Dr. Seuss Rhyme Schemes and Doggy Style Delivered in the Same Voice — A Cultural Crossover Event
On a seemingly ordinary weekday afternoon in 2016, the Los Angeles Public Library hosted a celebrity storytime session that was anything but ordinary. The guest reader: Calvin Broadus Jr., better known as Snoop Dogg. The attire: A fuzzy blue pajama onesie adorned with cartoon fried eggs. The reading material: Dr. Seuss’s ‘Green Eggs and Ham.’ The vibe: relaxed, perplexing, and strangely wholesome.
Snoop, a longtime advocate for youth literacy and libraries, was participating in a charity initiative to encourage kids to read by making it cool—Snoop’s definition of cool, of course, including plush leisurewear and fully committing to his dramatic Seussian line delivery. Witnesses report he read with appropriate gravitas, rhythmically attacking phrases like “I do not like them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse,” as if they were unreleased lyrics from his platinum-selling debut album.
The event was part of a promotional initiative for a children’s literacy nonprofit. Snoop explained to attending reporters that he wanted to “bring the books to the homies, young and old,” and that his own love for reading came later in life when he realized that all the best characters—“like that cat with the hat”—tend to make bold entrances. He refrained from freestyle reading, although sources close to the event claimed he was “tempted.”
The children in attendance were reportedly enthralled by the performance and only mildly confused by their reader’s trademark vocal tone, which occasionally turned the lines into something resembling West Coast lullabies. At one point, Snoop paused to clarify that no, he did not, in fact, have any green eggs on him, but yes, he would most definitely eat them in a box, with a fox, or while streaming Madden 2016 in his studio.
In classic Snoop Dogg fashion, this bizarre combination of literacy advocacy, sleepwear, and iconic rhyme patterns made perfect sense to everyone involved. Upon leaving, he signed copies of the book, adding “Fo shizzle” to his signature, and told one child, “You keep readin’, lil nephew. You the future, ya dig?”
The event has since lived quietly in the archives of confusing cultural moments, but among the crossover canon of Uncle Snoop’s career, his foray into children’s literature ranks as one of the more debatably educational and definitively unforgettable moments.