Influential rapper Snoop Dogg gets around. He and Martha Stewart are besties. She teaches him to cook and she gets high on secondary smoke. But Snoop Dogg and actress Cameron Diaz? How on earth could they be friends? The famous actress (or maybe former actress) and the rapper who is known for his love of a joint or three?
What on earth could they have in common? Well, they went to the same high school. Snoop, known back then as Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. is a year older than Diaz. But, even then, he stood out because he was so tall and because of the weird things he sometimes did with his hair, ponytails, and the like.
We can't even say they were "friends" way back when, but they certainly knew one another. Both were stand-outs for very different reasons.
And Cameron remembers buying "something" from the weed-crazy rapper that became Snoop Dogg.
So, let's have a look at what went on between Snoop and Cameron way back when in high school.
Two Different Worlds. Same School
Cameron Diaz was born in 1972 and was raised in Long Beach, California. She ended up at Long Beach Polytechnic High School at the same time as Snoop Dogg, then Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. Hardly from a wealthy background, she was nonetheless a model student. Literally. While still in high school, at the tender age of 16-years-old she was signed by Elite Models and made appearances in ads for Calvin Klein and Levi's jeans. And, at the ripe old age of 17, she was on the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine. Cameron had a stable childhood and has called her parents "amazing".
Born the year before Diaz, Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. wasn't so lucky. His dad left when Calvin was only a few months old. He was absent for most of Calvin's childhood. Not many people know it, but "Snoop" was nicknamed "Snoopy" as a child because he loved, loved, loved Peanuts, the cartoon franchise that featured Snoopy the dog.
Snoop did the church choir thing for a time and then in sixth grade, he began rapping. He brags of giving performances in the halls of his high school, drawing large crowds, and giving the principal a hard time.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Snoop has said: “When I rapped in the hallways at school I would draw such a big crowd that the principal would think there was a fight going on. It made me begin to realize that I had a gift. I could tell that my raps interested people and that made me interested in myself.”
Believe it or not, he was, for a time, considered a very good student and a faithful churchgoer. Doesn't sound much like the Snoop we know these days. And he was a hard worker, taking on a paper round and working in grocery stores to make money for his family.
So, while Diaz was a stand-out because of her modeling, Snoop was making a name for himself as a rapper.
And then came the drugs. Snoop was dealing during (and after) his high school years. In spite of his mother's best efforts, he got involved in a bad crowd. And, for years and years, he was in and out of trouble with the law.
What Brought Cameron And Snoop Together?
This brings up how Snoop and Cameron hooked up. No, not that way. She claims that she remembers buying pot from him. Yes, the nice sweet little girl who made the cover of Seventeen magazine claims that she bought pot from Snoop while he was a dealer.
Says Cameron: "We went to high school together. He was a year older than me... I remember him, he was very tall and skinny. He wore lots of ponytails."
And don't get the idea that Diaz was a saint during her high school days. She was as gutsy as they come. She was causing her own kind of trouble. The message was clearly "don't mess with Cameron Diaz" or else.
She remembers: "I used to get in fights with boys more than girls, for some reason boys liked to fight me. But one time in junior high I had this girl come up to me in the locker room from behind and pull my hair back. I had to shut her down!"
So were (are) Snoop Dogg and Cameron Diaz friends? They go way back and share some of the same memories of high school in Long Beach. But they are and were more friendly acquaintances than friends. Cameron just loves to tell the story of buying pot from Snoop. And, despite disowning his time as a dealer, Snoop gets a kick out of hearing her tell the tale.