Snoop Dogg

Like Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg is as up front and in your face with his Cannabis use, but he seems less of a hempster and more for recreational use and just getting high.  It is uncertain whether he has done anything for the hemp movement other than smoking it. He certainly had more of a brush with the law than Willie, and it was for drugs not for the herb cannabis.
 

Born Calvin Cordozar Brodus Jr. on Oct. 20, 1971. Snoop, as his parents called him, was a Crip gang member, though he has said he wasn't, while he was in High School. After graduation he was arrested for cocaine and did six months in jail. But after his release he was discovered by Dr. Dre, thankfully, and started as an MC for the West Coast hip hop scene. His musical career began in 1992 when he collaborated on several tracks of Dre's solo debutThe Cronic and on the theme song for the film Deep Cover.  

Snoop's first album, Doggystyle was released in the year 1993 with Death Row Records and went quadruple platinum. His third album, in 1996, Tha Doggfather was his last release for Death Row before he signed on with No Limit Records where he did three albums from 1998 to 2001. Snoop then signed with EMI Records in 2002, which released his album Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss, and then he signed with Geffen Records in 2004. 

May 9, 2008 Snoop appeared as himself on the ABC soap opera One life to live. He recorded the opening theme for both episodes. Snoop credits Bo Buchanan with helping him get his start in show business. In 2009, Snoop Dogg appeared in Sacha Barob Cohen's film Bruno playing himself as a rap addition to the song "Dove Of Peace". In 2010, Snoop appeared in an episode of CBS's I Get That a Lot as a parking-lot attendant. And in June 2010, he created a music video for True Blood accompanied by a song he wrote for one of the main characters of the show entitled "Oh Sookie.

Snoop, in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, said that unlike other hip hop artists who've falsely adopted the pimp  persona, he was a professional pimp in 2003-2004, saying "That shit was my natural calling and once I got involved with it, it became fun. It was like shootin' layups for me. I was makin' 'em every time." He goes on to say that upon the advice of other pimps he knew, he eventually gave up pimping to spend more time with his family.