Right, so I don’t like change. I am a very black or white sort of person; I like things to remain in the way I am used too. Being a massive hip hop fan since a young age, growing up listening to Dre, Pac, Biggie and Snoop, I obviously carry pretty strong opinions on Snoop Dogg now referring to himself as Snoop Lion and his new album ‘Reincarnated’. (One of the highlights of my life would definitely still be high fiving Snoop at the front row of Glastonbury in 2011, just sayin’!) If you meet someone for the first time and they are introduced to you by their first name, it is pretty hard a few months down the line of knowing someone to call them a completely different name.
I am never going to call Snoop Dogg, Snoop Lion. It doesn’t sit right with me. I have nothing against the reggae culture, in fact I am a big fan of Bob Marley, UB40 and bands alike, but my musical loyalties lie with hip hop. I happen to own pretty much every 90’s hip hop classics album, which obviously feature Snoop Dogg on the track list. My room has constantly been covered from the age of 12 with posters of the rappers at Death Row Records, (Snoop, Dre and 2pac) and have always been a fan of the hip hop music community. So why all of a sudden has Snoop Dogg disowned his hip hop roots which made him famous and well-loved globally, and now refers to himself as a different animal which worships the Rastafarian culture? He claims to have had an experience in February where he started to believe he was Bob Marley reincarnated hence the title of his new album. Maybe Snoop just didn’t see rapping as a challenge anymore, so wanted to try a different style. Either way, even though I preferred Snoop in ‘Doggystyle’ in the 90’s I was willing to give his new album a try, and actually I quite enjoyed it.
‘There’s so much death, there’s so much destruction, there’s so much mayhem and there’s so much misunderstanding in music. We are losing so many great musicians and we don’t love ‘em when there here. And I wanna be loved while I’m here.’ This is the prelude to Snoop Lion’s (I begrudgingly wrote Lion) new album. After this prelude it bursts out into one of his new songs ‘Rebel Way’. At 4 minutes and 21 seconds long, this song opens up the album beautifully and really accentuates to those who are hip hop heads, like myself that Snoop’s new music is actually a good career move, and one that we should all enjoy. Snoop collaborated on this album with an all-star list, including Chris Brown, Rita Ora, Akon, Miley Cyrus and Busta Rhymes. Other highlights on the album are ‘Get Away’ which has a dancehall beat to it, and ‘La La La’ which is the debut single from the album. ‘La La La’ appears to be the perfect song for Snoop fan’s across the world to become familiar with his new style. The song is extremely chilled out and has a summer vibe to it which is probably going to make this album one of the must-have albums for 2013. It took a while for me to adjust to the album and the Snoop sound, but surprisingly I liked it. I think it is good to have a change; I was so insistent that I wasn’t going to enjoy it but I am pleased that Snoop has gone down this avenue. He has excelled at it, as usual. The man is a musical genius!
Times are changing, and we have lost Snoop to Reggae. However fellow hip hop lovers the good thing about music is that it never fades, you can always rewind and listen to it again. A famous quote from Bob Marley is that ‘my music will go on forever’ and that is true. Real geniuses of their arts are never forgotten and always worshipped by their fans. Snoop is always going to be a musical sensation, regardless of whether it is from hip hop or reggae (which he seems to be doing well at), the man is a legend in music. Snoop really has been reincarnated into Reggae, and I am actually a fan!
