Snoop Dogg Denies Threatening Gayle King Over Kobe Bryant Rape Question

Snoop Dogg says he did not threaten Gayle King in a now-viral video in which he slammed her for bringing up the late Kobe Bryant‘s rape case in a CBS interview.

Since the 41-year-old NBA icon, his teenage daughter and seven others was killed in a helicopter crash earlier this month, several people have posted on social media about his 2003 sexual assault charge, which was dismissed after his accuser refused to testify. He later settled a civil lawsuit with her. Last week, CBS released an excerpt of an interview King conducted with retired WNBA star Lisa Leslie, in which she brings up the case. King later called it an “out of context clip.”

But the video enraged many of Kobe’s fans. Snoop posted a video on Instagram, where he has 39 million followers, slamming King, 65. He said, “How dare you try to tarnish my motherf–king homeboy’s reputation, punk motherf–ker?” he continued. “Respect the family and back off, bitch, before we come get you.”

“Here’s a message for the people that need to know. I’m a non-violent person,” Snoop, 48, said in a new Instagram video, posted on Saturday evening. “When I said what I said, I spoke for the people who felt like Gayle was very disrespectful towards Kobe Bryant and his family. Now with that being said, what’d I look like want some harm to come to some 70 year-old woman? I was raised way better than that. I don’t want no harm to come to her, 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,” he said in his new video. “Have a little more for Vanessa, her babies and Kobe Bryant’s legacy. Yeah. But anyway, I’m going to do what I got to keep doing. Y’all keep doing what y’all doing. We’re very non-violent. I just want to say that first and foremost. We speak from the heart. Some of you who have no heart don’t understand that. But anyway, carry on and enjoy your day.” 

After Snoop’s original video slamming King was posted, her BFF Oprah Winfrey said on NBC’s Today show that the CBS This Morning host “now has death threats and has to now travel with security.

CBS News President Susan Zirinsky said in a statement on Saturday, “We fully support Gayle King and her integrity as a journalist. We find the threats against her or any journalist doing their job reprehensible.”