Snoop Dogg calls for an end to the threats of violence against Gayle King in wake of interview about Kobe Bryant’s legacy. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)
Rapper Snoop Dogg is clarifying an important point when it comes to his recent scathing words about CBS’ Gayle King’s recent interview about basketball great Kobe Bryant‘s legacy.
Snoop, 48, took to Instagram Saturday to explain he has no ill-will towards King, lead anchor of CBS This Morning, who has been dragged across social media for asking WNBA star Lisa Leslie to discuss Bryant’s 2003 rape charges in a TV interview that aired Feb. 4.
“I’m a non-violent person,” Snoop said in the video. “When I said what I said, I spoke for the people who felt like Gayle was very disrespectful toward Kobe Bryant and his family.”
To be clear, what Snoop said on Instagram on Thursday was that King, 65, was a “funky, dog-haired bitch” for asking Leslie about the rape allegations against Bryant. The case was dropped after Bryant’s accuser, a Colorado hotel employee, refused to testify. A civil case was settled out of court.
Snoop and many others across the country have said it was too soon to bring up the rape case after Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others died in a Jan. 26 helicopter crash near Calabasas, Calif.
For his part in the debate, Snoop explained in his Instagram video that he was disappointed about the comments but does not wish harm to come to King.
“What I look like wanting some harm to come to a 70-year-old woman?” Snoop asked. “I was raised way better than that. I don’t want no harm to come to her and I didn’t threaten her. All I did was said, ‘Check it out – you outta pocket for what you doing and we watching you. Have a little more respect for Vanessa (Bryant’s widow), her babies and Kobe Bryant’s legacy.’”
King has faulted CBS for picking out the most salacious part of her interview with Leslie, Bryant’s friend, and using it to promote the piece.
King’s good friend, Oprah Winfrey, has come to her defense and shared that King is deeply upset and has been feeling attacked over the public dragging and death threats.
And in recent days, many others like Barack Obama’s former national security advisor, Susan Rice and scholar Dr. Marc Lamont Hill have been coming to King’s defense, saying that King was doing her job as a journalist and while it is okay to criticize King’s line of questioning in the interview, the derogatory name-calling and death threats are inappropriate and unnecessary.
