Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., long known and loved in pop culture as California-bred gangsta rapper Snoop (Doggy) Dogg, has apparently evolved into Snoop Lion, a move that will surely have Darwinists up in a tizzy.
Inspired by an artistic epiphany during a trip, Snoop’s new reggae album “Reincarnated” is driven by the tenets of the Rastafari movement, to which Snoop has converted, and the belief that he is the reincarnation of reggae god Bob Marley — who died a decade after Snoop was born.
Produced by Berhane Sound System, RCA Records, Vice Recordings and Diplo’s Mad Decent label, “Reincarnated” is, at best, an awkward first attempt at peace-loving reggae. He juggles his trademark drawl and an uncomfortably fake Jamaican patois in songs like “Smoke the Weed” and “Here Comes the King,” incorporating Jamaican artists to mixed results.
His catchy hip-hop single “Lighters Up” brings feuding Jamaican dancehall musicians Popcaan and Mavado together in an anthem about blazing it up with your buddies.
He recruits pop singer Miley Cyrus for the pop-reggae tribute to fallen homies, “Ashtrays and Heartbreaks.” It’s mellow and enjoyable, but the message of smoking until you forget your troubles doesn’t sound so much Rastafari as regular old Doggy Dogg.
Meanwhile, “No Guns Allowed,” featuring rapper Drake and Snoop’s daughter Cori B, contradicts his former identity as a gun-toting gangsta, but it fits with the appropriate cultural reaction to gun violence toward children.
Although Snoop claims he “didn’t want to just come out there and steal music, steal the culture and run back to America and get rich off of it,” he was accused of as much by Bunny Wailer (the last surviving member of the Wailers), who denounced Snoop on the Internet earlier this month. Snoop responded by cutting Wailer’s contribution to the album, although he kept him in the album’s companion documentary.
And the Rastafarian Millennium Council has gone so far as to excommunicate Snoop.
The whole argument over whether Snoop is being true to the Rasta culture or commercializing it for personal gain seems a bit hypocritical. Is Bob Marley not commercialized to the extreme? Is there not a Marley’s Mellow Mood Relaxation Beverage, emblazoned with the iconic laughing photo and surreptitiously advertising itself as a “relaxation drink”?
Although there’s no telling how he will break himself of the habit of spitting “D-O-double-G” in every rap, kudos to Snoop for being unafraid of reinvention, despite the fact that he is probably too high to fully realize what he wants to do with it.
