Ben WesthoffSnoop Dogg has pledged nonviolence in his music, and, as we wrote recently, we should support him in that endeavor, not mock him. But now that his trip to Jamaica and Reincarnated project has come and gone, what is a gangsta rapper who's no longer a gangsta to do with his time?
The answer, at least if his promotional event Tuesday at the ArcLight Hollywood was any indication, is to pour more energy into his youth football league, and to dedicate himself to animated movies about snails. Clad in a black letterman's jacket that said “CR” on one side and “Burning and Looting” on the other, he spoke to reporters about his role in the just-released animated film Turbo, which was being screened for a group of his adorable football league kiddos. West Coast Sound chatted with him about assorted topics, including the upcoming 20th anniversary of Doggystyle.
See also: Leave Snoop Lion Alone
Oh yeah, and Ray J was there. He hit the snack counter first; Credit: Ben Westhoff
Your football league and this movie seem to be part of your commitment to nonviolent expression, no?
Well, early in my life I was committed to violence. So, to be committed to nonviolence is usually what happens when you get to a certain point where you want to do right and you understand the dynamics of what happens when you do wrong. And I've always been one to lead, and that's something I've always thrived on, is being a leader. So once I have people following me, I want to lead them in the right direction, and that's what it's all about, giving them something positive to support. Because I know the difference between being led the right way, and being led down a dark alley.
What's most fulfilling to you about the football league?
I think just seeing the kids go to high school. When I started my football league, kids wasn't going to high school. They was gangbanging, and they made bad decisions when they turned 13 or 14. Now, kids in my football league, they love playing football, they want to go to high school, they want to go to college, they want to see they names in the video game, they want to play Madden, they want to go to the next level. So there's things that they aspire to be, that wasn't there five or ten years ago, which pushes me to say, if I keep this thing going on, high school would be the smallest part. College'll be the thing to do.
How do you see this fitting into your overall legacy, and what do you want your legacy to be when you're gone?
I don't care about my legacy when I'm gone, because when I'm dead I ain't gonna be able to see none of that shit.
The Doggystyle 20th anniversary is coming up this year. What do you remember about the making of the album?
Just being young and crazy, just doing what I wanted to do. Didn't really have no cares. At that time, my generation, we lived in the era of where we didn't know how long we was gonna live, so we lived it up, we lived every day like it was our last day. We did the most. I just remember that time period being a fun time period because we knew that we was living, as opposed to we was living to die.
Which would you choose if you had to pick, The Chronic or Doggystyle?
The Chronic. Easy.
Follow Ben Westhoff on Twitter at @brwestho and LA Weekly Music at @LAWeeklyMusic, and like us at LAWeeklyMusic.
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