Everyone Loves You When You're Dead. Neil Strauss
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signing, ain’t I?
That doesn’t mean you got it.
SNOOP DOGG: Master P treats me good. It’s not about fifty percent. It’s about treating me like I’m supposed to be treated, putting me on the level of a superstar, promoting my shit and making people anticipate it. And putting me back in a position where in my heart and my mind I feel like I’m the best rapper in the world and can’t nobody touch me. That confidence that he gave me is something no other label could have given me.
What does it take to give you that confidence?
SNOOP DOGG: Wisdom. Respect and wisdom.
Respect, wisdom, and publishing?
SNOOP DOGG: Especially publishing.
In what ways has Master P helped you?
SNOOP DOGG: In every way. The most important way was mental. I was lost. I was basically crazy out here: on my own, no support, me for me. I felt like the label left me for dead. I was angry at Suge, because he was all my inspiration and I didn’t have him. And everybody was going, “It’s him. He’s the one.” And I was like, “Oh shit, it is him.” But I look at the situation now, it wasn’t him. He was there for me; it’s me. That’s why I’d like to holler at him so we can have a face-to-face and I can tell him what I need to tell him to his face like a man. Hopefully through these interviews, he’ll see what demeanor I’m on and read through the lines and see that I didn’t really mean what I said, but I said what I meant.
Are you worried at all that Master P will do the same things Suge did?
SNOOP DOGG: Master P saved me. I was broke, like couldn’t-pay-my-bills broke. He’s a motherfucking genius and I love him, because I realize he loves me. It’s a cold expression, but love is a motherfucker. A lot of motherfuckers can say they love you, but they only love what you do for them. To love a motherfucker is to love him uncut. (To the producers:) What’s up? Can the weed spend some more time on this side of the world? Boy, you all sure got it locked up on that side.
Did Master P meet with Suge to get you off the label?
SNOOP DOGG: I don’t know and I’m really not concerned. I just know that it’s official. I’m a No Limit soldier, and it’s the start of a new generation.5
Who’s managing you now?
SNOOP DOGG: I’m managing myself.
What happened to all those songs you played me at your house?
SNOOP DOGG: I didn’t even put that shit on my album. All that shit has gone down the drain because I was on a bad vibe then. I had a lot of anger in my person. Me and P thought it would be best not to come from that vibe, just come all the way new. I don’t have no personal thing against nobody at Death Row. It was more me not knowing or taking time to learn the business. It wasn’t anybody’s fault but my own, so I’m not angry at anybody over there. I don’t have no grudges, no attitude.
Good thing I didn’t leak them.
SNOOP DOGG: Why didn’t you?
I didn’t want to get involved in whatever was going on between you and Suge.
SNOOP DOGG: I’m glad I did those songs though. It was really good for me to just get it off my chest because I wanted to talk to somebody. I didn’t have nobody to talk to. So I was talking to the music.
Did you hear that [alleged Tupac killer] Orlando Anderson was shot?
SNOOP DOGG: Yeah, I heard.
Think it was connected to Tupac?
SNOOP DOGG: Don’t know, don’t care, don’t wanna know.
Did that night at the Universal Amphitheatre have anything to do with your attitude toward all this now?6
SNOOP DOGG: That night was a crazy night, and I forgot about it really (laughs awkwardly).
I heard someone from Death Row warned you not to talk about it anymore.
SNOOP DOGG: I can’t speak to that, but I’m here at the house doing an interview with you.
Did Master P have to teach you how to say “uhh”7 in order to record for him?
SNOOP DOGG: No, he didn’t teach me that. He can’t sell me that. I taught him how to say “bi-atch.”
Can you teach me?
SNOOP DOGG: I can teach you how to say, “Woof motherfucker, woof motherfucker, bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay.”
You’ve improved your old hook.
SNOOP DOGG: I’m back, I’m back. (Puff puff.) That’s some good shit here, man.
Russell Targ is by all appearances a stereotypical nerd genius, with pants pulled past his belly button, mop-like gray curls, thick black-framed glasses, and a high, pinched voice. In the 1950s, he made his reputation by helping to develop the laser. But in 1972, his life took a turn for the surreal when he and another physicist found themselves with a contract from the CIA. For the next two decades, he was at the forefront of one of the strangest chapters of the Cold War: psychic espionage.
This is not a conspiracy theory, like the rumor that the military covered up a UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. This is actual fact: For twenty-three years, the U.S. government funded the research and development of teams of psychic spies trained in a type of ESP known as remote viewing, in which, with pen, paper, and brain, they attempted to tune into events taking place in locations and times outside ordinary sensory perception.
These spies claim to have psychically penetrated Russian nuclear laboratories, visited hostages in the American embassy in Tehran, and scoured the globe for secret terrorist camps. Asked after his presidency about unusual events during his term, Jimmy Carter recalled an incident in which a psychic in the program found the location of a downed Russian spy plane.
Sitting with Targ in, of all places, a casino in Las Vegas, I began interviewing him about the program, with a healthy dose of skepticism. But then, suddenly, he asked . . .
RUSSELL TARG: Have you ever done any types of psychic things?
I’m not sure. I don’t think so.
TARG : I can try to show you something psychic. You’ll need to use your pen and your notebook.
What do I have to do?
TARG : I have an object in my pocket. It’s not an ordinary kind of thing that you would find in your pocket. And what I’m inviting you to do is try and describe the shapes that come to mind. But don’t try and guess my object.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s a little loud for this?
TARG : If you were going to draw a shape associated with this object, what would you draw? (I draw an uneven circle on the paper.) Now what words