As Snoop Dogg changes his musical output, he has also changed some of his socio-political views, including his faith and thoughts on gun control. In a recent interview with HHDX Snoop spoke on his decision share his travels to Jamaica and his spiritual transformation with his fans, as well as his solution to gun violence.
Snoop's religious beliefs were never really at the forefront of his image, instead it was a gangster rapper persona which he carried throughout the majority of his career. However, now that's changed, with Snoop's spirituality coming to light and his gangster image being left behind. "It’s a spirit thing," Snoop explained of his transformation. "It’s not even about being bashful or shy. I’ve never been offensive with [my beliefs]. I’ve always been the one to let people know slowly but surely who I am. I don’t force it on you or try to make you become what I am—whether it was the gangster shit; whether it was me hanging with the Fruit Of Islam; [whether it was] me being with the Rastafari, whatever. I’ve never forced anything on people other than what you believe."
He continued to detail his thoughts on religion, "Sometimes the questions are posed as to what do I believe in and what do I stand for,” he explained. “But if those questions aren’t asked, there’s no need to speak on it because my religion is a liberty. It’s the way I live. Not what is presented to me or what is supposed to be religion. To me the best religion is the way you live. Not by a book or by what someone tells you. By the way you live. That’s your religion because it’s your life and it tells exactly who you are and what’s gonna happen when you’re gone. That’s my belief."
Snoop explained that he's correcting his past mistakes, and he is creating music that encourages his fans to go down the right path. As the OG explains, his solution to lessen gun violence is just that.
Snoop explained, "One [solution] is doing what I’m doing: correcting my mistakes by being a better person and putting out more energy and more music that represents what we’re going through as opposed to what we went through."
He continued, "I ain’t going through that no more. I’m going through what you’re going through, watching the world and watching the power that I have and watching the way people react when I walk into a room. What should I do with this power? Should I abuse it? Should I continue to send my peoples down the wrong path? Or should I at least try to wake them up and let them know that there is another way and show them that the way that I’m doing it may be the new way. They’ve been following everything else that I’ve been giving them, let me give them something that got some substance to it with thought behind it."
Snoop's upcoming album, which is his first full project of reggae music, Reincarnated, will be released April 23rd. The documentary of the same name which follows his travels to Jamaica will be released in theatres March 15th.