Earlier this year Snoop Lion, former Snoop Dogg, had a spiritual awakening in the Rastafarian faith. The West Coast rap legend changes his persona of a gang banger and hardcore rap artiste to a more somber and mellow reggae artist after a visit to Jamaica.
Snoop premiered his long awaited documentary film, Reincarnation, at the Toronto Film Festival last week, where he traces his transition into Rastafarianism.
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In the film, Snoop’s daughter Cori B revealed that his father came home one day from a trip to the island happier, in good spirit and singing reggae music.
At a press conference at the film festival, Snoop Dogg explains his gravitation towards reggae music and away from hardcore hip hop.
“It’s not that I don’t want to do it anymore; I just didn’t want to do it on this particular record,” Snoop said. “That was the language that hip-hop communicates, but reggae music can articulate with different language, which is the language of love, struggle and peace at the same time.”
Snoop is also working on an all reggae album “Reincarnation” with Diplo of Major Lazer among others. The reggae album is the inspiration behind the documentary that say Snoopadelic Films teaming with Vice Films and director Andy Capper.
In the film Snoop, 40, also opens up about growing up in Long Beach, California, surrounded by gang violence. He attribute that his calling to hip hop in the early 90s.
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“That was my first calling, out of the gangbanging and into the rap,” Snoop said.
In a significant portion of the film, Snoop talks about the turmoil of his early life, his acquittal of a 1996 murder charge, his time at Death Row Records, the death of his close friend Tupac Shakur, whose murder is still unsolved, and also the recent death of another friend Nate Dogg. Nate passed away last March after suffering multiple stroke. Snoop gave fans an inside look into his funeral and proceedings.
“That’s the part of the movie that I don’t ever watch ‘cause I’m still touched by it; I’m still hurt by it,” Snoop said. “When you lose somebody that close, it’s never a reality.”
Urban Islandz will have more on the ground breaking Snoop Dogg documentary in the coming days.
Never thought he would change. From pornography, heavy west coast rap to rastafarism. That’s a great change!.
I love the transformation from the negative to the positive vibration. From Snoop Dogg to Snoop Lion.
Rasta is peace love and unity.
that’s ma dog, now lion.
that’s ma dog, now lion.
that’s ma dog, now lion.
from gangsta 2 rasta mean.