In case you haven’t heard, the legendary Snoop Dogg is going through a bit of a transformation. On his next album (his twelfth), aptly titled Reincarnated, the old Dogg will show us that he can learn new tricks, temporarily abandoning traditional rap going all the way reggae — complete with a new, Rasta-fied alter ego named Snoop Lion. To document his transformation, the Dogg– uhh, Lionfather teamed with VICE Films to create a companion piece to the album also called REINCARNATED, a documentary chronicling the events leading to Mr. Broadus’ sudden change in approach.
“Fuck Snoop Dogg,” the lanky, 40-year-old MC tells his team in one scene capturing the album’s recording process. “Don’t think about none of the shit he rapped about. Hustlin’, drug dealin’, makin’ money, shootin’ — all that shit’ll be outta here.”
The new album will apparently contain absolutely no raps from Snoop, because, as he says in the clip, he’s “tired of rapping.” He elaborated on these feelings at a recent media event in New York.
“Rap is not a challenge to me,” he said. “With no disrespect to other rappers, but they can’t fuck with me in rap … I’ve won every accolade you can get in rap, they call me ‘Uncle Snoop’ in rap. When you’re an uncle, it’s time to find something new … I want to feel like a kid again.”
Snoop Lion was conceived during the trip to Jamaica documented in the REINCARNATED film, and he says that the change is far deeper than just rapping over reggae-influenced tracks.
“I want to bury Snoop Dogg, and become Snoop Lion. I didn’t know that until I went to the temple, where the High Priest asked me what my name was, and I said, ‘Snoop Dogg.’ And he looked me in my eyes and said, ‘No more. You are the light; you are the lion.’ From that moment on, it’s like I had started to understand why I was there.”
This change is apparently a real one and not some cheap gimmick, and REINCARNATED is definitely a real film and not just some made-for-the-internet viral clip. The doc will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival September 7th.
Check out the official trailer below. Reincarnated the album is coming soon.
VICE Films, in partnership with Snoopadelic Films, presents REINCARNATED. The documentary follows Snoop Dogg as he journeys to Jamaica to record an album with Diplo. While there, Snoop finds himself embraced by the Jamaican people, is positively impacted by Rastafarian culture, and becomes reincarnated as Snoop Lion.
