Universal’s forthcoming Snoop Dogg biopic has added another pivotal piece to its growing ensemble: SwayvoTwain will portray The Notorious B.I.G. in what is described as his first major film role. It is a casting decision with immediate musical resonance. SwayvoTwain is the son of D’Angelo and Angie Stone, two defining artists in soul and R&B, while the role places him in the shoes of Christopher Wallace, the artist remembered worldwide as Biggie Smalls and The Notorious B.I.G.
The movie is set to chart the life and career of Snoop Dogg, with Jonathan Daviss in the lead role. Craig Brewer is directing, and Snoop Dogg is producing alongside Brian Grazer and other producers. Universal has scheduled the film for a theatrical release on August 6, 2027.
Biopics are frequently judged as much by the people orbiting their central figure as by the actor playing the headline role. In Snoop Dogg’s story, that orbit includes collaborators, family members, label figures and fellow artists who helped define a particularly consequential era in hip-hop. The newest casting update indicates that the film intends to give that larger world substantial attention rather than treating it as background decoration.
A major role for a first major film performance
Taking on The Notorious B.I.G. is an imposing assignment for any actor, particularly in a first major screen role. Biggie remains one of rap’s most influential voices, and his legacy has endured long after his death in 1997. His status is not simply a matter of familiar songs or an instantly identifiable public image; it is tied to a body of work that continues to shape discussions of flow, storytelling, regional scenes and rap stardom.
That makes the role much larger than a brief celebrity imitation. A convincing portrayal needs to account for the person’s presence, timing and place within the culture without reducing him to a checklist of famous moments. The fact that SwayvoTwain has been developing his own music career also gives the casting a notable generational dimension. His parents’ artistic legacies are substantial in their own right, but the part calls for him to create a performance around another towering musical figure with a very different voice and history.
Exactly how prominently Biggie will factor into the movie has not been detailed. That uncertainty matters. A Snoop Dogg biopic has an enormous possible timeline to draw from, and it remains unknown which specific periods, events and relationships will receive the most screen time. Still, the decision to cast the role signals that the production is filling in the broader hip-hop landscape around Snoop’s rise rather than focusing exclusively on one man in isolation.
The Long Beach and Death Row circle takes shape
Several additional roles point directly toward the film’s attention on Snoop Dogg’s formative Long Beach connections and the people involved in his early professional path. Bentley Green has been cast as RBX, the Long Beach rapper associated with Death Row Records during the 1990s. RBX’s career has stretched across decades and includes multiple hit records, making him a meaningful figure to include when depicting the scene that brought Snoop into a new level of visibility.
G Perico, the Los Angeles recording artist and actor, will play Big Reecie Cup. The character is another person connected to Snoop Dogg’s Long Beach roots and early career development. Casting an artist with Los Angeles ties into that part fits the production’s apparent interest in assembling a world populated by people close to the region and period being depicted, although the eventual film will determine how each relationship is presented.
Myles Bullock is set to play Dr. Dre, an essential figure in Snoop Dogg’s breakthrough. Algee Smith will portray Warren G, while Tre Hale has been cast as Suge Knight. Together, those names cover a range of crucial creative and business dynamics surrounding the era. Their presence suggests the movie will have plenty of room to explore the combination of talent, ambition, local identity and industry power that surrounded Snoop Dogg’s emergence.
There is a natural challenge in any film that brings together so many figures known for their real-world cultural impact. The production must balance recognizable portrayals with the needs of a single narrative. It cannot become a museum tour in which celebrated names enter merely to remind the audience that they existed. The strongest version of this kind of ensemble uses each character to clarify the central story: who Snoop Dogg was becoming, what opportunities and pressures surrounded him, and why the period still carries such weight.
Family, partnership and a wider personal story
The cast also includes Lauren London as Snoop Dogg’s late mother, Beverly Tate, and Laya DeLeon Hayes as his wife, Shante Broadus. Their involvement is a reminder that a career-spanning music film has the opportunity to look beyond recording studios, labels and public rivalry. A life story told only through hit songs and boardrooms can feel incomplete; family relationships are often where the costs, loyalties and lasting stakes of fame become clearer.
Camron Jones will play Tupac Shakur, another iconic artist whose inclusion reflects the scale of the historical terrain in front of the filmmakers. As with Biggie, Tupac is a figure whose representation on screen comes with enormous audience expectations. The task is amplified because viewers carry decades of music, imagery, reporting and personal interpretation into any dramatized portrayal of that era.
Brewer’s prior directing credits include Hustle & Flow and Song Sung Blue. Those credits make his appointment especially worth watching in a project centered on a musician whose career spans a vast amount of public attention and reinvention. The biopic will need a coherent point of view amid a cast full of artists and figures with stories that could readily support films of their own.
There is also a wider business context to consider. Music and television franchises continue to move between formats and platforms as studios seek recognizable stories with enduring fan communities. That shifting entertainment landscape has also produced high-profile disputes over the value generated by major properties, as seen in the settlement ending the long-running AMC profits case involving The Walking Dead producers. Snoop Dogg’s film is a different kind of project, but it arrives during an era when ownership, legacy, adaptation and brand history remain central considerations across entertainment.
An ensemble built around a defining rap era
The confirmed cast now gives the film a clear set of dramatic anchors:
- Jonathan Daviss as Snoop Dogg
- SwayvoTwain as The Notorious B.I.G.
- Myles Bullock as Dr. Dre
- Lauren London as Beverly Tate
- Camron Jones as Tupac Shakur
- Algee Smith as Warren G
- Tre Hale as Suge Knight
- Laya DeLeon Hayes as Shante Broadus
- Bentley Green as RBX
- G Perico as Big Reecie Cup
It is a lineup that spans the personal, creative and professional forces around Snoop Dogg. Daviss has the responsibility of carrying the central performance, but the supporting actors will shape the film’s credibility and texture. The key question is not whether audiences recognize every name. It is whether the film can show why each person matters to the story it chooses to tell.
SwayvoTwain’s casting is likely to draw particular attention because The Notorious B.I.G. remains such a singular cultural presence. The performance will inevitably be examined closely, but it also offers an opportunity for a new performer to step into a demanding role at the center of a larger story about hip-hop’s defining 1990s period. With the theatrical date set for August 6, 2027, the production still has time before audiences see how that ambitious ensemble comes together on screen.
