How Snoop Dogg Ended Up on a Country Song With ERNEST

Snoop Dogg, who once called the late Johnny Cash his “main man” and “a real American gangster,” is digging deeper into his Nashville country bag with a new collaboration with ERNEST. But first, it is my great pleasure to run down a short but no less revealing list of emojis employed by Snoop during the song’s gestation: blue hearts, flames, and paw prints.

The decidedly laidback track, taken from ERNEST’s upcoming DeVille Records-launching Cadillac Sessions mixtape, finds the respective Tennessee and California reps trading reflections on the ever-important task of “Gettin’ Gone.” For the video, naturally, the two descended upon key Music City hotspots for an impromptu-feeling shoot that made headlines well before the existence of the song was common knowledge.

As fans will note, Snoop’s affinity for country stars is well-documented. Just last year, he and Dr. Dre enlisted Jelly Roll for a song on their joint Missionary album. Also in 2024, HARDY was tapped by Snoop and Dre for a reimagining of the 1994 classic “Gin and Juice,” complete with an accompanying short film.

Just before the release of the “Gettin’ Gone” video, ERNEST answered a few questions for Complex about working with Snoop ahead of the launch of DeVille Records (a joint venture with Big Loud Records) and more, including that aforementioned assortment of timely emojis. Keep reading for more, including a behind-the-scenes look at the “Gettin’ Gone” video shoot.

TWC: Word is this song started with you playing it for Snoop backstage. Tell me more about how it came together, and how Snoop’s creative process complemented your own.

ERN: The song started on a writers’ retreat with Rhett Akins, Ben Hayslip, and Mark Holman out on my bus. They came to write for the weekend. We had a fantastic time and at the end of the weekend we wrote “Gettin’ Gone.” The following weekend is where Snoop comes into play. We were at the Jelly Roll concert, and I basically weaseled my way back to Snoop’s green room and I was like ‘Yo, can I play you a song I wrote last weekend?’ and he was like ‘sure’ and he loved it and we exchanged numbers.

Another couple weeks go by and he’s like ‘I need to get on that record’ and I was like ‘You want a verse?’ He sent back an array of emojis including but not limited to blue hearts, flames, and paw prints. Then it came together perfectly, and he wanted to shoot a music video for it. He asked to feature on it, I sent him an instrumental, and he sent me back his verses like two days later.

What’s your personal all-time favorite Snoop song?

There are so many great songs and collaborations that Snoop has done over the years. I grew up on all of them. It’s gonna sound cliché but it’s too hard not to sing along to “Gin and Juice.” That moment was cemented in stone with me when we were shooting the music video and pulling back into Castle [Recording Studios] in the Cadillac and I just started playing “Gin and Juice” and he sat there and rapped the entire thing on video while my subs were bumping in the back.

Tell me more about what fans can expect with your upcoming mixtape.

This is a collaborative project that I’m so happy to put out with my artists Cody Lohden, Chandler Walters, and Rhys Rutherford. The whole purpose of this project is to shine a light on these guys and a new wave of talent that’s in town. Rhys grew up in Nashville. Chandler is from Marietta, Georgia. Cody is from just outside of Lexington, Kentucky. They’re such great songwriters and wrote the original songs they are singing on the project. I’m just happy to shine a light on them. We’ve got cool features too.

Where's your favorite place to "get gone" in Nashville?

Either Troubadour Golf Course out in College Grove, Tennessee or Losers in Midtown. And sometimes I be gettin’ gone while I work at the office.