Darryl "Joe Cool" Daniel says he didn't believe his cousin.

While incarcerated at California State Prison, Cochran in the early 1990s, Joe Absurd says he sent his sis a cartoon of their cousin, Snoop Dogg. When Snoop Dogg was visiting his sis one day, Joe Cool happened to get on the telephone with Snoop Dogg.

"He told me he was rapping with Dr. Dre," Joe Cool says during an sectional interview with HipHopDX. "I told him, 'That'south a Goddamn lie. Accident that smoke up somebody else'due south ass. Put my sis back on the phone, lying-ass nigga.' He'south similar, 'I'm serious, man. I'1000 rapping with Dr. Dre.' I'm like, 'OK. Alright.' I said to my sister, 'He rapping with North.W.A Dr. Dre?' She said, 'Yeah, he come out and get em.' I said, 'No shit. Put him back on the phone.' I said, 'Requite me $25 dollars.' He said, 'Alright. I own't got no money right now, but I'll send it to you…Joe, I'ma be the shit, homo.'"

This was before the then-Snoop Doggy Dogg was introduced via the 1992 song "Deep Cover." Joe Cool says he however scoffed at Snoop's statements, but that he started to believe Snoop a bit more than when he played him an early version of "Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang" over the telephone.

"Then he sent me that $25," Joe Cool says. "That'due south when I believed him."

Joe Cool Says Snoop Dogg Urged Him To Get Off Drugs

Joe Absurd was released from prison house in 1992 and happened to be walking downward the street in Long Beach when he met upwards with Snoop Dogg and Warren M. But Joe Cool, who was a crack addict, was loftier on sherm at the time.

Joe Cool says Snoop Dogg implored him to get make clean. "'Get yourself off that shit,'" Joe Cool says Snoop Dogg said to him. " I want you to exercise my album cover, human. I'm doing Dre's album. Then my album gonna come out.' He said, 'Become your shit together Joe Absurd.'"

Joe Cool violated his parole and was incarcerated again, but he was released while "Deep Cover" was condign ane of 1992's biggest rap songs. Joe Cool and Snoop Dogg saw each other soon thereafter.

"Snoop came to me and he told me, 'I desire you to draw my cover, homo,'" Joe Cool says. "I said, 'Yous serious?' He said, 'Yeah. We gonna pay you lot, gonna give you some money.' He gave me the thought.  He said, 'Well Dr. Dre really wants a picture of me on pinnacle of a doghouse, reaching over, feeling on a dog's ass or something. Simply I want yous to draw it, though. We'll run information technology past Dre.' Dre said, 'Alright. Go ahead.'"

Joe Cool says he had his then-girlfriend Carla pose on his mother'southward couch, which is what the doghouse and the female person dog inbound it on the cover are based on. He added his own sense of humour to the captions.

The consequence was the embrace of Snoop Doggy'southward 1993 Doggystyle anthology, a landmark release that has sold more than vi million copies.

"I didn't recollect it would exist iconic, man," says Joe Cool, who signs his art as "Joe Cizzool." "And and so when information technology sold every bit many as it sold, and I seen my shit up there, it only gave me…like damn. I tin can't believe it. My artwork is out in that location, 'cause Snoop permit it come up. He gave me the opportunity, homo. He got me a little bit of 15 minutes of fame upwardly in the earth. Information technology'south been 20 years, man. He gave me that opportunity. Man I love him for it."

When the anthology cover art became the source of controversy, Snoop Dogg shouted his cousin out during an interview on "The Arsenio Hall Show."

"Arsenio said, 'Who drew this?'" Joe Absurd says. "And Snoop said, 'My cousin Joe Cool did that.' When he said that, I most passed out. I was there with him when he did the interview. I was at that place with him. I'm like, 'Oh wow.' Everybody was clapping and shit. 'Woo woo,' all that, like damn. They clapping 'cause I drew this shit. He said, 'My cousin drew that, you know, my cousin Darryl "Joe Absurd."'' I'yard similar, 'Wow. He said my proper name to Arsenio.'"

In an interview with Rolling Stone published Monday (Nov 25), former Death Row Records possessor Suge Knight said that Doggystyle, from its album cover to the videos shot to support it, were meaning.

"If you wait at the anthology encompass, everybody sued usa and said it was degrading women," Knight says. "Just even the guys who did the artwork, who wrote songs, who participated in videos, they were guys who were either wearing red or wearing blue. . . and it was a situation where they all got along. Nosotros'd get places and you might see twenty blue rags and twenty cerise rags. And that was never before seen."

Joe Absurd Helps On Snoop Dogg's "Murder Was The Case"

Even though he is all-time-known for drawing the Doggystyle album cover, Joe Cool also appeared on the intro of the Doggystyle vocal "Murder Was The Instance." He's the 1 referred to equally "JC." Joe Cool says he likewise helped Snoop Dogg with some of the lyrics, given his time in the penal arrangement.

"It was fun doing that," Joe Cool says. "I was in that location for the whole making of that anthology. I watched Dr. Dre bring the musicians upwardly in at that place to blow horns, and I watched him work these keyboards. And I too watched my lilliputian cousin Daz, Daz is our other first cousin, I watched Daz stand backside Dr. Dre, taking notes and getting in his mode. He's similar, 'Man, will you back your ass up?' That's how Daz learned. Daz learned how to do his shit hands-on. Y'all know like when the Dogg Nutrient came, Tha Dogg Pound album? Daz learned all that shit from Dr. Dre. He already had musical skill equally a souvenir from his mama, but the shit that he learned, he learned from Dre past looking, leaning over Dr. Dre's shoulder."

Today, Joe Absurd tours as a hype homo with Snoop Dogg and continues working with him every bit an creative person, among other things. He has also been sober since September 28, 2003.

It'south been a remarkable journey since Snoop Dogg told Joe Cool that he was working with Dr. Dre more than 20 years agone. "Lucky for me, I was always overnice to Snoop," Joe Cool says. "I was always cool with him, 'cause I love him. He was always like a little brother.

"Whenever I go out this earth, that right there is my legacy, man," Joe Absurd continues. "Information technology'sDoggystyle, 'cause Snoop gave me that opportunity, human. He didn't have to. He could have went with that motion picture, human. But he said, 'I want my cousin to describe this.""

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