Review: Snoop Lion’s Reincarnated

For all his erstwhile juice and pimpin’, rapper Snoop (nee Doggy Dogg) has, in recent years, become something of an upstanding citizen: spinning a hip-hop career into a 360 business empire, trying to be a good dad. His rebranding as a Rastafarian mirrors this post-gangsta reality. For all this calculation, songs discouraging firearms such as ‘No Guns Allowed’ do have the lilt of sincerity about them. And quite a few tracks on this star-studded, Major Lazer-produced album amuse: ‘Lighters Up’, say, and songs about his (cough) ecological concerns. But Snoop has some way to go as a conscious voice before he convinces anyone that he is the reincarnation of Bob Marley.