Music

Snoop Dogg Mourns Death of 'Doggystyle' Cover Artist Darryl 'Joe Cool' Daniel

Daniel played a large hand in developing Snoop Dogg's early aesthetic, like illustrating the cover artwork of his 1993 album 'Doggystyle.'

Jennifer Graylock / NBCUniversal via Getty Images/Death Row Records

Snoop Dogg had sadly lost one of his earliest supporters, who also played an important role in his debut album, Doggystyle.

On Monday (July 22), the rap veteran shared an Instagram reel dedicated to his late older cousin, illustrator, Darryl 'Joe Cool' Daniel, who drew the Doggystyle artwork, along with the covers of some of Snoop's earliest singles.

The video showed Snoop and Daniel spending time backstage, with the latter discussing his lost money on the Las Vegas Raiders while the rapper recited his 2017 song "Promise You This."

Also posting a throwback of Daniel was Snoop's longtime collaborator and cousin, rapper-producer Daz Dillinger.

In the early 1990s, Daniel was drug addicted and previously incarcerated, but when encouraged by Snoop to get clean, the rapper commissioned him to draw the Doggystyle cover.

"I didn’t think it would be iconic, man,” Daniel told HipHopDX in 2013. "And then when it sold as many as it sold, and I seen my shit up there, it just gave me…like damn. I can’t believe it. My artwork is out there, ’cause Snoop let it come. He gave me the opportunity, man. He got me a little bit of 15 minutes of fame up in the world. It’s been 20 years, man. He gave me that opportunity. Man I love him for it."

Daniel appeared to remain in Long Beach over the last decade, even becoming a hypeman for Snoop and being an advocate of drug and alcohol treatment facility Safe Refuge.

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