The legendary rapper is 'The Voice's season 20 Mega Mentor!
The singers of The Voice season 20 are about to learn some lessons from Tha Doggfather himself!
Snoop Dogg is this season's Mega Mentor, making his debut during Monday's Knockout Rounds to help coaches Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Nick Jonas coach their team members up for one last round before the start of the season 20 live shows.
"The element of surprise is when you come and see Snoop Dogg sitting in the chair," the rapper told ET's Kevin Frazier about making his debut as the first-ever rapper to serve as a celeb mentor on the NBC singing competition. "I know if I was a young, aspiring songwriter or singer, it'd probably throw me off beat, but then I would compose myself to show them that this is why I'm here."
In fact, composing themselves is one of the things Snoop recalled noting the season 20 singers on, recalling that he had to stress the importance of "stage presence" to some of the talented performers.
"You could have a great set of vocals, but if you have no stage presence, you're just a vocalist," he explained. "A lot of that time needs to be put into making sure that you have a presence onstage. Even if you don't dance, make sure that you have some sort of movement that you know gives you body language while you're performing. A lot of artists don't pay attention to that."
Snoop isn't playing favorites when it comes to recalling his time with the season 20 coaches and singers, noting that while John and Kelly both have strong teams, Nick and Blake have "some heavy hitters" that could mix things up. "It's just a matter of if they take that information that they got and use it for their final performance," he said.
"It's hard to say which team that I like working with the best, because there's so much talent inside of each team," he added. "I think that each team has some unique singers and some unique artists that could possibly make it past the show. I know only one person's gonna win, but it seems like there's about six or seven record deals up in here."
However, he did have some interesting perspective on each of the season 20 coaches, and broke it all down for fans like only Snoop can.
"Blake is like Snoop Dogg," he said with a laugh. "If we would've been in school together, we both would've been getting suspended, class clowns, throwing stuff at the other students. Like, he's one of my guys… Can't look at us and tell, but once we started hanging out and doing our thing, it was life, man, y'all act like y'all been knowing each other 20, 30 years."
As for Kelly, Snoop noted that she's more like the "teacher" who might have been trying to keep him and Blake in line. "She's very informative with giving her information and she wants her team to really know why she's giving this information and how it can help them," he explained, noting that the American Idol winner goes "in depth" with her team members. "She coaches her players to perfection, to make sure that they know that this is why they need to be doing this."
Nick returned to the The Voice for his second attempt at victory in season 20, and Snoop noted that his youth and enthusiasm make him an interesting threat on the coaches' panel.
"Nick is like the player-coach," he explained. "A lot of these singers that come on here are closer to him, as far as being his peer, than any other [coach] on the show, so he's like a player-coach that can assist his team and be smart enough to know what's hip right now and what's good from back in the day."
As for John? Snoop could only call him a "musical masterpiece."
"He quick, he fast, he firm, he say what he mean," he praised. "His players know what they expected to do, and he get it in and get it out… If you listen to his music, you could tell that he's a professional 'cause he only makes music that makes you cry, wanna have a baby, get married or stay together."
As far as which coach he'd like to musically collaborate with next (he and John have already worked together, on "I Can Change," from John's 2004 debut album, Get Lifted), Snoop had to admit that, "I think me and Blake would make a monster jam."
"Get a bunch of his favorite stuff to drink and get a bunch of my favorite stuff to do and hello!" he laughed. "It may happen, man, I wouldn't doubt it."
"I think Blake is in L.A. now, his wife is from Orange County," the rapper added, teasingly referencing Blake's engagement to former Voice coach and noted California girl Gwen Stefani. "So I'm pretty sure they relocating this way."
See more from Snoop on The Voice's Knockout Rounds, airing Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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