What’s My Name?

The title of this blog may ring a bell for those paying attention to the strange world of rapper Snoop Dogg, or Snoop Lion depending on his mood, I guess. This title hails from his classic debut album, “Doggy Style” which is in my top 10 hip hop albums of all time.
Recently, Snoop visited Jamaica. This is as about as surprising as if he visited Amsterdam (I’m not spelling this out for people), but something happened in the land of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh for the rapper. He went as Snoop Dogg and left as Snoop Lion, his Rastafarian alter ego.
Now, this kind of zany antic would not be surprising if Kanye West did it, or R. Kelly, because they are prone to oddball PR stunts like this.
But from an aging rapper whose contemporaries star in children’s films (Ice Cube) or make headphones instead of much anticipated albums (Dr. Dre), this is truly an odd thing.
And he’s making a reggae album under his new alias. Considering he hasn’t had much of a hit album in years, I do not fault him for taking a different turn.
But the extreme he has gone is somewhat surprising; changing his stage name (I’m guessing temporarily) and sporting the Rastafarian clothes is weird.
I am looking forward to his new project and am interested in the documentary made about his travels to Jamaica, but will the music just be more songs about drugs, because he’s basically been making a career off that theme for more than two decades.