Snoop Dogg and Master P's Big Breakfast Battle

The breakfast cereal industry is known for its colorful packaging, fun cartoon mascots, cute slogans, and the delicious, crunchy taste of high-fructose corn syrup flavored with just a touch of early-onset type 2 diabetes. We’d all like to think the industry is just as wholesome as our memories of lazy Saturday mornings in front of the TV munching on bowls of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs while our parents left messages for the dentist, but the truth isn’t half as sweet.

Broadus Foods was started by two entrepreneurs united around a singular vision: to build a family-owned company that would add diversity to the food industry while inspiring and creating opportunities for minority-owned food products and brands.

The brand would be something they would build together into something they could be proud of. It would be a way of creating generational wealth that they could leave to their families by making affordable, nutritious(ish) breakfast cereals and other foods, then donating a portion of the proceeds to several charities to end hunger and homelessness within their communities.

It sounds like a pie-in-the-sky dream, but Broadus Foods had a couple of big things going for it: its owners Calvin Broadus and Percy Miller, who you may know as Snoop Dogg and Master P.

The Allegations

According to the complaint filed by Broadus Foods, Snoop Dogg and Master P approached the breakfast juggernaut Post Consumer Brands looking to make a deal to get Snoop Cereal placed on shelves. Post, already the owner of a long list of cereal brands including Shredded Wheat, Raisin Bran, and Fruity Pebbles, liked the idea so much that they offered to buy Snoop Cereal outright. Snoop and Master P rejected the offer, saying it would effectively defeat the purpose of trying to build something to leave their families.

After some discussion, Post offered the men a partnership and promotion agreement. Post said that they would help make and distribute Snoop Cereal to retailers around the country, and all they asked in exchange was a cut of the profits. It was a good deal in theory. Post had the muscle, production facilities, and cachet with retailers like Walmart to transform Snoop Cereals into a national brand nearly overnight.

You can probably guess that the deal didn’t go the way Broadus Foods hoped.

Snoop Cereal was launched in Walmarts across the country in July 2023. Sales were brisk, and the cereal flew off the shelves as fast as Post’s facilities could make it. And then something changed.

After just a few months, customers started reporting that they couldn’t find Snoop Cereal on shelves. Many Walmart stores showed that Snoop Cereal was either sold out or out of stock online and in Walmart’s employee inventory system, but some employees of those same stores allegedly reported finding several boxes of Snoop Cereal in their storerooms. Stranger still, the complaint alleges that the boxes were coded to not be put out on store shelves – suggesting that the cereal wasn’t misplaced, but rather deliberately placed out of the reach of would-be buyers.

The complaint alleges that the hidden cereal severely cut into Snoop Cereal’s profits, possibly even forcing Broadus Foods to incur a loss on what should have been a very profitable product. And it gets stranger still. According to the complaint, boxes of Snoop Cereal were placed in the baby aisles and other “unconventional” sections, then repriced at levels so low that Snoop Cereal lost money with each sale. At the same time, the complaint alleges that Walmart raised the price of the cereal on its online store to $10 per box, pricing out many of the very people that Broadus Foods was trying to help.

The Response

Walmart has stated that they value their relationships with their suppliers and that Snoop Cereal’s failure was actually due to factors like consumer demand and seasonality. Post’s response was very similar, saying that they’re just as disappointed that the public didn’t like Snoop Cereal.

The Speculation

It’s anyone’s guess how this will turn out, or whether any of the parties involved are being fully truthful. Maybe Snoop Cereal isn’t that good, or both Broadus Foods and Post overestimated the power of Snoop and Master P’s personal brands. Maybe the Walmart employees and everyone who monitored their website made it all up. Perhaps there were no hidden boxes, no cereal being sold in the baby section, and no price gouging on Walmart.com.

Or maybe Post Consumer Brands entered into a bad-faith agreement with Broadus Foods with the ultimate goal of crushing the brand until they could buy Snoop Cereal for a song, as the lawsuit suggests. Maybe they agreed to produce the cereal so their facilities would be ready to scale up production once Post acquired the brand.

Maybe Snoop Dogg and Master P are right. We’ll find out soon enough.

Related Resources:

• What Rappers Can Teach You About Estate Planning (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
• Snoop Dogg Busted for Pot by Police Dog (FindLaw’s Legally Weird)
• Walmart Closing 269 Stores; Does the WARN Act Apply? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)