The final product of Snoop Dogg's venture into reggae, Reincarnated, was released yesterday. The rapper has been in full-on reggae mode for a while now, after his trip to Jamaica spiritualized him. The former gangster rapper soon became a anti-violence and anti-gun advocate, supporting peaceful solutions and spiritual beliefs. It may seem like quite a drastic change for those who were a fan of Snoop in his hey-day, however, Snoop seems completely at ease with his new image and views on life, and he says so are his rap peers.
Snoop Dogg/Lion appeared on the Breakfast Club this morning for quite a lengthy interview, during which he talked on many things, including Reincarnated, and how his new beliefs have implented changes in his life, (however, he assures fans Snoop 'Dogg' is not dead). As well, he got a little retrospective when talking about Tupac and Biggie, and beef during their time.
Snoop Lion spoke on what OGs like Dr. Dre had to say about his move from 'Dogg' to 'Lion.' He explains how he's been in the game long enough that he's allowed to make such moves, and in fact, people are grateful that he's stepping out of rap for a minute (at least) so they can have more shine.
"I mean, they all respect my move man, because I built this, man. 20-something years on that hip-hop tip doing what I do, I got the right to step out and do what I do," Snoop said. "'Cause I been a respectful young man, and been a very good peaceful positive movement for hip-hop. I've been taking hip-hop to the next level. I been actually the face of hip-hop for the past 5 or 10 years, if you really wanna be real."
The Lion also reflected on what the rap game would have been like if Tupac and Biggie were still around. Snoop thinks there would be a lot less rappers in the game, instead, there would probably only be three huge rappers (he includes himself, Pac and Biggie in this). "I always come to the conclusion that a lot of artists wouldn't be where they are, if they were here. And that was no disrespect, it's just certain lanes opened up for artists when they were gone," Lion said.
Snoop continued to explain why his Rastafarian change didn't happen earlier on in his career-- he was too caught up in the game. "I really wanted to [change], but it was so hard to leave the game, and I was so one foot in. I ain't got no feet in now, so it's easy to break away. I had one foot deep in the game, I still had my homies with me, I still was half-way gang-banging," said Snoop.
The rapper dropped some new information about a follow-up to his movie and album with Wiz Khalifa, Mac & Devin Go To High School. The two weed-smoking artists are in motion to do a second one. "Me and Wiz Khalifa going back in on "High School 2." I had so much fun working with Wiz," Snoop revealed. "The movie did awesome, around the whole globe, to where the movie people giving us money for the part 2 right now. So we going in, doing another record and a movie."
Snoop wrapped up his interview by shedding some light on his 4/20 house party that apparently got shut down by the cops. The West Coast native revealed it did get shut down, but only until he arrived, then things we're back on.
"I had a mansion party. What happened was, the police shut it down until I got there, when I got there, we pulled the police to the side, patted his pockets, gave him a few things, and the party continued." Snoop continued, "They shut the party down, until I got there, like 1 o'clock, and when I got there, there was still 300-400 people there, so instead of the Sheriff shutting it all the way down swe just had a nice conversation with him, and told him, look man, it's a holiday, we'll be outta here in a few hours, and he let it go down."
Check out the two-part interview on Power 105 below.
