Snoop Dogg has his 1993 murder charge sealed

Snoop Dogg has had his 1993 murder charge sealed.

The 52-year-old rapper - whose real name is Calvin Broadus - was arrested after his MTV Awards performance of Murder Was The Case after he and a bodyguard were accused of shooting a man in a Los Angeles park, but he was found not guilty in 1996, and he's now succeeded in a bid to put the case behind him.

Legal documents obtained by TMZ showed Snoop asked a judge to seal the records in January, and the following month, the court signed off on the petition.

The rapper recently reflected on his he has evolved into "America's most loveable person" and been able to leave his criminal background - which led to him being banned from the UK, Australia and Norway for various periods of time - behind without changing who he is at heart.

He told People magazine: "You think about all the things that I went through and where I'm at.

"It's a lesson: to let the world see growth, how somebody can go from being hated, banned from countries, thrown in jail [for] weed, to now America's most lovable person. But it's the same person."

The Gin + Juice hitmaker got involved in criminal activity in the late 1980s and 1990s and his ambition at the time was just to live to 21.

He reflected: "When I was young, we used to rap about living to see 21. That was the goal. Then my homies passed away at 25. So the goal was to be 30."

But after the death of friends such as Tupac Shakur and the murder trial, Snoop knew he needed to change his life.

He said: "I was stuck in a box with keeping it gangster and trying to appease the hood. (I realised) you can't take everybody with you.

"I had to be egotistical and self-centred for a moment to establish how I get down. And I don't apologise for it."