Rapper Snoop Dogg smiles at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 21, 2015. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Music legend Prince passed away suddenly on April 21, leaving behind an estate valued at nearly $300 million. A vault of unreleased songs, royalties, his likeness and other assets are now up for grabs, as the “Purple Rain” singer didn’t have a will.
Like Prince, West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg revealed he doesn’t have a will either — and doesn’t plan on drafting one, Business Insider reports.
In an interview with the publication following his performance at the AOL NewFront event in Manhattan, Snoop explained he simply doesn’t care what will happen to his estate when he passes — he’ll be dead.
“I don’t give a f— when I’m dead,” the rapper told Business Insider. “What am I gonna give a f— about? This goin’ on while I’m gone, you know?”
According to Business Insider, Snoop hopes to be reincarnated, giving him the ability to watch over the affairs of his estate from the other side.
“Hopefully, I’m a butterfly,” Snoop said. “I come back and fly around and look at all these motherf—–s fighting over my money and shit, like, ‘Look at all these dumb motherf—–s.’ Ha!”
It’s unclear if the “Drop it Like it’s Hot” rapper was having a joke at everyone else’s expense but there is cause for concern given the history of entertainers creating a will.
Laura Zwicker, a Los Angeles attorney who specializes in clients worth over $100 million, says entertainers are less likely to devise a plan when it comes to the dealings of their fortune and estates after death.
“My experience with people in the music industry is, even more than other people, they think they’ll live forever,” Zwicker said. “So, getting them to focus on a plan is really a challenge.”
Prince’s untimely death has increasingly shed light on the importance of estate planning. Because the singer didn’t have a wife, children and his parents are deceased, his money and all other assets will be divided between his siblings and their children, according to the Minnesota state attorney general’s office. Per Business Insider, Prince’s estate would most likely go to his 55-year-old sister, Tyka Nelson, with whom the musician was the closest.
Divvying up the sum total of Prince’s assets among his six brothers and sisters could get messy however, according to CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos.
“It’s one thing to divvy up dollars among six people, but how do you divide a guitar collection, or ‘Purple Rain,’ or an unfinished piece of music, among heirs?,” Cevallos said. “And what if they don’t agree on how to use or sell those things?”
African-Americans have a history of failing to plan accordingly when it comes to the management of their estate after they pass on. According to LexisNexis, 68 percent of Black adults do not have a will or estate plan in place. This puts Black wealth and families at risk. Earl G. Graves Sr., founder and publisher of Black Enterprise, says that the absence of a valid will “not only blocks the transfer of wealth” but can leave “a crippling financial burden” on your inheritors. Drafting a will ensures that you pass your wealth on to your family, keeping your loved one’s stable for generations.
So is this what Snoop really wants for his beneficiaries? What about his wife and children?
