Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.—better known as Snoop Dogg—spoke at the commencement ceremony for the USC Marshall School of Business on Monday and passed on some advice for graduates.
The hip-hop legend, entrepreneur and investor also hailed the virtues of overcoming obstacles, saying he has been an underdog his whole life.
Speaking at the LA Memorial Coliseum—not that far from where he grew up in Long Beach—Snoop Dogg also said graduation is more than just getting a diploma: “It’s about the grind, the sleepless nights, the sacrifices, the prayers you whisper when nobody was watching.”
The underdog has “the realest story,” he added, because when you come from nothing, “you appreciate everything, you hustle different, you love different, and you lead different.”
That set up his advice for the graduates, telling them to do three things.
“Stay humble: never forget where you came from. Stay hungry: keep that fire in your soul. And stay true: always be real with yourself and the world, because the world don’t need no more copies. It need originals. And trust me, ain’t nobody else can do what you do like you do,” he said.
Snoop told graduates to keep believing in themself and keep pushing, reminding them that, “It’s always the underdogs who end up running the game. Trust me, that’s why I’m running the game.”
Snoop also cofounded Casa Verde Capital, an investment firm focused on the cannabis industry, while also investing in companies like Klarna, Reddit and Robinhood.
