Hip-hop legends are called GOATs, icons, OGs – and royalties. Snoop Dogg presented his royal gallery, with the images of six regal figures whom he deemed worthy of a crown.
These are the legends whose names are known to everybody – regardless of what they think about them. In all their glory there are Dr. Dre, 2Pac, Ice Cube, Eminem, Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Dogg himself.
Snoop captioned this picture with a confident:
Remember we are royalty
This iconography stems to that famous Biggie shot in the crown, probably the first one in hip-hop history to portray a rapper as a regal figure.
The photographer behind this shot, Barron Claiborne, felt that images of rappers had been cliché, and he “wasn’t interested in stereotypical negative imagery of black people”.
To him, the rapper was “a big West African king”, and he wanted him portrayed as regal in the photos. The idea was almost derailed by Puff Daddy, who owned Bad Boy Entertainment, Biggie’s label. Puff thought the crown made Biggie look like Burger King, but Biggie convinced Puff it was “a cool concept”.
In Vikki Tobak’s “Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop” you can find Claiborne’s explanation of his take: “This photo is about hip-hop, but it’s also beyond that. This was simply about photographing Biggie as the King of New York. He is depicted as an almost saint-like figure. This shot is the shot and it’s iconic. I still have the crown, too”. The B.I.G. died days later, and “the fact that he died made the symbolism stronger. He had to die for this image to have that symbolism. The king sacrificed. But Biggie has the crown and mourners carried the image during the rapper’s funeral procession days later.
