New Snoop Interview

[smerlus]

i didn't read it because i know in about 8 minutes, i can just comeback here and hear people dissing or defending the stupid news worthy shit he said..so without further ado....



Rappin' with Snoop
We chat with the Doggfather about flying high in Soul Plane.
 
May 25, 2004 - It was just a few months back when we last spoke with the Doggfather about his role as a pimp in Starsky and Hutch. In Soul Plane, Snoop Dogg is back as the pilot of the hippest airline to ever hit the clear blue skies, Captain Mack. Mack may not be the world's best pilot, but his super cool attitude, fly style and shining bling-bling should be enough to get him by.

Snoop Dogg has transcended hip-hop culture... he's pop culture in the flesh. In between his regular film performances in films like Training Day, Baby Boy and horror flick Bones, Snoop manages to find time for just about everything else, from Girls Gone Wild to talk show appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live to The Tonight Show and even as the star of his own MTV show, Doggy Fizzle Televizzle. Of course, Snoop's most important project is his three children. Yes, Snoop is a daddy and he's determined to give his children, as well as all children in the urban community, the same opportunities he had growing up, even if the money isn't there.
But Snoop still isn't satisfied yet. He feels he is finally starting to get the important roles, the ones that can challenge him and move beyond the pimp jokester status he has become so famous for. He hopes to one day portray Miles Davis and has become obsessed with studying the Jazz Legend. He also promises he's got a little something in his backyard that may give George Foreman's Grill a run for it's money...

At the Soul Plane press day at the Four Seasons last week, Snoop came into the room in a more unassuming fashion that usual. There was no entourage to be seen and, more surprisingly, no Don Magic Juan. He wore a simple T-shirt featuring Jimmie J.J. Walker from What's Happening!!! and a single piece of bling around his neck. Could it be? Snoop stripped down, Snoop unplugged?

Back in the early '90s when Snoop Dogg first came onto the rap scene, when he was still known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, he says that he never really thought about being more than a rap star: "I was just trying to be the dopest rapper in the world. My main thing was just, I wanted to be the dopest rapper. And once I got to that point, I had to reach farther, because I felt like, 'I'm here now, but there's other things I want to do. I want to become an actor.' And I had to take cheesy roles in the beginning and made some bad decisions, but that's part of learning. And then once I finally got my foot on, right, the roles started coming at me, right, and I started getting better and taking more time and more creative belief in what I was doing and it became what it is now."

Snoop has previously worked with Soul Plane director Jesse Terrero on his own music videos. "Jesse is my main man, so I just wanted a role that had meat and potatoes on it. And to me, Captain Mack was, like, he was me. He was so important to me. I had to take it. He let me do what I wanted to do, basically. He knew I understood who Captain Mack was, so that's what he want. He wanted me to bring Snoop Dogg to Captain Mack. It was a little bit more serious on this film. On the video, we had a lot more fun. He still made it fun. The set was a party atmosphere. His attitude was more, since the movie company was on his back, you know they didn't really believe in him, so they watched every move he make, so he had to be really professional about it."

 
 


Snoop and director Jessy Terrero
on the set of Soul Plane
 
 
 
Recently, director Spike Lee spoke about Soul Plane in front of an audience at Columbia MU's Jesse Auditorium, denouncing the film as an "advanced stage of coonery and buffoonery." We asked Snoop whether he's talked to Spike about this and what he thinks of the comments. "No, I seen Spike Lee at the Troy premiere. [Spike only said]: "What's up, Snoop. How you doing, man?" Snoop doesn't necessarily take Spike's criticism too seriously. "Is this the same Spike Lee that did Do the Right Thing and School Daze? What was them movies doing? Stereotyping n******. Now he done made a little white movie, now he want to talk about us. Did you all see me on Saturday Night Live? You see me in the wheelchair? That was me playing Spike Lee. Naw, I'm just f****** with you," Snoop laughs.

In real life, Snoop says he has no real interest in flying planes. He'd rather leave that to the professionals. "Uh-uh. I just live. You know what I'm sayin'? I ain't trying to do that. That's not me. I'm not experimental like that. I don't bungee-jump, I don't live that way. I just watch." However, Snoop does believe in sticking to his own private ride in the sky. "Yeah, I gotta go private, man. I don't trust that commercial. Yeah, you know? A lot of bad experiences. They want to pat me down, search me, this and that, put the dogs on me, so I go on the private plane [and] I don't have to deal with all that." So what makes Snoop comfortable on his private plane? "You gotta have some girls on it. You gotta have some good music, some good movies. The Mack, Superfly. Come on, now. [Laughs] Foxy Brown."

Now, as Snoop has become a star of TV, movies, music, we ask him if he has anything new in store that we might not expect? "Yeah. Now I'm coming out with a Snoop Dogg Bar-B-Q grill, it's called Snoop De Grill. [Laughs] From the makers of the George Foreman hamburger maker. Whatever his thing is. [This one is] outdoor. It's got the wheels on it, you can roll it, you got the rim. Oh, it's tight."

Musically, Snoop has recently stepped back into the studio to work on another solo album. " [I'm] Working with For Real right now. We've been in a studio for the past two weeks working on my solo joint. I'm supposed to get a couple from Dr. Dre and one from Timbaland. There we go."

When you think of Snoop Dogg, father figure is probably not the first image that comes to mind. When we spoke with Tom Arnold earlier in the day, he mentioned that Snoop's presence as a great father was perhaps his biggest surprise in getting to know Snoop. Snoop has three children, two boys and a girl. "They're my world, my pride and joy. That's what I live for. That's what I do it for. For them. You know what I'm saying. That's why I don't really trip off of people saying that we're giving a negative influence and all that. First of all, if you're raising your kids the right way, your kids are going to understand that this is a movie. Don't fault me for raising your kids. I got my own kids to raise. I can't raise your kids. But I am a role model and if I do see them in public, I give them something positive. But this movie is not made to give them nothing positive, it's to make them laugh."

Although Snoop Dogg personifies the pimp image and the street thug at times, he is hoping to do his part to keep kids off the streets and out of some of the same troubles he went through during his youth. "Well, me and the NFL, we're trying to come up with a football league for the urban communities that don't have money. But, what it's gonna do is, like, right now, for example, the football league that my son plays for, each kid has to pay $300 dollars to play. Now, what if a parent is a single parent with three kids, and her rent is $700 dollars, and it cost $300 to play, and she got three kids? Three times three is nine hundred. So what's she gonna do? She gonna pay the rent or put the kids in football? She can't put them in football. Now, here's another example. Those three kids go outside. Guess how much it costs to join a gang? Nothing. Guess how much it costs to sell drugs? Nothing. So, what is their options? The rest of their friends are playing football, but mama don't got money. So, they turn to drugs, they turn to gangs. So, I'm trying to alleviate that and give them another free option. But, it's not totally free. You have to have good grades, you have to have at least a 2.0 GPA. That's the catch. You don't have the money, go get the grades and we'll pay for you. And it gives them something to reach for and it's educational at the same time."

Snoop says that he first got the idea from his own childhood experiences, when he was given an opportunity that many kids never had. "When I was young, the first year I played it cost $35 dollars for me to play. My father played for me. And we had like a terrible season and then in the offseason, he and my mom separated one night. I was just walking around in the summertime and one of the coaches from the west side, he seen me. He picked me up and took me to my mama's house. I said, 'Well, you gotta ask my mama.' And he said, 'Ma'am, can your son play for me?' And she said, 'I ain't got no goddamn $50 dollars for him to be playing football.' I remember this s*** like yesterday. And he said, 'I will pick him up, pay his way and I will teach him about God.' When he said that, she was like, 'You can have him' [Laughs]"
Some may say that Snoop's community involvement is a conflict with his pimpin' lifestyle and his involvement in the adult film industry in particular. Snoop doesn't see it that way. "Why? This is me. I'm not hiding it. Now, if I was in the closet with it, it would be very contradictory. But it's not. I'm not in the closet. Everybody know how I get in. This is me. I'm a grown man. Why can't a grown man do things for kids and make things for adults? A lot of people are just hiding right now. There are probably two people at this table that like porno movies. [Laughs] But we wouldn't know it because ain't nobody asking. It is what it is. People need to respect the craft of it. I'm just here to serve pleasure. That's a pleasurable move and I serve to those who want. But I won't bring it to football practice, though. You know what I'm saying? The kids don't know about it."

As Snoop's status continues to grow as an actor, he is already preparing what he hopes to be his breakout role, a role as jazz legend Miles Davis. "What I was told by Quincy Jones and Babyface was, if I would have been in the 50's and 60's, I would have been a jazz musician by the way that I rap. I go up and down. [He hums up and down]. Like, the way I rap is like a jazz musician, that's what they told me. And I was like, 'Serious?' It made me want to go learn about jazz?"

 
 


Snoop and Method Man in Soul Plane
 
 
 
"I'm gonna be Miles Davis. I'm going to learn how to play trumpet. But I'm saying though, I am going to become Miles Davis. I mentioned this a while back that I wanted to play him, and now I'm getting three scripts a day about Miles Davis, and so, I really want to play him because I feel like his story needs to be told. He was a great musician, a great person. He has a great undertone that people don't know that needs to be told. America loved Jazz music and they loved Miles Davis, so why not let Snoop Dogg play it. He was the birth of cool, here it is all over again."

Snoop is even learning to play the trumpet in order to prepare to play the part. We may even hear some trumpet in his future albums. "I just want to know more about music. That's an instrument that's beautiful and I don't know about it. And I want to incorporate it in my music and incorporate it in my life. It's a beautiful sound and I love music."

While Snoop enjoys playing the comical roles like in Soul Plane, he hopes that preparing for a role as Davis could broaden his horizons. "I just love doing different things and I think that's a role I could sink my teeth into. Just do what Denzel did for Malcolm. Because a lot of us didn't know who Malcolm was or know anything about him. All we knew was he just stood behind the curtain with a gun and said, 'By any means necessary.' But then Spike and them did that movie, and it made you want to know who Malcolm was and it helped you learn who Malcolm was. And I think people need to know who Miles is, the same way."

Snoop isn't deterred by Spike Lee's recent comments about Soul Plane. "Actually, I think Spike Lee would be the best one to handle [a Miles Davis film]. I'm just being real, because he understands jazz and that's his world. You know what I'm saying? But if not I'm sure they could find another director. But I know that would be right up his alley, because he knew Miles and everything. I know he would really do it the way it's supposed to be done."

Soul Plane lands in theaters this Friday.

source: IGN.com

[Z the laidback Virus]

Musically, Snoop has recently stepped back into the studio to work on another solo album. " [I'm] Working with For Real right now. We've been in a studio for the past two weeks working on my solo joint. I'm supposed to get a couple from Dr. Dre and one from Timbaland. There we go."

Now that is interesting! Hopefully this is more then just a wish of Snoop.

[Lil Jay]

Musically, Snoop has recently stepped back into the studio to work on another solo album. " [I'm] Working with For Real right now. We've been in a studio for the past two weeks working on my solo joint. I'm supposed to get a couple from Dr. Dre and one from Timbaland. There we go."

Now that is interesting! Hopefully this is more then just a wish of Snoop.

You know that Dre quote, he said that for every album

[mr5502]

No diss but Snoop looks like he needs a good meal.

[hector]

does it matter what he says in an interview?  you might as well interview me as him, I will probably be more realistic.

[Darksider]

good interview

[I`m Wayne Brady bitch!]

Its a good thing he wants to learn moore about music , instruments and such . It will only make his music doper , which it serious needs to become

[PLANT]

Cool, thanks for posting that up Smerlus.