Lil Dicky & Snoop Dogg Have A Serious Conversation About Making “Comedy Rap” (Video)

Lil Dicky is the latest guest on Snoop Dogg’s GGN show. There, the two Professional Rapper collaborators have a largely serious discussion about the craft of rapping, getting in where you fit in, and the hope for an eventual return to form of the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team.

“To be quite honest, I started doing this because I really wanted to be a comedian,” admits Dicky, a native of greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “I was thinking about ways where I could be noticed for being funny. I always loved Rap, and I was solid [at it]. I saw guys like Lonely Island. [To Snoop Dogg], you know those guys? [I saw them] doing it, and they’re extremely successful.” Lonely Island, a trio of then-SNL cast members Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone. They released three Universal Republic Records albums between 2009 and 2013, all reaching the Top 15 of the charts—’11’s Turtleneck & Chain going to #3 on the Top 200. Dicky continues, “There’s not any competitors in this Comedic Rap space, so I started doing that. I always loved Rap as a consumer, but never really, in my wildest dreams, did I think that I could be a respected rapper. The rapping just got better and better [through practice]; it kind of works like a sport.”

On his 2015 album, Professional Rapper, Dicky rapped autobiographically, with lots of humorist honesty and self-deprecation not often heard on a Rap album. Self-released, his album reached #7 on the Top 200, and featured Snoop, T-Pain, and Fetty Wap. “I take it really seriously. Obviously, the stuff’s the funny, but I have real ambitions.” In the interview, especially towards the end, Dicky shows some of that candor—as he talks about sex—that made his album such a unique listen.

Snoop certifies Dicky’s conviction to Rap in saying, “It’s not how long you’ve been doing it, it’s how committed you are to it.”

Dicky speaks about his favorite artists, including Jay Z, Nas, and a special nod to Kanye West’s debut, The College Dropout. Dicky adds that John Mayer and Goo Goo Dolls are also artists that meant a lot to him approaching music, for different reasons. “Guys like Larry David and Kevin Hart and just as influential as a guy like Drake. I just absorb it all.”

Lil Dicky Has Made An Epic Music Video…That Cost Almost No Money (Video)

On hit video single “$ave Dat Money,” Dicky brought it Rich Homie Quan and Fetty Wap, along with a host of celebrity cameos in the video, ranging from Rock & Roll legend Tom Petty to Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to comedian Sarah Silverman. Asked how he pulled this off—on zero budget, Dicky explains, “I was a hustler. I hit everybody that I had any sort of connection to, and said, ‘Hey, all this really requires, is you pretty much holding up a phone, and showing your face for that moment.'” The MC stresses, “More than the cameos [I am proud] of being able to pull that video off for free.”

Lil Dicky kicks off his Looking For Love Tour this month.

On the subject of die-hard basketball fans, tune in late in the interview for Snoop Dogg recalling sliding some sticky-icky in the back-pocket of Jack Nicholson.

Related: Lil Dicky Explains What Led Him to Hip-Hop In 5 Questions (Video)