As Snoop Dogg gains widespread attention for his prominent presence at the Paris Olympic Games presented by NBC, Henry L. McNamara made an explosive claim on social media.
McNamara, a venture capitalist based in New York and a member of Forbes Magazine ’s 2020 30 Under 30 Venture Capital class, made an Aug. 4 tweet claiming that an NBC executive told him that the rapper and music producer was being paid $500,000 a day plus expenses.
“Sat next to an NBC exec at dinner, he said Snoop gets paid $500k a day plus expenses to be here promoting Olympics. From Gin and Juice to a few million to be a celebrity at the Olympics – what a world,” McNamara wrote.
McNamara’s claim was met on the site with disbelief of his cited source — and that he would seem to think that NBC, essentially, would have Snoop Dogg at most major Olympic events performing the duties of a correspondent for free.
Some have also compared Snoop’s alleged salary to the payouts of American athletes who medal, but there is no evidence that McNamara’s claim is legitimate, just an alleged conversation with an unnamed NBC executive.
Snoop Dogg, meanwhile, has been profiled by the Washington Post as NBC’s “Ambassador of Happiness” and they, in a similar fashion to McNamara, charted the unlikely rise of Snoop from Dr. Dre’s running mate on “Gin & Juice” to becoming a sensation with his star turn at the Paris Games.
Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University, told the outlet, “I’m not sure who was betting on Snoop to be America’s sweetheart in the 1990s. No one saw this coming then.”
In 2021, NBC hired Snoop as the host of a late-night highlights show with Kevin Hart, and the executives were so happy with the results, they wanted even more Snoop. NBC wanted the rapper to fill a “roving correspondent” role in this year’s Olympics, a role which it seems the entertainer agreed to, given his ubiquitous presence at several events.
According to The Post , Snoop might be helping to drive a viewership spike of NBC’s coverage and Molly Solomon, the executive producer of NBC’s Olympics coverage, described Snoop to the outlet as an “ambassador of happiness”
Snoop discussed part of why he believes he has been successful as the Olympic ambassador with The Associated Press, telling the outlet, “When the lights are on, that’s when I shine the best. This opportunity was nothing but a chance for me to show the world what it’s supposed to look like when you put the right person in the right environment.”
Martha Stewart, who celebrated her 83rd birthday by attending an Olympic equestrian event with Snoop on August 3, told the outlet that his likeability and accessibility is his true talent.
“I think he’s done an amazing job for the Olympics. This is the celebration of the finest athleticism ever in the world and he has made it so accessible to everybody. That’s his talent. Everybody loves him.” Stewart said.
Snoop believes the key to audiences enjoying him is that he is simply just being himself and audiences can tell it’s authentic and not a performance.
“This is what I do. I do it every day. That’s why it’s not hard for me,” Snoop said. “It’s not like an act. The bits that we do. They’re comfortable. They’re not stretched or forced. It’s me being me.”
Snoop continued, “But remember, I’m a rapper. So ain’t no rapper ever did what I’m doing. It’s limitations to the field that I come from,” Snoop told the AP. “Rappers aren’t supposed to do this. I tend to do the unthinkable.”
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