Claude Brooks is no stranger to fusing hip-hop and learning. He is the Emmy-nominated producer and creator of the children’s franchise “Hip Hop Harry,” which was one of the first and most impactful educational hip-hop shows on television. He teamed up with Snoop Dogg and October London to create his latest hit show, “Doggyland.” Rolling out caught up with him to hear about him and Snoop Dogg‘s brotherhood, “Doggyland’s” newest actor Van Van, and learn about their newest song “The Thanksgiving Song.”
How did you and Snoop start working on “Doggyland”?
So Snoop and I became friends doing Lyricist Lounge. And then over the years we’ve always kind of like stayed in contact. We became like real friends, real homies. Now we’ve got like brother brotherhood going. One day he leaned in to say, let’s figure out a brand that we can make work for kids. What makes it so relevant for him is that he’s a grandfather and he’s got grandchildren from like from toddlers on up. So he wanted something that really speaks to them, number one and two, something that will outlive us, and becomes like our Disney.
Songs from “Doggyland” are extremely popular. Was that something you were very conscious about, like making great music for kids?
Yeah for sure. We wanted to pull some things from Hip Hop Harry, and make sure that the tracks were bumping. So our tracks come from folks who do the thing for real. One of your favorite artists may actually be one of our producers. It all begins with are you feeling the track before you even hear what the lyrics are going to be about. So that’s number one for us. And from there then we come up with these different kind of themes. So we’re social-emotional based learning as opposed to cognitive. Though we do hit areas like ABCs and 1, 2, 3s. Most of our songs are more about social-emotional growth.
“Doggyland’s” “Thanksgiving Song” is out today. What is the song about?
You’re gonna really enjoy it. The song has a lot of layers to it. It gives you the feeling of Thanksgiving. It makes you feel like that you’re being hugged and loved. And then when you start to listen to the lyrics, you realize that it’s talking about all the things to be thankful for. Also just the things that are already embedded into your life and just the dynamic of family. Because Thanksgiving for a lot of families is about families kind of coming together, and it’s changed so much that it doesn’t have to be blood family only. Family is folks that treat each other right.
How did social media sensation Van Van wind up in “Doggyland”?
She’s on as a character called Vancy and she’s a little fancy girl who’s fiery yet empathetic. All of these great qualities. She’s going to be on the Thanksgiving track and she’s going to be a recurring character. She’s doing more and more episodes with us and it’s been great working with her. So about two years ago she reached out to us via social media and after we saw her on social she was amazing; we started to develop a relationship with her and her family. She actually did a remix to ‘Affirmations’ which ended up just going crazy viral. Like 20, 30 million views something crazy and after that we pulled her in and started developing her character.
What role did October London play in Doggyland?
So October London has been here from the start; he’s been a co-creator. He told me he had a guy he was managing named October London and he wanted him to be a part of it. I asked Snoop is this favor or is he bringing something to the table? Snoop said na this ain’t no favor wait till you see what he can do. So when we started working, doing songs together the whole night and just building what the rest of the program would be about, I was like, man, his talent level is out of here. So October plays the character Woofee. When you check out the Thanksgiving song, you’ll hear him in the background.
