Snoop Dogg’s Criticism of Gayle King Over Kobe Bryant’s Past Got Him in Trouble With His Mom
Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk series has become a mainstay in pop culture in recent months. The actress has created a platform where she can talk about complex emotions and difficult topics with compassion, integrity, and respect.
Due to her show’s popularity, many major artists and entertainers are willing to appear at the Table, talking to Pinkett Smith, her mother, and her daughter Willow about newsworthy topics. Iconic rapper Snoop Dogg is the latest participant at the Table and is set to talk to Pinkett Smith and the panel about his reactions to Gayle King’s recent controversial interview.
Gayle King’s buzzworthy interview
On January 26th, Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, along with seven other passengers, died in a helicopter accident. The tragedy shook the nation as everyone tried to grapple with the fact that such an iconic basketball player was gone, along with the young daughter who showed such undeniable talent for the game.
Emotions were still raw when Gayle King sat down for an intimate interview with WNBA star Lisa Leslie, only days following Bryant’s death. In the interview, which was extensive, King asked Leslie about Bryant’s infamous 2003 sexual assault case.
Even though the criminal charges against Bryant were eventually dropped, it was quite a scandal at the time it occurred. Still, after King asked Leslie whether or not the scandal made Bryant’s legacy “problematic,” the response from fans online was immediate, with hundreds of people angry at King for asking such in the wake of Bryant’s untimely death.
It wasn’t just average Bryant fans who were angry — many celebrities weighed in as well, including Snoop Dogg.
Snoop Dogg was very angry with Gayle King
After the interview aired, Snoop Dogg released a very angry video to his Instagram account, where he called out Gayle King for being “out of pocket” with her questions about the sexual assault charges. The video itself was laced with profanity and the rapper called King several inflammatory names.
In the midst of the fallout, King released her own video, where she claimed that CBS had edited her interview out of context and saying that she is “embarrassed” by everything that has happened.
Following her statement, Snoop Dogg released yet another video, where he clarified some of his earlier comments. The rapper stated that he was angry and that he “should have handled” things differently.
Furthermore, he stated: “So I would like to apologize to you publicly for the language that I used and calling you out and just being disrespectful. I didn’t mean to be like that. I was just expressing myself for a friend who wasn’t here to defend himself. Hopefully, we can sit down and talk privately.”
Jada Pinkett Smith revealed her disappointment with Snoop Dogg
On the February 26th episode of Red Table Talk, Pinkett Smith sat down with Snoop Dogg to discuss, among other things, his attack on King. In a clip from the episode, Pinkett Smith explains to the rapper how his words hurt her.
“When you first came out and you said what you said in regards to Gayle, my heart dropped,” she said. “I felt like not only were you talking to Gayle, but you were talking to me. I was like, ‘Not Snoop.’ And so that’s one of the reasons why I felt like I really wanted to have this conversation with you in the spirit of healing.”
“It was just a matter of me losing control. We still ain’t even swallowed Nip,” the rapper said. “Then Kobe and his daughter? I lost a grandson, a grandmother. Then I got to be strong in front of everybody….You gotta be Snoop again. But what about when I want to cry? What about when I’m hurt and I’m feeling bad. And I feel disgusted and I want to be angry. I can’t. I let my emotions get the best of me. I was frustrated on top of just venting and doing it the wrong way.”
He added: “It had got bad fast. It went from me just venting to I’m mad and yeah! To ‘Uh oh. I got the whole world in an uproar.’ What’s crazy is you may think it was more people against me. It was more people with me. That was the strange part. ‘Thanks Snoop. You said what we been wanting to say. But you shouldn’t have said it like that’…”
How have others responded to Snoop Dogg?
The rapper said he received support from the community for his sentiments but was called out for how he handled it. He said: “When this thing happened with Gayle, I got calls from Tyler Perry, Puff Daddy, Van Jones, powerful Black men. And they didn’t bash me. They just was, ‘Brotha, we got your back. But we think that you … could have went about it a little different.’
Aside from his peers, the rapper said his mom called him out too.
“This time was different because my momma called,” he said. “My mother raised me in church and she raised me to respect women. It was just certain things that she said to me that made me feel like a little kid. And when your momma can make you feel like a little kid, you know you got to get right. I didn’t feel grown. I didn’t feel like Snoop Dogg the rapper, I felt like Snoopy.”
He added: “And she didn’t say I was wrong she just said, ‘You know I raised you better than that. You’re a representation of us. Every woman that ever crossed your life, you’re a representation of that.’ So I got it. I didn’t tell my team. I didn’t go to my publicist. I just did it … The apology is authentic. It’s sincere and I’m really sorry … Just man up and deal with it. I don’t mind being checked. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong.”
Willow Smith asked Snoop Dogg if he reached out to King. The rapper said: “No, but I’ve reached out through her friends, her associates. And I even DMed her, sending her a prayer, letting her know I apologize to her. Just doing all the things that I could do to put my effort forward because I was wrong. At the end, I said I’d love to meet with you privately … Where I could actually give her a hug, look in her eyes and talk to her. Like we talking.”
