Gin and Juice to a few million to be a celebrity at the Olympics - what a world," McNamara revealed on social media. The Summer Olympics are 16 days long, so if Snoop Dogg is getting that reported amount, he'll walk away from the games a whopping US$8 million (AU$12.25 million) richer.
Sounds about right. Someone asked me how much Snoop was making.
First number that came to mind was $10 million. https://t.co/c55ZMeh3DB— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 5, 2024
But NBC's viewership numbers suggest the network's investment has paid off. The Associated Press reports through five days, beginning with the opening ceremony, NBC averaged a whopping 34 million people a day tuning into its coverage, with the viewership number combining both cable TV viewers and those who watched on US streaming service Peacock. Those numbers are more than double the viewership in the same period in Tokyo, where approximately 19 million people a day watched the Olympic Games coverage.
Snoop Dogg has starred at the Paris Olympics
In Paris, fans have been seen scrambling to take pictures with Snoop Dogg, and his arrival to many sporting spectacles has been met with chants of 'Snoop Snoop Snoop'. But no reception was as big as the one he got as he arrived dressed in breeches, a dressage tailcoat, and a hard hat to the equestrian event accompanied by US businesswoman and food writer Martha Stewart.
The rapper's affiliation with equestrian began when he and comedian Kevin Hart were enlisted by NBC to provide a series of comedic commentaries on various Olympic events for streaming service Peacock. The pair first watched a diving clip, before moving on to a dressage event where Snoop Dogg's encounter with a crip-walking horse will forever stand as a brilliant and unexpected collision of two worlds that never thought they would cross.
Snoop going nuts for a horse crip walking while watching dressage is still my favorite sports moment from the Doggfather pic.twitter.com/eVOH3THJ79
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) June 25, 2024
Despite it not being a sport Snoop had much of a clue about he was taken aback by one of the horses on display. "Oh, the horse crip-walking, cuh," he exclaimed to Hart. "You see that? On the set! That's gangsta as a motherf***er! This horse is off the chain, I've gotta get this motherf***er in a video!"
The Crip Walk, also known as the C-Walk, is a dance move that originated in Compton, California, in the 1970s. The dance was allegedly created by members of the Crips gang and is associated with West Coast hip-hop culture, with the horses strut similar to that of the crip walk.
That iconic moment quickly went viral and since then the 52-year-old became one of the biggest fans of the sport. This led him to become one of the famous faces NBC employed for their coverage of the Summer Games.