Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are unapologetic about capitalizing off of their renowned hits.
Among the Mount Rushmore of hip-hop’s greatest acts, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg have embarked on yet another business venture with the official launch of their own gin, STILL G.I.N. By Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
The gin is beyond a white label product. It was thoroughly uniquely curated by the two hip-hop icons, from its citrus tangerine dominant flavor with complimentary hits of jasmine and coriander, to its glass diamond shaped dented bottle pattern.
“This is not a liquor that we’re just putting our name on,” said Dr. Dre in a press statement. “It’s just like we did with Beats headphones. Everything is us from the ground up: the gin, the flavor, the packaging… Everything had to be perfect. Snoop said it best: we’re better together – it’s always magical. It’s incredible to know that you’ve got something amazing that you feel is gonna really work. From the look to the taste, it’s all there.”
The name of the gin product, STILL G.I.N, is a play and amalgamation of the title of two of their biggest collaborations, 1994’s “Gin and Juice” and 1999’s “Still D.R.E.”
“Gin and Juice,” the G-Funk defining track that popularized cruising culture in rap, is perhaps, Snoop Doggy Dog’s (as the legendary was once known by and transparently, eventually dropped the “Doggy”), signature track among classic hip-hop enthusiasts. It was Snoop’s second hit single from his Dr. Dre produced debut album, Doggystyle, an album that remains a top contender for the best amid hip-hop’s prime ‘90s era. The song swiftly debuted on to the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at a whopping number 8—an act that was colossal at the time for a hip-hop record. The victorious reach of the track earned Snoop the nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards the following year.
“Every day in the studio when Dre and I were trying to make the dopest music, we were drinking gin and just having fun,” Snoop Dogg expressed in a press statement. “We’ve been a part of the evolution of this gin – from the creation of the flavor, to the percentage of alcohol that’s in it – and it’s just so good! Dre’s a perfectionist: he wants to make sure it’s not just good, but great. Together, we ain’t gonna do nothing regular!”
“Now that I got me some Seagram’s gin/Everybody got they cups, but they ain’t chipped in/Now this types of shit happens all the time/You gotta get yours, but fool, I gotta get mine,” the Long Beach native raps.
“Still D.R.E,” a track where the established producer, Aftermath record label owner, and foundational rapper confirmed his reinvention, after bouts of diminished connections and controversy. The song reached number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot Rap charts.
Despite not manifesting grand chart success at the time of its release, 23 years after its release, the song experienced a second chance at primetime thanks to his performance with Snoop Dogg at the 2022 Super Bowl HalfTime show. The performance triggered the track to resurge on the Billboard charts, peaking at number 167 on the Global 200. The track experienced another milestone, with the music video surpassing 1 billion views on YouTube just 3 days after the Super Bowl performance.
“Since the last time you heard from me, I lost some friends/Well, hell, me and Snoop, we dippin’ again/Kept my ear to the streets, signed Eminem/He’s triple platinum, doing 50 a week…,” Dr. Dre raps.
STILL G.I.N. is the second product to emerge out of the new beverage brand, for which Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg partnered with Patrick Halbert, Andrew Gill and Rocco Milano, the founders of On The Rocks Cocktails, making the two hip-hop legends co-founders. In February, they released their first product, Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop, a canned cocktail which earned a Luxury Lifestyle Award for Best Luxury RTD Gin Brand in the USA.
“Dre and Snoop were involved in every step – from the bottle design down to getting the perfect harmony of botanical notes and smooth mouth feel into each sip,” said Chief Strategy Officer Andrew Gill. “Focusing on the complexity of balancing all-natural botanicals, we blended the spice, botanical, and garden ingredients until we had exactly the right profile – one that appeals to a wide variety of palates, but complex enough to satisfy the most sophisticated gin expert. Together, what we came up with with Dre and Snoop was the gin we’ve always wanted to make.”
This endeavor marks both Dr. Dre’s and Snoop Dogg’s first gateway into pure premium-spirit cipher, ultimately amplifying their profiles as entrepreneurs and arguably positioning them as the most poised in entrepreneurship among figures from their era of hip-hop culture.