Darryl Daniel, cousin of Snoop Dogg and artist behind iconic ‘Doggystyle’ album cover, dies at 56

Darryl “Joe Cool” Daniel, illustrator of the iconic “Doggystyle” album cover for his cousin Snoop Dogg, has died. He was 56.

Multiple family members acknowledged Daniel’s death Monday on social media, but no details have been released.

Daniel was born in Torrance in 1968 but grew up in the Long Beach area with his cousins Snoop and Delmar Arnaud — professionally known as Daz Dillinger, co-founder of the hip-hop duo Tha Dogg Pound.

On Instagram, Dillinger wrote: “Rest n peace Daryl Joe Cool Daniel. My bigg cuzzn this really hurts we grew up together u was there from day one I’m gone really miss u, bigg cuz.”

Snoop posted a video of the pair backstage at one of Snoop’s shows. In the video, Daniel lamented about losing money betting on the Las Vegas Raiders.

While music was big in Daniel’s family, he was not drawn to it in the same way as his cousins.

“I’m an artist. I don’t rap, I don’t sing, I draw things and I paint,” Daniel said during a 2015 interview on The Rap Scene.

During the interview, Daniel said his earliest memories of drawing were at Lincoln Elementary School. Laughing, Daniel said he was 6 years old drawing female “body parts” as well as robots and superheroes.

“I like Stan Lee and shit for the way he did his characters and all that shit,” Daniel recalled to host Daddy V. “But I liked what Overton Loyd was doing for Funkadelic, George Clinton, Parliament, ‘Pin the Tail on the Funky’ — all them big-ol’ asses and shit, he was just getting down and I wanted my style to be similar to that.”

Daniel said he mixed those styles with “street hood” writing affiliated with gangs. He practiced and refined his style through graffiti, tagging walls with words and phrases requested by friends.

A drug addict, Daniel found himself in Corcoran State Prison in 1991, drawing on envelopes and whatever else he could find. While incarcerated, he got a call from Snoop asking him to draw the cover for his debut album. Daniel thought he was joking and was skeptical that his younger cousin was actually gaining the popularity he claimed.

But when he was released, Daniel heard Snoop on the airwaves with Dr. Dre. He was still addicted to cocaine, but Snoop told him he could do his album art if he got clean. And he did. Daniel moved in with Snoop and created one of the most iconic gangsta rap album covers of all time.

Snoop is getting ready to release his 20th studio album but the West Coast hip-hop-defining “Doggystyle” remains his best selling by far with over 11 million units sold as of 2015, according to the Music Recording Industry Association of America. The record was recently re-released for its 30th anniversary.

“I didn’t think it would be iconic, man,” Daniel told HipHopDX in 2013. “And then when it sold as many as it sold, and I seen my shit up there, it just gave me…like damn. I can’t believe it. My artwork is out there, ’cause Snoop let it come. He gave me the opportunity, man.”

Riding the wave of the record, Daniel made his own career as an artist, gaining acclaim by doing work with Adidas and Supreme. He also did the artwork for the “Gin and Juice” and “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” singles as well as collaboration with artist Justin Roach on Snoop’s 2016 release “Coolaid.”

“It’s cool to be remembered,” Daniel said in the 2015 interview, naming multiple artists who gained even more popularity after their deaths such as 2Pac. “I don’t want that. I wanna make my shit now. I want to be remembered alive.”

Following the release of “Doggystyle,” Daniel toured with his cousin and was surrounded by  drugs and alcohol, he recalled during a 2015 interview with Project Save Art. He fell back into his additions.

During the interview, Daniel said, at that time, he had been sober 12 years.

“I have a lot of love for addicts. I understand them,” Daniel said. “I’m down to help them. It’s one addict helping another.”

Being from Long Beach, Daniel got involved with Safe Refuge, a recovery and rehabilitation facility in the city. In August 2015, Daniel donated a painting “depicting the struggle with addition” during a special ceremony,  according to Project Save Art.

“It was beautiful,” Daniel said of the ceremony. “It was really touching to my soul to see that the people who were in the audience are going through or have been through struggles like me and they are trying to make a difference. It was moving that they were there to celebrate my artwork.”