Snoop Dogg issued an apology to Gayle King on his Instagram on Wednesday, saying that he “overreacted” to an interview the “CBS This Morning” host did with Lisa Leslie about the late NBA star Kobe Bryant.
“Gayle King, I publicly tore you down by coming at you in a derogatory manner based off of emotions, me being angry at questions that you asked. Overreacted,” the rapper said. “Should have handled it way different than that. I was raised way better than that. So I would like to apologize to you publicly for the language that I used and calling you out on your name and being disrespectful.”
Snoop was one of several celebrities who criticized King for her line of questioning that heavily focused on Bryant’s rape trial from 2003, with the rapper accusing King of being opportunistic in the wake of Bryant’s death and not defending black men.
“Why you all attacking us? We your people. You ain’t come after f—in’ Harvey Weinstein asking him dumb a– questions,” he said in a video last week.
King later said that the clip was taken out of context to show the most salacious part of the full interview she did with Leslie. Oprah Winfrey then said that King was receiving death threats for her questions.
“I didn’t mean for it to be like that. I was just expressing myself for a friend that wasn’t here to defend himself. A lot of people look up to me and they love me and they appreciate me, so I want to let them know that anytime you mess up, it’s okay to fix it. It’s okay to man up and say that you’re wrong,” Snoop said. “I apologize. Hopefully, we can sit down and talk. Privately. Have a good day.”
In a video shared by Yashar Ali on Twitter last week, Snoop appeared to threaten King, calling her a “funky dog head b—h.”
“How dare you try and torch my motherf—in homeboy’s reputation, punk motherf—er. Respect the family and back off, b—, before we come get you,” he said.
Over the weekend, Snoop walked back some of those comments before issuing the formal apology on Wednesday.
“When I said what I said, I spoke for the people who felt like Gayle was very disrespectful towards Kobe Bryant and his family,” he said on Saturday. “Now with that being said, what do I look like, wanting some harm to come to a 70-year-old woman? I was raised way better than that…I don’t want no harm to come to her, and I didn’t threaten her. All I did was say, ‘Check it out. You out of pocket for what you doing, and we watching you. Have a little bit more respect for Vanessa, her babies and Kobe Bryant’s legacy.’”
King, in her own social media video, said she was moved by Leslie’s comments about Bryant’s rape trial from 2003 and heard her message to “leave it alone.”
“It was very powerful, when she looked me in the eye as a member of the media and said it’s time for the media to leave it alone and to back off. During the course of the interview, I asked follow up questions, because I wanted to make sure her position and perspective were very clear. And at the end when she said it’s time to leave it alone,” King said. “For the network to take the most salacious part and put it up on online for people who didn’t see the whole interview is very upsetting to me, and that’s something I’m going to have to deal with with them, and there will be an intense discussion about that.”
Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, along with eight other people, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, on Jan. 26.
In 2003, a 19-year-old female hotel concierge accused Bryant of raping her in 2003, but the case was later settled out of court in 2005.
Watch Snoop’s full Instagram apology video from Wednesday below:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8e2TOpnszL/