Rapper Snoop Dogg has called out the NBA and NFL for a lack of diversity in team ownership roles.
Speaking to The New York Times, the rapper questioned why, despite the high proportion of Black players in the NBA and NFL leagues, that doesn’t equate to Black people in high profile roles as team owners.
He said: “I mean, you would think that those businesspeople up top would say: ‘You know what? It’s time to change the world. We’ve got to stop treating Black people like they’re less. They’re always the ones who do the hard work, the groundwork, but we never cut them in.’”
On the NFL’s lack of Black team owners, he continued: “That’s just racist. Period, point-blank.”
“We need to own an NFL team. We got one half-owner in the NBA, Michael Jordan. But the whole league is 90 per cent Black. So we still the slaves and they still the masters.”
He also went on to compare it to the music industry and musician’s work in owning their own masters.
“That’s why in the music game, we took the initiative to say, f*** that. We’re the masters, and we own our masters. We’re going to negotiate with you the way we think it should be. We changed that industry years ago, with our mentality of having our own labels.”
On 7 June, it was revealed that Snoop Dogg was joining Def Jam Recordings as an executive creative and strategic consultant.
Def Jam announced on Monday that a newly created role for the iconic rapper “will allow (Snoop) to strategically work across the label’s executive team and artist roster.”
Acts signed to the label include Kanye West Nas, Justin Bieber, Big Sean, Logic, Jadakiss, 2 Chainz, Jeezy, Jhené Aiko, Bobby Sessions and late rapper DMX. Def Jam is a division of Universal Music Group also home to Interscope Geffen A&M, Capitol Records and Republic Records.
