‘Doggfather’ Turns Into a Peacemaker

On Sunday’s episode of “The Steve Harvey Show” on the WB Network, Snoop Doggy Dogg appears with New York-based record producer Sean “Puffy” Combs to declare an end to the high-profile East Coast vs. West Coast rap wars.

On the day the episode was taped, Snoop also talked about reconciling with another producer who’s been on the outs with Death Row Records--Andre “Dr. Dre” Young.

They were the team that made Death Row Records the most successful rap label of the ‘90s, with multiplatinum albums such as Dre’s “The Chronic” in 1992 and Snoop’s “Doggystyle” in 1993.

The partnership ended when Dre, who co-founded Death Row in 1992 with Marion “Suge” Knight, left the firm last year to form his own company, Aftermath Entertainment.

In the process, Dre left behind a number of artists whose careers he helped bolster, including Snoop and the late Tupac Shakur.

Snoop’s second album, “Tha Doggfather,” produced by DJ Pooh, was released last fall, but hasn’t come close to matching the estimated 5 million sales of the Dre-produced debut.

Snoop says he and Dre hope to return to the recording studio and recapture their rap magic. Snoop says he has met with Dre, and speaks optimistically of making a reunion album that would come out next January.

He even has a title: “Break Up to Make Up.”

“I thought up the idea, the concept, the whole shot, ran it past Dre and he was with it,” Snoop says. “We were doing fine by ourselves, but the fans want to hear us together. [We’re] the dynamic duo.”

Dr. Dre was not available for comment, but Kirdis Tucker, Aftermath Entertainment’s general manager, confirmed that the producer is interested in a reunion project.

The hurdle seems to be whether Dre and Knight (who remains jailed and faces a possible nine-year sentence from a probation violation stemming from a 1992 assault conviction) could agree on who would release the album. That could be a high hurdle, given their acrimonious split. One favorable factor: Both Death Row and Aftermath are distributed by Interscope Records. The label could serve as a peacemaker.

* “The Steve Harvey Show” airs Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on KTLA-TV Channel 5.