Snoop drops the Dogg, aims for reggae style

Rapper and actor Snoop Lion attends a news conference to promote the film ' Reincarnated ' during the 37th Toronto International Film Festival, September 7, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Fred Thornhill

By Christine Kearney

TORONTO | Fri Sep 7, 2012 10:06pm EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - Rapper Snoop Dogg insists, for now, he is dropping the 'Dogg' to take on a new moniker, Snoop Lion.

Snoop became one of the world's most recognizable names in rap music after his 1993 debut album "Doggystyle" helped forge the rise of gangsta rap. But the California singer and actor with the tough image of guns, drugs and "pimping" out women now claims he is now embracing reggae music, peace and love.

His transformation, he told reporters on Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival about a new documentary chronicling the change, should not be too surprising: "I was always saying to myself I was Bob Marley reincarnated."

His new nonfiction film, made by his own company, is called just that, "Reincarnated." Like many music documentaries in recent years, it serves partly as a promotional piece for his upcoming reggae album of the same name, showing how each song was recorded, including with reggae master Bunny Wailer.

But much of the first part of Snoop's journey to seek Rasta culture in Jamaica is spent talking about his love of smoking marijuana and sharing the local variety. In one scene he is taken into the jungle by locals to smoke marijuana plants picked straight from the ground.

His larger point however, is that at the age of 40, he is older, wiser and has embarked on a spiritual and musical odyssey. His new name, the film shows, was not chosen by him but rather handed down by Rastafarian priests in Jamaica.

"They just crowned me 'The Lion' because it is associated with Rastafarians and associated with reggae music and they felt like the Dogg was no longer needed," he said. "It was just a natural transformation. It's like from 'The Dogg' to 'The Lion', you understand me?"

The name change, announced in July, is at least the third for Snoop, who began his hip-hop career as "Snoop Doggy Dog" and he is also known as "The Doggfather" and "Uncle Snoop." So skepticism about his embrace of reggae has been rife on social media sites.

DOGG NOT DEAD?

But on Friday, dressed in pure white and wearing a white rasta cap, he talked of "a true transformation," his internal "love and peace," and his devotion to his wife and children.

He shrugged off disbelievers who question whether the man who helped popularize the notorious Death Row Records label, along with fellow musicians such as murdered Tupac Shakur, has really changed.

"For those who feel like it is not real or it is not authentic, that is what it is. You are going to have your own opinions and views," he said. "What I can do, is put down a clean glass of water and a dirty glass of water and you can have the choice to drink whatever one you like."

Still not shy and never short of a quip, the second half of the film delves more into Snoop's checkered past, including his many run-ins with the law on drug and gun possession charges.

But, like rapper and record producer Sean Combs ever the successful brand maker, he hinted that he would still play his old rap hits and did not rule out future rap albums.

"I am still Snoop Dogg. This is me right now," he said before making reporters laugh by using a set of expletives that once filled his rap hits.

"At the end of the day when I making my reggae music I am in the light of Snoop Lion, so you have to respect both worlds."

(Reporting by Christine Kearney; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Shumaker)

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Senegal's N'Dour drops music for election "buzz"

Singer Youssou N'Dour performs at a concert called ''Africa Celebrates Democracy'' that pays tribute to Tunisian youth and the revolution that inspired the Arab Spring, in Tunis November 11, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Anis Mili

By Mark John and Diadie Ba

DAKAR | Tue Jan 3, 2012 5:52pm EST

DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal's Youssou N'Dour has taken his music to audiences around the world but says his decision to stop singing and run for president was prompted by a nagging sound straight from the streets of his West African nation.

"For over 15 years I have heard this buzz going about for me," N'Dour said at his headquarters in a chic suburb of the capital Dakar, adorned with awards including a gold-plated Grammy for his 2004 album "Egypt."

"An overwhelming majority of the Senegalese people have asked Youssou N'Dour to run as president ... I said 'yes' and I agreed to be a candidate," he said in an interview with Reuters and the African news agency APA.

After months of speculation, N'Dour, 52, announced his plan to run in a February 26 election late Monday. But whether the co-writer of the 1994 hit single "7 Seconds" has time to translate his domestic popularity into votes is far from certain.

A successful businessman with his own newspaper, television and radio channel, N'Dour already leads a grassroots citizen movement and has long been a conduit for criticism of incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade, who wants to extend his 11-year rule.

The 85-year-old Wade is a skilled political operator with decades of experience and his hands firmly on the machinery of power, while N'Dour must join a crowded pack of over a dozen presidential rivals.

In a country which treasures intellectuals and whose first post-independence president was the poet and linguist Leopold Sedar Senghor, N'Dour's relative lack of formal education is another potential handicap he knows he must overcome.

"For 50 years the people have seen Senegal run by what I would call traditional politicians and they have had enough," he said of a country where formal jobs are scarce and most of whose 12 million population are living on a few dollars a day.

"They want something new and I am the model," said N'Dour, peering through austere, thick-rimmed spectacles.

The February vote will be watched throughout Africa after a string of marred elections, from the deadly post-poll dispute that blew up in Ivory Coast just over a year ago to Democratic Republic of Congo's flawed attempt at democracy last November.

Wade's decision to run for a third term is in itself controversial, with opponents arguing it breaks rules limiting presidential terms to two mandates. Wade says a first term starting in 2000 pre-dated those rules and so does not count.

Government proposals last year to change election rules prompted opposition allegations it was trying to rig the election and were hastily dropped after they led to some of the worst street violence Senegal has seen.

Some fear more unrest if Wade is deemed eligible to stand again in a legal ruling due at the end of the month, or if the election itself is not seen as credible.

N'Dour, who like Wade predicts an easy victory for himself, said he rejected violence but warned the Senegalese were becoming impatient for change.

"The last thing I want to do is set fire to this country I love so much ... But do you think the people will accept a rigged election? No."

(Writing by Mark John; Editing by Matthew Jones)

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