How Tupac Shakur Helped Raise Snoop Dogg’s Son Cordae

Tupac Shakur never had the chance to have children on his own, but he poured into the children around him. The Poetic Justice rapper and actor died in September 1996 after he was gunned down on a Las Vegas strip. During his brief but impactful life, he mentored several youngsters and loved on his godchildren, which included Salt N’ Pepa rapper Salt’s daughter Corinne and best friend Snoop Dogg’s son Cordae. Snoop recently opened up about Shakur’s presence in Cordae’s life, and how he inspired him to be a better father. 

“I was working on Tha Doggfather, so when [Corde] was old enough able to pee and all that other s—, I started taking him to the studio with me,” Snoop, 52, told PEOPLE in a recent cover story. “So I’m raising him around all of the homies.”

Snoop explained that Shakur would spent time with him, and even feed him, which included McDonald’s. “Tupac loved him. It’s like his nephew. Tupac was a better dad than me,” Snoop recalled in the interview. “We’ve been up here [in the recording studio for] three hours and we ain’t got him nothing to eat. It’s like I’m up here rapping and s—, I’m not being a father. [He was] training me.”

A year after Shakur’s death, Snoop became a father for the second time to another son, Cordell Broadus, in 1997. This time around, he was able to apply into advice he learned from Shakur. Both sons, now 30 and 27, have children of their own.

“I put them in football and I watched them work together. Football helped me to become a real good father because I was around other men who were single parents, or either had a great wife, or was a grandfather raising their son’s kids — so much I could learn from them,” Snoop said, noting how important quality time was during their childhood. Snoop eventually began his own football league.