Some wait for their lawyer, agent, or parent, to read their contract. Famed businesswoman and subject of a recent Netflix biopic on her homemaking empire Martha Stewart has none other than Snoop Dogg reading the fine print before she signs on the dotted line.
“I’ve learned how to negotiate even better than ever,” Stewart told the Wall Street Journal, when asked about the lessons she’s gleaned from rapper and entrepreneur Snoop Dogg.
The two forged a friendship and business partnership back in 2008, when Snoop appeared on Stewart’s cooking show. Later, the duo were brought together again for Justin Bieber’s Comedy Central roast.
“At that point Martha had been off the air for a few years,” Meg James, reporter at the Los Angeles Times said in Netflix docuseries Martha. “Culturally she had become pretty irrelevant,” she added of Stewart’s reputation in 2015, still coming off the tails of an insider trading scandal.
She ended up stealing the roast, as Snoop recalled— beginning Stewart’s public departure from the perfectionist image she had cultivated in prior decades. Stewart made her mark on Snoop.
“She sat next to me, and she stole the show. She was the funniest roaster that night,”
Snoop said in a 2019 NBC News interview. “In that moment I knew I wanted to be alongside this lady for the rest of my life,” he added.
Since then the two have partnered up for public appearances, at one point even helming a reality show called Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party.
At this point, Snoop even reads Stewart’s contracts.“We do a lot of work together, and I wait for him to negotiate the contract, then I go and follow him,” Stewart told the Journal.
He’s likely a good person to contact for business savvy after all, Snoop is reportedly worth $160 million, per Celebrity Net Worth. He’s built an empire off his own name, and is champion for closing the Black wealth gap.
“I’m trying to be one of those examples of someone who creates his own everything, owns his own everything, and has a brand strong enough to compete with Levi’s and Miller and Kraft and all of these other brands that have been around for hundreds of years,” Snoop said in a 2021 interview with the New York Times.
Having a stake in the game is essential for Snoop when it comes to signing off on a product. “I want some equity. Give me a piece of the pie. If I can’t get no equity, [expletive] you and your company,” he told the Times.
Stewart, formerly the first self-made female billionaire, saw her net worth falter after her insider-trading scandal. Her media empire was valued at more than $1 billion at its height, though it sold for far less in 2015, according to the New York Times. She’s landed on her feet to some degree, as she’s still a millionaire and continues to appear in more projects. Presumably, Snoop has been some help.
