Snoop Dogg and Master P have filed a lawsuit against Walmart and Post Consumer Brands, alleging that the companies sabotaged their cereal brand, Snoop Cereal.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday (February 6) on behalf of the rappers’ company Broadus Foods. It claims that after entering into a partnership deal with Post to get their product onto supermarket shelves, the company “ensured that Snoop Cereal would not be available to consumers”, breaching a contract between the companies.
The suit alleges that Walmart and Post conspired to limit Snoop Cereal’s visibility in supermarkets, with the rappers claiming that the move was sparked by their refusal to sell their Broadus Foods company in its entirety to Post.
They claim that Post nevertheless entered a partnership in which they would “treat Snoop Cereal as one of its own brands” and distribute it alongside its other popular products at retailers like Walmart.
The rappers’ lawyer, Ben Crump, said Post had “no intention of treating Snoop Cereal equally as its own brands”, and only intended to give the appearance they were sticking to the terms of the partnership.
Snoop Cereal started being stocked in Walmart stores in July 2023, but the rappers claim that, anecdotally, a few months later customers began complaining that they weren’t able to find the cereal on shelves.
Snoop and Master P’s lawyers claim that while the cereal initially sold well at Walmart stores, the retailer’s system later showed it was falsely out of stock.
“Upon further investigation by store employees, each of these stores had several boxes of Snoop Cereal in their stockrooms that were coded to not be put out on the store shelves,” they wrote.
“Unlike the other Post branded boxes of cereal around them, these Snoop Cereal boxes had been in the stockrooms for months without ever being made available to customers.”
Broadus Foods Press Conference https://t.co/jQmJrCa8H1
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) February 6, 2024
In a statement provided to TMZ, a representative for Post said they were “excited to partner with Broadus Foods” and “made substantial investments in the business”. They said the company was “disappointed” when “consumer demand did not meet expectations”.
“Walmart values our relationships with our suppliers, and we have a strong history of supporting entrepreneurs,” Walmart said in their own statement.
“Many factors affect the sales of any given product, including consumer demand, seasonality, and price to name a few. We will respond as appropriate with the Court once we are served with the complaint.”
Snoop and Master P launched the cereal in August 2022. They originally planned to sell it under the name Snoop Loopz, but were blocked from doing so by an unnamed brand – presumably Kellogg’s, who own the trademark to Froot Loops – and rebranded to Snoop Cereal shortly afterwards.
The cereal’s launch also drew the attention of Jack White, who publicly congratulated Snoop on the product in a post on Instagram, but said he had “a couple of important questions”.
“In the press release from Broadus Foods, the photo of the cereal box contains the words ‘MORE MARSHMALLOWS’. More than what? If this is in fact a brand new cereal, it can’t be more marshmallows than ‘before,'” White wrote.
“Is it a statement that this cereal has more marshmallows than say… a bag of sand, or a typical Caesar salad? Or, is it a DEMAND from Snoop Dogg himself that we just have more marshmallows in this world in general? That last theory is my hope.”
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