Thug Life Army

As Death Row Records number one rap artist in the early and mid-''90s, Snoop Dogg anchored Suge Knight’s hip-hop gangsta rap empire, along with late rap icon Tupac Shakur.  Since the rap artist parted ways with the record mogul Suge Knight though, the relationship between the two has been nasty.

They have dissed each other countless times in public, and they even almost locked horns at the BET Awards once during an untelevised standoff between their crews.

Snoop Dogg, however, says he's older and wiser and that he's done beefing with the man he once threatened to slap with his pimp hand.

Last month Snoop organized a summit for West Coast artists called the Protect the West Conference, and the agenda for attendees such as hip-hop and rap artists: the Game, Mack 10, Daz and Kurupt; was squashing beef. Snoop decided it was the best place to set aside his differences with his former boss, Marion ‘Suge’ Knight.

"Suge didn''t show up," Snoop  said, "but you know, as far as we''re both concerned, we don''t have no problems with each other no more. We''re just trying to move forward because he's trying to do business. They''re trying to take him out the game, and I don''t want to see him go out of the game like that because I''ve got love for him. He gave me opportunity when nobody else would. I''m a grown man now, so I''ve learned to forgive people for what they''ve done, for what they know not."

Snoop speaks so highly of Suge, some sort of collaboration between the two doesn''t seem like as much of a pipe dream as it did even three months ago.

"I feel like I can help him like he helped me," Snoop continued. "It's just a matter of us trying to come together and me looking at the situation. You know, when you see a brother down, do you kick him or do you give him a hand? I was taught to give him a hand. So I''m just trying to help. I don''t have any problem with Suge Knight, Death Row Records, more power to them. I wish them success and luck."

A spokesperson for Suge Knight could not be reached for comment.

Another huge reconciliation to come out of the summit was rap artist Kurupt rejoining the Dogg Pound Gangsta Clique. Kurupt has been on the How the West Was One Tour with his homies Snoop, Daz and Soopafly and the entire collective has been recording a full DPGC album.

"It was crazy the first couple of nights," Snoop said, "but the first song that we actually laid down, Kurupt was so hard on the song, man, he was so vicious with the verse, I didn''t even want to rap on it. I was like, ''I can''t match him.'' He came back, his blade was so sharp. It touched me in the heart to hear him like that because I could just tell he was holding back, like, ''I gotta say this but I don''t have the right scenario.'' It was just a great uplifting for us to put him back into the building with us. And it helped us. Now we''re on the road, we''re traveling, we''re doing some of that classic DPG music onstage. Just to see us all up there smiling, having a good time, interacting is beautiful."

The DPGC are about seven songs into the album, and Snoop said to also look for Nate Dogg and Warren G on the album. Snoop wants to put his latest group project out later this year but has not settled on a label yet.