Universal Pictures’ Snoop Dogg biopic “Snoop” has found its Notorious B.I.G., tapping SwayvoTwain, the 29-year-old son of the late R&B artists D’Angelo and Angie Stone, for the role. Born Michael D’Angelo Archer II, the musician confirmed the casting on Instagram Tuesday, sharing footage of himself meeting Snoop Dogg around Los Angeles. The part marks his first major film role after a small credit in a 2022 streaming release.
The casting rounds out a supporting ensemble that continues to grow around Jonathan Daviss, who leads the film as Snoop Dogg. Bentley Green joins as RBX, Snoop’s cousin and a 1990s Death Row signee, while Los Angeles rapper G Perico takes on Big Reecie Cup, a figure from Snoop’s Long Beach upbringing. The film’s cast already includes Myles Bullock as Dr. Dre, Camron Jones as Tupac Shakur, Tre Hale as Suge Knight, Algee Smith as Warren G, Olly Sholotan as Kurupt and Lauren London as Snoop’s late mother, Beverly Tate. Laya DeLeon Hayes plays Snoop’s wife, Shante Broadus.
Craig Brewer, who directed “Hustle & Flow,” is helming the project from a reworked script credited to Joe Robert Cole. Brian Grazer produces alongside Snoop Dogg and Death Row Pictures’ Sara Ramaker, marking the first release under Death Row Pictures’ new partnership with NBCUniversal. Snoop Dogg has described the project as a definitive account of his life and career.
Biggie and Snoop occupied opposite poles of the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that defined 1990s hip-hop, yet the two maintained a friendly rapport before Biggie’s killing in March 1997. Snoop went on to appear on all three of Biggie’s posthumous albums, including a guest verse on “Born Again” that helped send the record to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. SwayvoTwain, who has built a recording career blending Southern soul, hip-hop and R&B influences drawn from his parents’ legacies, is set to appear in “Snoop” when the film reaches U.S. theaters on Aug. 6, 2027.
