Snoop Dogg covers TIME Magazine’s “The World‘s Most Influential People” issue.

Over his roughly three decades in the spotlight, Snoop has somehow found a way to be whoever a particular audience needs him to be without betraying who he is. “I just feel like my fan base is people, because my mother taught me to love people,” he says. “So I feel like I attract people, and my sh-t connects to all people.” Wherever you go and whatever you consume, Snoop is there. He is the one true omnipresent Dogg.

 

Thank you. @TIME 🙏🏿 #TIME100 pic.twitter.com/nPQnQntpYz

— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) April 16, 2025

 

“Snoop is a born f-cking hustler,” says Dr. Dre, the iconic producer and Snoop’s longtime collaborator, who marvels not only at the breadth of things his friend does, but at the durability of his rap career. “He cannot sit down. I personally won’t—and can’t—do all the things that he’s doing. He’s everywhere. There’s been times where I’m actually trying to get him to slow down and just take a break and focus on one thing. But it’s just not in his nature.”

When asked if he worries about oversaturating the market with Dogg, Snoop is polite but firm. “The way you framing it, with all due respect, is like I’ll do anything,” he says. These days he’s less interested in being a hired hand and more interested in being a partner. “I want you to frame it like I’ll do anything if I own the brand. That’s a big difference. So me marketing and branding for a company—if I don’t own it, I ain’t f-cking with it.” Rather than selling out, Snoop suggests, he’s making moves. He can’t name any business titan whose example he follows. “That don’t exist in my world,” he says. “Titans that impressed me were local people in my neighborhood as a kid, and they were doing things that were considered illegal.”

Any endorsement he offers often requires more than a check with his name on it. “You can pay me, but that ain’t all we doing,” he says. “We gonna make sure you take care of this community initiative that I have. And it could be silent or it can be loud, but that’s a part of the deal as well.”

Music remains Snoop’s first love. “People think I get caught up in commercials and movies and TV and fail to realize that my foundation is music,” he says. “I have to realign everybody to understand it. There’s none of it without the music.” He has little appetite for the ruthless machinations of music promotion, however. He signed Handcock partly because she “sings like a bird” and reminded him of his mother.

“Everything I do up here is family,” he says, gesturing to the recording studio known as the Mothership, which has the feel of a bridge of the Starship Enterprise but with more sports memorabilia, including a size 12 basketball sneaker made from the fabric of one of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s old Lakers uniforms. “I built this for family. And God gives you the ability to have a family that you’re born with, and then he gives you the ability to create your own family. This is a family I created.”

Snoop Dogg once told me he’s a “moment” type of guy, and if the moment’s right, he’ll grab it. I’ll say. The world’s warmest cool kid has been carpe diem–ing for more than three decades. With his signature superfly charm, Snoop has remained consistently current and effortlessly authentic, all while rocking a jumpsuit. From his roots in gangster rap to his Cheech & Chong friendship with Martha Stewart, Snoop vibes with every generation.

I watched him work his mellow magic at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Athletes and audiences couldn’t get enough of his joyful spirit. I’ll never forget when gymnasts Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles spotted USA’s hype man grooving in the stands and joined him, a little hit of fun at their stressful qualifying round. Whenever I saw him, he’d dance his way over to me. “C’mon, girl, show me what you got!” I dropped it like it was hot.

I gotta say, there’s just something about this guy that makes me—and millions of his fans—feel so happy and loved. Do I think “Uncle Snoop” is the legit top dog for 2025? Fo shizzle.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, there is still some terrain Snoop feels he needs to conquer. He’s toying with getting into the meme-coin business. He’d like to start an elementary school, where the curriculum would include financial literacy. Dre would love to get him out on a tour with some of his fellow 2022 Super Bowl performers. He hasn’t committed to that but is already plotting another album and has said he’ll “most likely” be at the Winter Games in Italy next year. He’s made a bunch of movies, but not of the caliber he’d like; he doesn’t come out and say he wants an Oscar, but he wants to be considered for that kind of role. “I feel like it deserves that conversation,” he says. As with most of Snoop’s pursuits, he’s moving it ahead quietly and doggedly. “I’m manifesting,” he says, in a way that would make Bow Wizzle proud. “I’m on a mission to make it do what it do.”

This story is part of the 2025 TIME100 Issue. S: TIME