On Monday, Snoop Dogg took to Instagram to share the sad news about the death of his older cousin, illustrator Darryl “Joe Cool” Daniel, the artist behind his Doggystyle album cover.
The post simply says “R.I.P. my big cuzn joe cool” along with a video Daniel took while hanging out at the studio with Snoop’s 2017 song “Promise You This” playing in the background.
Joe Cool, as cousins Snoop and Daz Dillinger called him, was instrumental in Snoop’s branding. Signing his work under the name Joe Cizzool, he illustrated the iconic artwork for the Long Beach rapper’s seminal debut album Doggystyle. Daniel was also responsible for the Gin and Juice single artwork, as well as the back of The Doggfather CD and the cover art for The Last Meal.
Daz also paid tribute to his late cousin with a picture of him, Snoop and Joe Cool hanging out as well as a couple pics of Daniel highlighting his art.
The caption reads, “REST N PEACE DARYL JOE COOL DANIEL. MY BIGG CUZZN THIS REALLY HURTS WE GREW UP TOGETHER U WAS THERE FROM DAY ONE IM GONE REALLY REALLY MISS U BIGG CUZ.”
According to an interview with HipHopDX in 2013, Daniel said he was incarcerated and on drugs when his younger cousin asked him to do his album cover, but he didn’t believe Snoop was rapping with Dr. Dre at first. While he was doing a bid in California State Prison, he sent his sister a drawing of Snoop, and when his little cousin was visiting Daniel’s sister, Snoop hopped on the phone.
“He told me he was rapping with Dr. Dre,” Joe Cool told HipHopDX. “I told him, ‘That’s a goddamn lie. Blow that smoke up somebody else’s ass. Put my sister back on the phone, lyin’ ass n—a.’ He’s like, ‘I’m serious, man. I’m rapping with Dr. Dre.’ I’m like, ‘OK. All right.’ I said to my sister, ‘He rapping with N.W.A Dr. Dre?’ She said, ‘Yeah, he come out and get ’em.’ I said, ‘No sh–. Put him back on the phone.’ I said, ‘Give me 25 dollars.’ He said, ‘All right. I ain’t got no money right now, but I’ll send it to you… Joe, I’mma be the sh—, man.’”
Daniel started to believe his cousin when he played an early version of “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” over the phone; he then made good on his word and sent the money. “Then he sent me that $25, that’s when I believed him.”
He said Snoop pleaded with him to stop using drugs. “‘Get yourself off that sh–,’” Joe Cool says Snoop told him. “’I want you to do my album cover, man. I’m doing Dre’s album. Then my album gonna come out.’ He said, ‘Get your sh– together, Joe Cool.’”
That conversation changed both of their lives. “I didn’t think it would be iconic, man,” Daniel said of Doggystyle. “And then when it sold as many as it sold, and I seen my sh– up there, it just gave me…like damn. I can’t believe it. My artwork is out there, ’cause Snoop let it come. He gave me the opportunity, man. He got me a little bit of 15 minutes of fame up in the world. It’s been 20 years, man. He gave me that opportunity. Man, I love him for it.”
Rest in peace, Joe Cizzool.