I’ve gotten to meet Snoop Dogg a couple of times, the first of which was amazing and eye-opening. We have a moment in This Is the End where Craig Robinson is serenading a party of people with his staple classic, “Take Yo Panties Off.” We thought it would be funny if we had, like, an actual version of the song at the end of the movie, so we asked Snoop Dogg if he would collaborate with Craig, and he said yes.
I arrived at the studio, and soon after, Snoop comes in with, like, four or five people, one of whom is a blunt roller, as in someone whose only job is to roll blunts. He would take a pack of Phillies, open them one by one, empty them all, roll them with weed, and put them back in the Phillies box, then hand them to Snoop, giving him a constant supply.
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Snoop wrote the hook with Craig, and after a few hours I was like, “Can you rap a verse?”
<p><b>Snoop: </b>You want me to rap?<b>Me: </b>Yeah, man.<b>Snoop: </b>Shit. I thought I was just doing the hook.<b>Me: </b>It would be awesome if you could do a verse, too!</p>
He put his head down and thought for a long moment. Then he looked over to one of his guys, narrowed his gaze . . . and said: “Bring in the hoes.”
The guy left, and within thirty seconds he returned with five or six women who were very much dressed like strippers at the start of a routine. The producer blasted the beat, and the women danced and drank while Snoop wrote a rap verse on his BlackBerry.
After about twenty minutes, he was finished writing and gestured to his guy, who escorted the hoes out, vanishing as mysteriously as they had appeared. This obviously raised a lot of questions.
<p>1. Where were the hoes up till that point? We were not in a big building, and I hadn’t seen them before that moment.2. Why were the hoes there? This was probably the easiest one to figure out. It seemed to be for inspiration. Everyone has their writing process, I guess. I like to drink coffee and sparkling water while I write; Snoop likes to have a team of hoes magically appear and dance around while he writes.3. Were they there just in case? He didn’t think he was gonna be writing any raps, so he, in theory, wouldn’t need the hoes’ presence. Yet the hoes were present. That seems like a complicated and expensive contingency plan to have in place at all times. A bunch of hoes following you around on the off chance you’re asked to write a rap verse. “Who are they?” “Oh, that’s just my bus full of muse-hoes in case a song-making opportunity arises!”4. Why have I been saying “hoes” this whole time? I definitely shouldn’t do that.</p>
Excerpted from YEARBOOK Copyright © 2021 by Seth Rogen. Published in hardcover and ebook by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio, read by the author and full cast.