Snoop Dogg will perform at Manukau’s Due Drop Events Centre on September 20. Photo / Getty Images

Snoop Dogg is coming to NZ for one-off show

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025, 2:26pm

Snoop Dogg is making his way to New Zealand next month, but it won’t be just the rapper’s hip-hop persona you’ll see on stage.

The music mogul will take over Manukau’s Due Drop Events Centre on September 20 with a “two-in-one experience” dubbed Snoop Dogg vs DJ Snoopadelic.

The inclusion of a DJ set from DJ Snoopadelic – the rapper’s record-spinning alter-ego – is unprecedented for New Zealand and will accompany Snoop Dogg’s live performances of his greatest hits.

Prominent New Zealand rapper Savage and up-and-coming star Revus have joined the one-off event to open for the rapper at the R18 event.

Promoter Ange Matias from Hit Up Ange reiterated the significance of the hybrid format show.

“It’s a New Zealand first,” she said.

“Snoop is an icon and if you’re a fan of classic hip-hop to funk, soul and West Coast bangers, you won’t want to miss it.”

Snoop Dogg, one of the most prolific musicians in his field, has more than 20 studio albums to his name, boasts 35 million album sales and has received many accolades over his 33-year career.

This week, he entered the crosshairs of his fans after making passing comments on a podcast that many viewed as anti-LGBT rhetoric.

Appearing on Sarah Fontenot’s It’s Giving podcast, Snoop criticised the inclusion of a same-sex couple in Disney Pixar’s 2022 film Lightyear.

“Oh s***, I didn’t come in for this s***. I just came to watch the goddamn movie,” the rapper recalled.

“It f***ed me up. I’m, like, scared to go to the movies now. Y’all throwing me in the middle of s*** that I don’t have an answer for.”

“These are kids,” he said. “We have to show that at this age? They’re going to ask questions. I don’t have the answer.”

Snoop’s newly announced New Zealand date is his first here in two and a half years. The Drop It Like It’s Hot hitmaker last played two shows in March 2023, one in Christchurch and another in Auckland.

He was welcomed to Aotearoa before the shows with a pōwhiri and met a group of Kiwi teenagers from the Kākano Youth Arts Collective who gifted handmade artworks to the musician.