From Crip to gansta rapper, Girls Gone Wild master of ceremonies to serious actor, Snoop Dogg has had a life stranger than fiction.
“Impeccable: that’s what my career has been,” Snoop said. “It’s been beautiful and exciting.”
Snoop’s latest project is the fitting role of Huggy Bear in the film remake of buddy-cop comedy “Starsky and Hutch.” The Hollywood role is the second in as many year’s for the rapper, actor who also played himself in “Old School,” another Todd Phillips piece.
It does not take an insider to recognize the jump from rap star to actor is one made with increasing frequency. From Ice Cube to Ice-T to the present-day Eminem, many find their attitudes and stage personas translate well to the big screen.
“I may have to put music aside for a while and come back,” Snoop said. “Right now, I’m just concerned with working with good people.”
Many have cited Snoop’s performance in “Starsky and Hutch” as a natural choice for the Huggy Bear role given his association to ’70s pimp style, but it was no cake walk, Snoop said.
“I had to audition,” Snoop said. “I had to show them I wanted the role and then I had to throw myself into it.”
Once he had a nod for the role, Snoop’s approach was similar to that of the great method actors.
“I just searched into character,” Snoop said. “Made every attempt to bring it to life; lose Snoop Dogg and transform into an actor.”
The drive to play the character and not a 1970s version of himself allowed Snoop to rise above the pitfalls of his actor-rapper colleagues.
“I just tried to keep lines in ’75. Keep it all slick and sly; all believable.”
Vying for the role of “Starsky and Hutch’s” lovable drug dealer was none other than P. Diddy.
“His (P. Diddy) chance of getting it? Slim to none,” Snoop said.
The move from rap star to actor has coincided with an alteration in Snoop’s daily habits. Known as a figurehead of marijuana consumption, Snoop cut cannabis from his life in attempts to be a better husband and father, Snoop said. Marijuana has not moved out of his business strategy, as his endorsement appears on blunt wraps as prominently as it does on America Online commercials.
“I’m always gonna be Snoop no matter what I do,” he said. “People do business with Snoop and what he brings to the table.”
Part of the strive toward self-reformation was brought about through the loss of a friend, he said. The shooting death of Tupac Shakur hit home for Snoop and caused him to look inward.
“It (Shakur’s death) made me turn and look in the mirror. It made me want to be a better individual,” he said.
Snoop’s lifestyle alterations have rearranged his thinking regarding his own personal role models. Besides having a former pimp-turned-preacher – Don “Magic” Juan – as a spiritual adviser, Snoop has turned to an actor as a guiding light.
“Richard Pryor. I’d really like to do it like him,” Snoop said. “Fifteen years ago it was Ice Cube and he is the man. Now though, I’d really like to follow Denzel (Washington) because everything he does is bigger and better.”
With the satisfaction Snoop is gaining from Hollywood, there is one thing about movie making that has not given him much enjoyment.
“(In ‘Starsky and Hutch’) a villain had to slap me,” Snoop said. “I didn’t really like that because I’m not used to being hit without a reaction.”
