‘The Voice’ coach opens up about the lifelong love he’s found in high school sweetheart-turned-wife Shante

When Snoop Dogg first met wife Shante Broadus as a teen attending Long Beach’s Polytechnic High School in the ’80s, he found the yin to his yang.

“She understands me,” Snoop, 52 says of his wife, also 52, to whom he’s been married for 27 years. “She’s a great mother, a tremendous grandmother, an excellent wife and a great friend. She knows how to push all of my buttons to make me act a motherf—ing fool or to make me act cool, and I love it.”

Their road hasn’t been easy. After tying the knot in 1997, the pair, who share three children and multiple grandchildren, split briefly back in 2004 before eventually renewing their vows four years later.

Shante Broadus and Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg and wife Shante.Shante Broadus/instagram

“In relationships like this, it’s a rocky road in the beginning because success is new to both,” Snoop tells PEOPLE. In the past when it came to his wife he says he felt like, “‘Some things I want you to be a part of, some things I don’t want you to be a part of to protect you.’ But not knowing that she should have been there the whole way to protect [me].”

He adds, “You learn as time goes by, ‘OK, you are in control. You run this, you run that, because I make bad decisions.’ The good to my bad is her.”

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Snoop Dogg and Shante Broadus attend the ceremony honoring Snoop Dogg with star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 19, 2018

Snoop Dogg and Shante Broadus in November 2018.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

As for what he brings to the relationship, Snoop says, “I’m a loving, caring, providing husband. My wife ain’t never worked a day in her life, and that’s what I love is that I’m in a position of where you don’t have to work. I am the work and you are my backbone.”

When it comes to Shante, “Over the years she’s grown with me to know what I do and how I do it and to give me the space to do it,” he says. “The things that she helped me with is patience, understanding what family is, making time for family and not making excuses.”

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Snoop Dogg family photo

The Broadus Family.Shante Broadus/Instagram

The star wants to pass his hard-won marriage advice on to others. “How do I stay married for so long? I’ve got a strong wife with a strong backbone and a good heart — she’s loving and she’s caring and we are meant to be together,” he says.

Snoop continues, “When we said we’d marry, we married ’til death do us part. Ain’t that what it say? Not ’til arguments do us part or fighting or finances, but till death do us part.”

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Snoop Dogg And His Bride On Their Wedding Day

Snoop Dogg and Shante Broadus on their wedding day in June 1997.Frederick M. Brown/Getty

And he’s got a secret for longterm marital bliss. “Find out what your companion loves the most and concentrate on doing it the most. That’s real love.”

These days, says Snoop, “family is everything. What makes me the happiest in my life right now is for my wife to be happy, and everybody in my family to be healthy, and to be on one accord, which is love.”