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Snoop Dogg was supported by Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Tyler Perry after he lashed out at broadcaster Gayle King over a controversial Kobe Bryant interview question.
The rap veteran put King on blast online for bringing up the late basketball icon's sexual assault case during an early February chat with Bryant's friend and fellow athlete Lisa Leslie, with him calling King a "funky dog head b**ch" and saying, "Back off, b**ch, before we come get you (sic)," in an Instagram video.
His angry rant led to Oprah Winfrey's best friend receiving a number of death threats, and Snoop, who faced a public backlash himself, later issued an apology, insisting he was wrong for calling her out so viciously.
Snoop addressed the headline-grabbing incident during an appearance on Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk series on Wednesday, and insisted he was only trying to "protect" Bryant's widow, Vanessa and her family.
He claimed there were actually a lot of Bryant fans who shared his point of view: "You would think it was more people against me, there was more people with me (sic)."
"It made me feel like I had too much power," he said of how others began treating King after he spoke out. "And at that particular time, I was abusing it. That's just what I felt, and I had to get it right."
Snoop credited his mother, former church choir director Beverly Tate, with helping him realise the error of his ways.
"My mother raised me in church and she raised me to respect women," the hip-hop star explained. "It was certain things she said to me that took me back to being a little kid. And when your mama can make you feel like a kid, that's when you gotta get right (sic)..."
Snoop added, "She didn't say I was wrong, she was just giving me, 'You know I raised you better. You're a representation of us. Every woman that has ever crossed your life, you're a representation of that.'"
The rapper was also contacted by famous friends like Diddy and filmmaker Perry, who gave him their backing but encouraged him to rethink his choice of words.
"When this thing happened with Gayle I got calls from Tyler Perry, Puff Daddy (Diddy), (news commentator) Van Jones, powerful black men and they didn't bash me," Snoop said. "They was just like, 'Brother we got your back if you need. But we think you should've said... it a little differently (sic).' We got a real brotherhood going on behind the scenes."
Basketball icon Bryant was killed alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a California helicopter crash in late January.