West coast rapper turn Rastafarian Snoop Lionĭirected by Andy Capper and produced by VICE and Snoopadelic Films, Reincarnated opens with Snoop taking a stage and recounting that his life has been in stages. What else could I do in rap? I got rap songs that will never die.” Reincarnated is an album that Snoop is making for himself, as a rapper who other rappers call “Uncle Snoop,” he sees the importance of his personal evolution. “I don’t wanna rap,” says Snoop, “I’m tired of rapping. The film is centered around the production of Reincarnated, the album, headed by DJ Diplo and his Major Lazer production team. Or the presumption that, “This dude has finally smoked TOO much weed.”īut, in actuality, Snoop’s evolution to Snoop Lion and his newly found interest in Jamaican culture, Rastafarianism, and reggae music is not a gimmick, it is, according to his new documentary, Reincarnated, a natural evolution. A drive high into the Blue Mountain Range to out-of-the-way cannabis fields brings some amusing moments, notably when one of the entourage, Daz Dillinger, enthuses, “I’m rollin’ a blunt in the jungle! Ain’t that a trip?” And Snoop’s visit to the Alpha Boys School in Kingston, renowned for its influential music program, yields a toe-tapping performance by the young orchestra.For many, the news that Snoop Dogg had changed his named to Snoop Lion AND was recording a reggae album was met with laughter. The performer’s time in Jamaica is marked by lovely interludes such as a tour of Trench Town, the birthplace of reggae, where Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Wailer all lived in their youth. Loss also informs at least one track on the new album. The death in 2011 of his fellow rapper and close friend since high school, Nate Dogg, appears to have cemented this more introspective turn in Snoop’s life. The time spent in Jamaica seems part of a general hunger for a mellower, more meaningful existence, which ties in with Snoop’s affiliation with the Nation of Islam and with controversial minister Louis Farrahkan. The look back is characterized by equal parts confession and self-absolution, but there’s a persuasive sense here of a man taking stock of his life. Also covered is Snoop’s acquittal on charges related to a shooting committed by his bodyguard in 1993, the most violent time in hip-hop. This is by no means an exhaustive bio-portrait, but there’s considerable detail in Snoop’s recollections of the Death Row Records heyday, and it’s moving listening to him recall his reaction to the murder of stablemate Tupac Shakur. He talks candidly about his upbringing in Long Beach, California, with a tough-love mother and no father figure, and his indoctrination into and eventual rejection of a gangbanger crime culture. PHOTOS: Toronto Film Festival Opening Day: ‘Looper’ Premiere, ‘American Beauty’ Reading On the contrary, he connects the dots linking his own life to the struggle embodied in much reggae music. That’s not to say that Snoop repudiates his past in ways that will alienate diehard fans. It’s a long way from rapping about pimps and guns and thugs and bitches to the seemingly heartfelt sentiments of pain and joy that permeate the new material.
“I know Obama want me to come to the White House, but what the fuck can I perform? Be honest,” he says. As lively a presence here as he was in Kevin Macdonald’s biodoc Marley, it’s Wailer, described by Snoop as his spiritual big brother, who upgrades the Dogg to a Lion over a massive spliff.īut as much as Snoop’s musical future, the film reflects on the past of an artist who has begun, at age 40, to consider his legacy.
It shows the singer and his collaborators – who memorably include Bunny Wailer, last surviving core member of The Wailers – exploring the bridge between melodic hip-hop and reggae. STORY: Missing Footage From Snoop Lion Reggae Doc Reveals Muhammad Ali Friendship The film whets the appetite for the disc, due later this year, the first to be released under the performer’s new moniker, Snoop Lion. The global editor of Vice magazine, Capper spends extensive time in the recording studio with Snoop and DJ producer Diplo, who shepherded the album through his Jamaican dancehall/electro house fusion project Major Lazer. But the rapper has always been a charismatic eccentric, and as an all-access pass to an artist embarking on a new path, this is entertaining stuff – funny, disarming, even poignant. It’s notably lacking in a single voice of skepticism, or anything critical beyond Snoop’s own frank assessment of his history. STORY: Snoop Dogg Says He’s Bob Marley Re-Incarnated, Goes Rasta for New ProjectĪs is to be expected in a film on which the subject and his wife are executive producers, and his manager is a producer, this is very much the authorized account.