Kanye West claims that a legendary Snoop Dogg concert he watched on television as a child had a profound impact on his life.
Ye shared a photo of Snoop wearing a Tommy Hilfiger rugby shirt while performing on Saturday Night Live in 1994 on Instagram on Sunday (September 11), expressing how much of an influence it had on him from a marketing standpoint.
The most influential marketing experience of my young existence was watching Snoop wear this Tommy Hilfiger rugby, Kanye captioned the photo.
Love u king, Snoop wrote in the comments. Let’s do. A motion. Make the call.
Just months after the release of his debut album Doggystyle, Snoop Dogg appeared on Saturday Night Live and performed “Lodi Dodi,” a rendition of the Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick classic “La Di Da Di,” while wearing a red, white, and blue Tommy Hilfiger shirt.
Tommy Hilfiger was originally a “preppy” brand, but in the 1990s, when Grand Puba mentioned the company on Mary J. Blige’s song “What’s the 411? ”
But as Tommy Hilfiger’s brother and former vice president of marketing, Andy, emphasized in an interview with Complex in 2016, it was Snoop’s appearance on SNL that helped the brand become more widely known.
The rapper from Death Row was introduced to Tommy Hilfiger and him at a Grammy Awards after-party in 1994. They then invited him to their showroom, where they chilled out and handed him free clothing, according to Hilfiger. Snoop called him two weeks later and requested more threads.
“I’m practicing for Saturday Night Live, he says. Can you see me tonight at my hotel? Hilfiger remembered. “It was drenching. At midnight, I went to Hilfiger, undressed the mannequins, and left for the Hotel Macklowe. I gave him these brand-new rugbys and these new logos.
“Tommy contacts Andy the following evening at around 2:30 and tells him to tune on Saturday Night Live. I respond, “Yeah, I know. Those people we met are wearing my clothes.” Snoop says. Oh, my god, he said, “I forgot to tell you, I went to their hotel last night.”
The shirts were gone by the following day, according to Peter Paul, the former director of marketing at Tommy Jeans.
“When I returned to work on Monday, our Hilfiger salespeople from all across the nation were asking, ‘Did something happen because everyone wants more rugbys?’ Everyone wants more merchandise with our emblem on it,” Andy stated. “Oh, sure, I was like that. As much as [Grand] Puba made it cool on the streets, Snoop elevated it to the national level because he appeared on Saturday Night Live.
That was the brightest moment, Paul continued. Tommy transitioned from the underground to the mainstream at that time. We were aware of the impact of product placement as well as Hilfiger’s power and influence inside the Hip Hop scene.