That Time Snoop Dogg Ate Mushrooms And Cried Backstage

This article was originally published on Psychedelic Spotlight and appears here with permission.

Many years before Snoop Dogg performed at the Super Bowl, he couldn't control a flood of tears while he was supposed to be on stage with hip-hop icons Run-D.M.C.

It’s hard to imagine a higher high for a musician than performing in the Super Bowl halftime show for over 100 million watching. But Snoop Dogg may have gotten pretty close years ago when he ate magic mushrooms before taking the stage after hip-hop pioneers Run-D.M.C. while on tour in Amsterdam.

Snoop Dogg — who performed at Super Bowl LVI last night alongside Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar — opened up about an emotional psilocybin trip while talking to rapper D.R.A.M. back in 2017 on an episode of YouTube talk show GGN News.

“I swear to God, I was crying like a motherfucker behind the stage, and they wanted me to go on stage,” he recalled. “I couldn’t go on. I was just so motherfuckin’ high.”

“Run-D.M.C. was on, and I was crying like a motherfucker,” he continued. “I don’t even know what got into my emotions, but I felt so good, and the crying just made me feel even better.”

But then it clicked for Snoop why it was such an emotional moment, amplified by the psychedelic effect of psilocybin. “That’s what it was: I couldn’t believe I was performing on the same stage as Run-D.M.C., after Run-D.M.C. And I started crying. I was emotional. It fucked me up.”

He didn’t share how his performance went, but after D.R.A.M. shared his own experience performing on psilocybin, which kicked in on his third song into a 45-minute set, Snoop joked: “So now you gotta understand to take the mushrooms after.”

The hip-hop icon, perhaps the entertainment industry’s most famous cannabis advocate, concluded the discussion by saying, “You know what, that’s what made me cry. I don’t know what the fuck it do, but it give an extra emotional kick to whatever the fuck you’re going through. Anybody got some mushrooms right now?”

Snoop Dogg and D.R.A.M.’s amusing discussion about their trips brings two points to mind regarding the use of psilocybin, which is still largely illegal across the United States. First, they’re inadvertently stressing the importance of proper (mind)set and (physical) setting — something strongly recommended by any psychedelic therapist, and a key point in Psychedelic Spotlight‘s beginner’s guide for the first psychedelic trip.

“As for the setting, it is extremely important that you are in a safe, familiar and comfortable environment. This can be in your living room, in nature, etc.,” our Psychedelic Investor James Hallifax wrote. “I highly advise against taking psychedelics for the first time in a crowded environment like a party. While many people do have fantastic experiences in settings like this, for your first trip, you want the setting to be as controlled as possible. It is possible that a psychedelic can bring up unresolved trauma, which would be better to process on your own and with your trip sitter.”

Secondly, Snoop Dogg’s admission of psilocybin bringing him to uncontrollable tears illustrates why psychedelics are such powerful tools for therapy. Men, in particular, have been conditioned by society to believe vulnerability is a sign of weakness, so they have a tougher time opening up about their deepest issues. Psilocybin, like MDMA and LSD, breaks down those barriers, and as Snoop explained, it feels good.

Iraq War veteran Jon Lubecky, who participated in MDMA-assisted therapy sessions guided by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) back in 2014, and told Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie last year that the treatment cured him of severe PTSD. “I was able to talk about things that I had never brought up to anyone,” he said.

It’s also nice to watch two men normalize crying.

“I guess tough n—-s ain’t supposed to cry and have those kind of emotions,” Snoop joked, and D.R.A.M. interjected that he cried back stage in a green room, too — before Snoop introduced him to an audience at his show. And he wasn’t even on drugs.

“I cried in the green room when you had brought me out,” he exclaimed. “It was like 3,000 kids, and they were screaming and they knew my words. It was the first experience that I had like that, and you provided it for me. I’ll never forget that shit.”

Snoop Dogg’s response? “Shoulda been on mushrooms, dawg.”