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Here are 13 cars that Snoop Dogg customized, and 6 that Will.i.am customized.
Snoop Dogg, aka Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., is an old-school rapper who has been known and loved professionally for decades. Worth over $125 million, the “Doggfather” rose to fame after being discovered in 1992 by Dr. Dre. He’s since sold over 35 million albums worldwide.
Will.i.am, or William James Adams Jr., is part of the newer school of rap and is best known as a founding member of the hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas. He’s also produced a bevy of hugely famous artists.
What do these two have in common? Cars. Specifically, highly customized cars. Snoop Dogg is a man who respects the culture of modifying cars, his favorites being late 1960s and early-70s Cadillacs and Buicks. He has a love for lowriders, for his family, and for his own image. His cars vary in size and style, but all of them reflect his personality well.
As his official car customizer, caretaker, and consultant, Big Slice says, “They’re his cars. He tells me what he wants and I make sure that all of them get done to spec.” We mention Big Slice because he’ll be mentioned often in this article.
Will.i.am, on the other hand, prefers a new style of rap, which is reflected in his own style of cars. He has a charitable organization called IAMAUTO which is the body he builds his cars from, and they all look completely unique. For the most part, they look like space-aged, sci-fi cars that belong on Mars as much as they do on Earth. West Coast Customs does most of his modifying.
Here are 13 cars that Snoop Dogg customized, and 6 that Will.i.am customized.
One of the more extravagant cars Snoop owns, and easily the most outlandish, is his Polaris Slingshot. This three-wheeled toy starts at just $26,199, which is cheap compared to the money Snoop spends on some of his other cars. It’s fresh, fast, and fun to drive on the streets—all the things Snoop likes. It has a tilt-adjustable steering wheel, side-by-side bucket seats, and does not lean. The tiny car only weighs 1,743 pounds and runs on a 2.4-liter inline-four GM Ecotec engine. Snoop, of course, had his upgraded before it was even brought to him: with a chrome blue paint job, a stylized purple and blue blinking dashboard, and more. Snoop calls his Slingshot “The Batman.”
Back in the early 2000s, Chrysler went out on a limb by making Snoop Dogg their spokesperson for TV commercials. As pretty much everything does when Snoop Dogg touches it, the company’s sales skyrocketed. To thank Snoop for his work, Chrysler gave Snoop a brand new 300C, after he asked them, “What I gotta do to get that brand new 300 up outta you?” Snoop’s car consultant, Big Slice, said of the model: “Everybody’s talking about them. I like it because you ain’t gotta go and spend a house payment on it. It already looks as nice as the Bentley.” Snoop’s has been lowered, has some massive chrome rims, blacked-out taillights, a body kit, blacked-out windows, and “dub” plastered on all the windows and trunk.
Another Cadillac DeVille in Snoop’s garage is this customized lowrider, aptly named the “Snoop DeVille.” This lowered Caddie features a unique paint theme (including on the rims of the car) which can be described as Snoop's favorite shade of green, perhaps? Snoop has been featured on the Lowrider network and is respected for his love of lowrider culture. Snoop’s cars are reflections of his personal style, and this is one that surely gets a lot of eyeballs on it. Big Slice customized this one, just like most of his others. It isn’t his only lowrider, of course, either (the 1967 Parisienne he gave to Kobe Bryant was lowered, too).
Cadillac is probably the car company of which Snoop Dogg owns the most models. His favorite cars are 1960s and 1970s muscle cars and executive, full-size sedans. In the 60s, the DeVille belonged in the latter category. This seventh generation DeVille is nicknamed “Brown Sugar” by Snoop. It’s a decked-out car owned by the sometimes-Chrysler-spokesman. The Caddie has chandeliers over the back seat as one of its cooler features. For a long time, Brown Sugar resided at The Henry Ford museum in Detroit, Michigan, where it was on display for tourists to see. It was customized with the help of long-time car collaborator Big Slice. The trunk has a design depicting Snoop and his two sons, Corde and Cordell.
The third Cadillac DeVille in Snoop Dogg’s arsenal is this beauty, a 1968 coupe version. He has the 1967 “Brown Sugar” DeVille, the 1974 lowrider Snoop DeVille, and this magnificent white 1068 coupe, which reads “Snoop Dogg” on the front of the hood, rather than Cadillac. In case you didn’t know whom this pimp-mobile belonged to, he makes it obvious. It also has a wide decal that reads “The Church,” and a Bible quote, as well as Snoop and his family, all dressed in white, praying. The quote comes from Matthew 6:9-13 and 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, which is also painted onto the hood underneath the pictures of him and his family.
Snoop Dogg has at least two classic Buick Rivieras. This one is from 1968 and is the second generation of the car, which ran from 1966 to 1970. This generation was redesigned for the 1966 year, retaining its cruciform X-frame, powertrain, and brakes, but with a newly bodacious body shape that was longer, wider, and 200 pounds heavier. The car also came with three engine options: a 7.0-liter Buick V8, a 7.0-liter Nailhead V8, or a 7.5-liter Buick V8 that produced 360 bhp. This silver Riviera was also featured in Snoop’s 2006 music video, “Vato.” It has pink wheels and the decal on the hood shows a picture of Snoop, his newborn daughter, and wife, and reads “Dogg’s Angels, Me and my girls.”
When Kobe Bryant retired from the NBA in 2016, he left a hole in a lot of Los Angelinos’ hearts. He was not only one of the greatest of all time, but also one of the top three most loved Lakers (Shaq and Magic Johnson also come to mind). Snoop Dogg wanted to honor the man, and he did so in spectacular fashion: by giving him a customized, 1966 Pontiac Parisienne, painted yellow and purple (Lakers colors) and with a number of Lakers icons painted on the hood. Those icons include Shaq, Magic, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe, broadcaster Chick Hearn, and of course, Snoop Dogg himself.
Funkmaster Flex and Snoop Dogg might come from the same industry, but even more common than their music is their love for cars. Ford enlisted Flex for his skills in customizing cars, asking him to work on a 2011 Mustang GT for the Doggfather. The Mustang features Baurtwell custom taillights, a 3dCarbon body kit, and engine enhancements enabling it to reach 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds. And he made sure the car was painted blue for Snoop, with the words “Snoop Dogg” in stylized letters across the windshield. Other rappers have also customized Mustangs, including Nelly, who came out with his a year later.
The Dodge Challenger is one of the few muscle cars from the 1970s that has retained its muscle car status into the new millennium. The new Challenger Demon is currently on tour, breaking speed records around the world as an 800-hp monster. Snoop Dogg owns the less-crazy-but-still-amazing SRT8 version, which was released in 2008. The SRT8 naturally came with a plethora of customized parts and a powerful engine for Snoop, including the 6.4-liter V8 Hemi that produces 463 horsepower. Before buying himself an SRT8, Snoop was invited by Dodge to test the Challenger, where he proceeded to burn out the tires on the track.
Snoop Dogg is no stranger to luxury. Back in 2017, he made a selfie video that showcased his newest cars, including a Maybach, a Ferrari, a new slate gray Challenger SRT Hellcat, and this beautiful Rolls-Royce Ghost. Together, the three cars easily represent over a million dollars in spending. But Snoop can afford it. Snoop is proud of his $312,000 car: he notes on the video that the all-white Ghost has “the rose gold handles around the ridges and edges, you dig?” He finishes the video to explain that he isn’t just gloating, saying, “And no, this is not the Bow Wow Challenger. This is for real.”
Snoop Dogg might seem like the last person to own a Tesla. But, in a way, the sleek, slick styling of the Model X matches Snoop perfectly. It’s highly coveted in celebrity circles, including professional athletes. And now music artists are getting their hands on them. He showed off his brand new Model X recently on social media, saying, “Tesla just dropped off my new ride.” It came complete with 22-inch matte black Onyx wheels, the six-seat configuration, black leather on the inside, and ash wood trim around the interior décor. In the video, Snoop shows off the impressive 17-inch center touchscreen along with the Model X’s dramatic falcon wing doors.
Snoop Dogg coaches the Rowland Heights Raiders football club. The rap artist extended his fame to the California youth group as “daddy coach” back in 2005. Rowland Heights is a relatively affluent, unincorporated area in Los Angeles County. And when it came time for the team to do some traveling to play opponents, Snoop Made sure they traveled in fashion. He customized a school bus in their name, along with the help of friend Big Slice. The silver and black bus looks quite stunning, and on the side panels, it reads, “Rowland Heights Raiders” and “Powered by Snoop Dogg,” just so everyone knows who did the deed.
While he gave Kobe Bryant a beautiful yellow and purple ‘66 Parisienne after retiring, he still owns a yellow and gold 1967 Parisienne, which is considered his pride and joy. He once took the car for a spin with none other than Larry King—an odd duo if there ever was one—where he explained his infatuation with cars to the TV personality. He explained that he’s always loved cars—so much that he owns about 25 of them. King even gets to hit a couple switches during their ride. Everything about this car is yellow: the interior, the seats, the dashboard, the outside, even the steering wheel. Another celebrity who has driven the famous Parisienne is Conan O’Brien.
Nobody customizes their cars more than Will.i.am. The Black Eyed Peas icon goes so far as to turn relatively normal cars into space vehicles that look like they belong in the future, or in science fiction universes. Such is the case with this 1958 VW Beetle, which he spent an enormous $900,000 (!!!) customizing. Depending on who you ask, this car is either a masterpiece or a monstrosity. It looks like a futuristic Morgan Aero 8, though we’re not sure if that’s what he was going for. West Coast Customs allegedly built the car from scratch, but it quickly came out that this was not true.
Another car that Will.i.am claimed was built from scratch, but that once again was revealed as not being a ground-up build, is this almost-unrecognizable DeLorean DMC-12. Now, the DeLorean was never a fast sports car to begin with—it just looked cool and was made famous by the Back to the Future films. Will.i.am destroyed all potential recognition of the car by spending $700,000 to customize it. This was the first model built by his new “car company,” which has never really come into fruition. He was busted for his “original” car claim in an episode of West Coast Customs reality show, with DMCTalk building the car for the pop star. It isn’t Chrysler-built, or Chrysler-powered, like Will claimed, but is powered by an awesome GM LS3 E-Rod V8.
He didn’t need to modify a car that already looks like it’s from the future, but Will.i.am went ahead and did it anyway. He customized a Tesla Model S. A wide-body car that was an enjoyable harmony of form and function was stuck with a bunch of fake vents and other things and made a product under his charitable IAMAUTO customization brand. The same company brought the DeLorean and VW Beetle. It has some serious window tint, suicide doors, the biggest fake air intake you’ll ever see, the wide-body kit, and some “rim-less” rims. The car is extra low and the wheels are extra big. It actually looks pretty cool, though we have no idea what he did with the engine(s) or under the hood.
Despite having some very distinct taste in car customizations, there’s no doubt about this: Will.i.am has found a great outlet to funnel his creative energy with all these modified, spacey, futuristic cars. Here we have this 1959 Corvette—a beautiful car if there ever was one—that has been transformed almost into an unrecognizable car. West Coast Customs built the Vette.i.am from a C6 interior, with a huge touchscreen, a massive sound system, and a giant custom grille. Are there any other ways to describe the word “big”? Because that’s what Will.i.am was going for with this one. It ends up looking like a mix of class and unnecessary posh: it’s a space-age vehicle the Jetsons might drive, stuck in the barbaric 21st century.
Will.i.am’s 2015 Lexus NX is actually (surprisingly) a tasteful custom build. As a man who loves to extremely over-style his cars, this custom compact crossover—revealed at the Paris Fashion Show in 2014—actually doesn’t look that bad. The most obvious modification is the wide-body kit. It’s joined by brushed aluminum and carbon vinyl as well as matte pearl white paintwork and black-tinted panoramic glass roof. It sits lower to the ground than usual, is fitted with 22-inch alloy wheels, and finished in a black gloss hue, which is contrasted by bright orange brake calipers. The interior seats were upholstered with soft Nappa leather, hand-embroidered with his “willpower” logo. It’s most innovative feature is its array of 180-degree cameras that capture panoramic photos and videos while driving.
In 2010, Will.i.am was the victim of a burglary, as reported by TMZ. Someone broke into the multi-platinum selling artist’s Bentley car and stole nearly $10,000 in valuables. Will reportedly discovered the incident the following morning. Now, we aren’t sure his Continental GT was customized, but given his track record and everything we’ve seen thus far (and the fact that the majority of Bentleys are customized for most customers), we’re guessing it was. This one is just a hunch, though. Either way, two days later a man was arrested for suspicion of burglary in the case, after having turned himself in to the authorities. Reports updated and estimated the new stolen goods as being worth $17,000, including an iPad.
Sources: Hip Hop DX, Lowrider, The Drive, and Jalopnik.
Before becoming community manager for HotCars' Facebook pages, Cory Barclay was a HotCars writer for three years, as well as an editor. He's also written for other car publications, such as Low Offset, and other Valnet properties The Richest, The Things, The Talko, CBR, and Screen Rant.