Seven artworks made with the remnants of rapper Snoop Dogg’s marijuana joints have collectively sold for $148,100 through an online auction.
The series of works, titled “Ashes to Art,” was created in collaboration with the artist Erica Kovitz and sold on the platform 32auctions, which closed the sale on August 18, 2025. It was organized by The Joint Venture, a company the rapper co-founded with Kovitz.
Each of the seven mixed-media pieces in the sale was crafted using genuine remnants—roaches, ashes, and tips—from blunts or joints smoked by Snoop Dogg himself.
The top lot of the sale was Snoop Doggy Dogg Genesis Burn (all works undated), which sold for $70,000. The work amalgamates Snoop’s 1993 LAPD mug shot, scorched at the edges, sprinkled with marijuana ash, and sealed beneath an actual roach he smoked. The work is signed with the rapper’s revived “Snoop Doggy Dogg” autograph.
Other highlights from the sale included Tiphany Smokes, featuring three roaches arranged on a Tiffany blue background, which fetched $13,750; and Doggystyle Decoded, which incorporated a CD of the rapper’s breakthrough album Doggystyle (1993) and sold for $16,500.
The concept behind the series came from Kovitz’s husband, record executive Jay Kovitz, alongside Snoop Dogg’s longtime business manager, Kevin Barkey, before being brought to fruition by the artist herself. In a statement, Erica described the resulting works as bridging “street authenticity and fine-art credibility,” with each roach acting as “a signature: a quiet crown on a moment.” Though seven pieces were offered during this auction, Kovitz’s broader “Ashes to Art” series comprises roughly 20 works, and the artist hinted at the possibility of future private commissions.
Snoop Dogg is also a painter. In a 2014 TV ad for the Swedish sock company Happy Socks, the rapper spoke of how painting has become a way to express a different side of his persona.“Sometimes the music in my life don’t explain exactly what I’m going through, so [painting] would give a better depiction of who I am and what I’m going through,” he said in the spot. “Painting gives to me an emotion like no other… I have no parameters… It’s another piece of a puzzle, it’s a piece of Snoop we can take with us forever.”
During a 2015 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Snoop Dogg revealed that his painting is spontaneous and infrequent: “You know what, it’s in spurts I paint. Maybe three or four times a year.”
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/XgwSbU6
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