Back Like That: Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg is a busy man.  Between fighting weapons charges in two recent SoCal airport busts, he’s about to drop a highly-anticipated album, The Blue Carpet Treatment.

Not like the rapper has been absent from the airwaves--his song with The Pussycat Dolls still gets radio play, and his single with Cypress Hill’s B-Real, “Vato,” is riding “high” on the hip-hop charts this fall.

In addition to his musical endeavors, Snoop is hosting the horror anthology movie Hood of Horrors (inexplicably releasing November 17, three weeks after Halloween) and even has to promote his new book, "Love Don’t Live Here No More," co- written with David E. Talbert.

CraveOnline talked with Snoop recently about all this and more, and Snoop Eastwood rapped with us in the smooth cadence that makes him the number one Dogg.

CraveOnline: Is music or film more fun for you?

Snoop Dogg: Them both my girlfriends. I love ‘em both the same.

CraveOnline:  Is one the wife and one the mistress?

Snoop Dogg: I got two lovers and I love ‘em both the same.

CraveOnline: How is the new record?

Snoop Dogg: I’m back in the lab with Dr. Dre. Just did a single with R Kelly and shot the video so just trying to put it back down and do what I do.

CraveOnline:  What’s the single about?

Snoop Dogg: It’s called "That’s That S***." It’s just about, you know, "That’s That S***."

CraveOnline: Your Pussycat Dolls song is still getting play. Do you ever worry about having too much Snoop out there?

Snoop Dogg: No, there’s no such thing as too much if it’s good. I was taught that if it’s good, there’s never such thing as too much of it. People love what’s good. If you can keep giving it to ‘em, give it to ‘em because there’s not enough of that going on right now. It’s usually an artist will come up with one hit record and then they can’t match it, they can’t continue to come with it. So if you’ve got an artist that can continue to give you hit records, why not continue to give ‘em?

CraveOnline: What does the Blue Carpet Treatment mean?

Snoop Dogg: Well, my whole career I’ve been given red carpet treatment. They’ve been rolling it out for me so I wanted to pay everybody back and give ‘em some of this blue carpet treatment.

CraveOnline: Do you worry that hip-hop advocates violence without consequences?

Snoop Dogg: I think it’s a double-edged sword because a lot of artists do embrace the fact that there are consequences to deal with at the end of a crime. We always know that. That’s why we say “F*ck the police” because we know that’s what they’re there for. At the end of the day, we know that certain songs that we make are gonna send messages and there are certain songs that aren’t really going to have no relevance. They’re just going to be party records. It’s not our responsibility to be those leaders but we take that amongst ourselves and do it on our own but we don’t get paid to lead the youth and give ‘em direction, and at the same time, we get blasphemized for what we do when we do something halfway wrong, so it’s a double sword and the rappers that’s doing it, we’re going to continue to make music that feels good to us. So regardless what people feel, if the music feels good to the artist, he’s going to keep making that style of music.

CraveOnline: How did you get involved with David for the book?

Snoop Dogg: Well, I was a fan of David Talbert, seeing his work. I’m into different things now. I venture out and I got a taste of what he do. Some people from my management company decided to put me and him together in a room and we got together, we came up with the idea to create this book and this book turned into a three part series we’re going to end up doing. And at the same time, we made a song that we’re giving you guys on the end of the book. It’s a free CD at the back that I made that’s basically giving you a summary of the book and the whole realization of it all.

CraveOnline:  Would you do one of his plays?

Snoop Dogg: Yeah, definitely.

CraveOnline: How did you get involved in guesting on The L Word?

Snoop Dogg: I’m a lesbian. [laughs] Nah. Pam Grier. I was working on the movie Bones with Pam Grier and we got real close. She ended up going back to Canada to shoot The L Word and she had mentioned my name to the directors and everybody on the crew liked me and wanted me to be a part of it so I came and did it and they made me a part of The L Word.

CraveOnline:  What does producing mean to you in movies and music? Can you compare?

Snoop Dogg: Nah. Music is a little bit different than movies producing. Because with music, I have to be more creative to where you really have to visualize what I’m seeing without even seeing. In a movie is where I get a chance to really give you a visual picture.

CraveOnline: What do you pick up on in the music world?

Snoop Dogg: I like to see videos that are different nowadays. I like to see artists that use real live instruments and bring in band music as far as violins and trumpets, different sounds. I like when artists get creative and stretch out and do things that are unpredictable.

CraveOnline:  What do people get wrong about you?

Snoop Dogg: I don't know. I think I got a pretty good rap on everything right now. I think everybody pretty much cool with me. I’ve been through a lot in my career as far as not having an understanding with people. Now I think people really understand me because I’m so open and so real and always let people have me uncut and it’s not an act. It’s always the same Snoop Dogg when you see him.

CraveOnline: What do you do when you’re not working?

Snoop Dogg: I like watching sports. I like watching basketball, football, soccer. I like watching old school movies like old movies from the ‘70s to get inspiration.

CraveOnline: We heard you wrote the theme song to Hood of Horrors in one night. Do you usually work that fast?

Snoop Dogg: It depends. Some songs take longer than others. This song was something that was on my heart for a minute because I was coming to the movie set every day and getting so involved with the character that the song was so natural, it just came out so easy for me.

CraveOnline:  When you take on a movie project, do you want to be involved in all aspects of the production?

Snoop Dogg: It’s like everything that I do, it has to be fun for me. This project right here, it began sort of kind of like not fun in the beginning. Once I got to the set and started shooting, it became fun to me. Adding more elements to it like the animation and creating the song was something that I wanted to bring to make it even more fun. It’s like when I get involved with projects, they gotta be fun in the beginning but a lot of times they don’t really start off that way. But as long as at the end of the project I have fun making it, that’s all that matters and that’s what happened with this project.

CraveOnline:  Why wasn’t it fun at first?

Snoop Dogg: Because it was more of a task in the beginning, the creative side of it as far as trying to make it what I thought it should be because it had my name on it and I really wanted it to represent something that was not seen or something that was missing visually on the screen.

CraveOnline: How much fun is it for you to do a horror movie?

Snoop Dogg: Always fun to do a horror movie because it’s like Halloween. You get to put the hood all over you, scare a few people and what not. I got kids so I like doing that and bringing that side of the game to the table as well.

CraveOnline: Do you have a rivalry with the Crypt Keeper?

Snoop Dogg: I don't think so. I think we see eye to eye. I don't think he’d want no problems with me.

CraveOnline: What are your favorite horror movies?

Snoop Dogg: My favorite horror movies definitely would be, I like Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D. That was off the chain. What else? I like Phantasm. Old school.

CraveOnline:  Did you see Tales from the Hood?

Snoop Dogg: I mean, I think it’s completely different but at the same time, I like Tales from the Hood. I thought that was a good movie. I liked it a whole lot, I’m a fan of it, I even own it on DVD. I just think this is an extension of it, like other avenues of that same type of genre but something different.

CraveOnline: The third story is about a rapper who gets payback for screwing his friends over. Is that your message?

Snoop Dogg: It’s a lesson just in life in general, just we use hip hop as a good example because that happens a lot of times. When you’ve got two artists and they’re both pushing for the same goal and one of them makes it and one of them doesn’t make it, we deal with that in life. It’s like a lot of kids that play on the same college football team, one kid gets drafted, one kid doesn’t or they both get drafted by a team, one gets cut and one doesn’t. They have to deal with that. You have to move on in life and it’s about how do you move on and how do you treat the people that didn’t make it? Do you step on those who didn’t make it or do you still keep your hand out to help a brother when he’s down? That’s what it is. Just real life situations.

CraveOnline: How did you give the character in Hood of Horrors your own style?

Snoop Dogg: We wanted to give him a little bit of my flavor which is a little bit cool and laid back but not so loud and on the scene, more or less camouflaged like he just blends in. But at the same time we wanted to give him some flavor to where he would be kind of scary and at the same time, he’s slick and he’s sly and he’s got conversation so it’s just taking a little bit of everything that I have and just adding a little horror to it at the same time.

CraveOnline: Is hood life scarier than a horror movie?

Snoop Dogg: Oh yeah, definitely. Way more scary than a horror movie because in a horror movie, you’ve got directors telling you cut, action and you know what the scene will be. In the hood, you don’t know what the scene will be and there ain’t no director there when the bullets get thrown.