It’s been a long time since Snoop Dogg (born Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr.) was known solely as a musician. The polymath has his hands in a cannabis-focused VC firm, a breakfast cereal brand, a pet products company, and many other ventures. But not everything the icon touches turns to gold (despite news reports to the contrary), as after announcing a coffee company to great fanfare in March, he reportedly departed his brainchild just a few months later.
Even in the hyperbolic world of food brand press releases, the one for INDOxyz stood out. The company, which Broadus co-founded with Indonesian coffee entrepreneur Michael Riady, was “going to change the industry, I can promise you that,” Snoop said in the announcement. How that would happen was not explained, as the business seemed similar to other coffee companies. Beans would be harvested from farms in Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi then roasted and packaged in L.A., via Riady’s Tentera Surf and Coffee Roasters, Daily Coffee News reported at the time.
Despite this fairly unremarkable model, the brand—which at present offers a canned cold brew ($5.99) and a dark roast bean ($17.99), as well as a logoed trucker hat, sweatsuit, and hoodie—secured distribution via retailers such as Albertsons, BevMo, Erewhon, and Safeway, Food and Wine reported in March.
But since then, we haven’t heard much from Snoop about INDOxyz, nor has the industry changed as a result of its launch. Perhaps that’s because Snoop left the company he co-founded with Riady just a few months after it started, Page Six reports.
The company, which per an SEC filing had raised $5,399,480 prior to its launch (Christina Milian and Coco Vinny are listed as “additional founders,” among others), “was kaput just after two months,” Page Six reports, citing an unnamed “insider.”
“Snoop and his team left the company, dropping all ownership and stake in the company” after a 16-day investigation into the company’s management, the source told Page Six. “They did not offer a reason.”
Raidy is the grandson of billionaire magnate Mochtar Riady, the Jakarta Globe notes, and the founder of real estate conglomerate the Lippo Group. The businessman, who is now 94, “has given me a lot of inspiration and knowledge about business,” Raidy told Shoutout LA in 2020. “Every breakfast, lunch and dinner discussion is about business,” Raidy said. “We never talk about holidays or sports.”
Snoop, meanwhile, once told Vanity Fair that his favorite occupation is “football coach” and that his most marked characteristic is “smoking weed.” Perhaps those contrasting interests were the cause of his departure from INDOxyz—or with so many other irons in the fire, perhaps it just made good business sense to drop this foray into the jam-packed and competitive coffee market like it was hot.
