Snoop Lion Reincarnated TIFF Press Conference
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[Snoop Lion Reincarnated TIFF Press Conference]
[Introduction] Source: LYBIO.net
Hey, hello, everyone, and welcome to the press conference for Reincarnated. Just a few points before we begin. There will be no flash photography during the press conference, but as the talent enters the room photos maybe taken from your seats once the press conference begins.
Only the six accredited photo agencies can take photographs during the press conference. TIFF will make the photos from the press conference available on the media site within 24 hours, in case you want them, and our volunteers with microphones will be moving around the room to handle questions.
When you ask your question, please remember to identify yourself and your media outlet. Everyone make sure your cellphones are turned off. And just remember this press conference is streamed live at www.tiff.net. Our moderator for this session is George Stroumboulopoulos. And it is now pleasure to welcome, the director, producers, and stars of Reincarnated or star of Reincarnated Snoop of course. Thanks very much.
[George Mark Paul Stroumboulopoulos (August 16, 1972)]
Good afternoon. Please welcome, the wolf, the lion.
All right. So, we’ll just start this way. Snoop, its one thing to go through, a personal journey, it’s something completely different to make your personal journey public, to tell people about it and to show it, what was it like to watch that story being documented?
[Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. (October 20, 1971)]
It was different than any other thing that I’ve ever done before because everything I’ve done, you know, naturally I’ve done it because I wanted to do it. This was something that was, you know, called upon as far as the spirit called upon me to do this record and do this movie. So to sit back and watch it and see it all come to life, it’s special because it’s everything that I wanted.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Suroosh, how did VICE get in on this?
[Suroosh Alvi]
Well, Ted Chung, Snoop’s manager, approached me at the end of last year and we started talking about different projects that they were doing with Snoop. They were going on to Brazil, and they talked about this Jamaica trip. And, you know, he explained that Snoop wanted to go and do something that he hadn’t done before, make, you know, go offsite and make an album to go into a different creative space and make a reggae album. And Ted extended the invitation to us to accompany them on this journey. So that’s how the conversation started and we went down and, you know, not really sure
what to expect at all.
[George Stroumboulopoulos] Source: LYBIO.net
Ted was the transformation, you know, the idea being Reincarnated, Snoop’s had a lot of really pointy things off the top about the next stage of his life. Did that happened before the decision to make a reggae album, or did the trip precipitate a lot of this?
[Ted Chung]
I think the trip really inspired that transformation organically. But certainly, you know, it’s kind of a culmination of all the incredible events in Snoop’s career leading up to that point. So Jamaica was definitely like a turning point and a place of inspiration for that.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
So Andy, you have this moment real like okay, now we are going to document, so – but you don’t want to make a music film, because this isn’t a really music film even though music plays a big part of it. So how do you (inaudible) tell the story?
[Andy Capper]
Of…?
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
This one, tell them the story.
[Andy Capper]
The story we want to tell was of I think people have got to a point where they were forgetting what Snoop had been through as an artist and as a person and we wanted them — to remind them of that stuff and we wanted to show them, so I guess there was some cynicism of the move to – move to do this and we want to show how uncynical, I’m not sure that actually was and the reasons behind the move.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
This is obviously being streamed live. We also have a question that came in from twitter and I will get to one of them before we get to your questions. Somebody actually tweeted in, so we wanted to know where the name Lion came from Snoop Lion, and also what does it mean to you, to be Snoop Lion?
[Snoop Lion]
They just crowned me the Lion, you know, because it’s associated with Rastafari, it’s associated with reggae music. And they felt like the Dogg was no longer needed, you know, for my journey that I was on. So, it was given to me, it wasn’t that I chose that name, that name…
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
In the film it was Bunny Wailer – Bunny Wailer called you a Lion.
[Snoop Lion]
I mean, that’s what they all call me, you know, what I’m saying it’s like it’s a natural transformation. It’s like from the Dogg to the Lion. You understand me, it’s not anything, but a transformation and a growth of an artist and a person and a man.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
He’s got a question at here, go ahead. Microphone is coming this way.
[Bruce Kirkland]
Hi, Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun, a question for Snoop Lion. I’m curious how you get passed the issue of cynicism around a transformation of this nature that, because that’s something that I think was Andy who mentioned in passing that, there might be that aura around it. Do you just ignore that and just be yourself, or do you have to address issues of people being suspicious that this may not be a true transformation?
[Snoop Lion]
I don’t believe that you have to address it as long as your actions show that is real. You know, people know me since day one. I’ve always been upfront person and I’ve always been me. I’ve never faked the funk, I’ve always gave it to them, uncut and raw so this is just another page in my book, so please enjoy.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Here question, we got — one here, Rudy in the back, but go ahead.
[Lynda Carter]
Thank you very much. I love the film.
[Snoop Lion]
Thank you.
[Linda Carter]
And I really, Linda Carter from G98.7.
[Snoop Lion]
Hello, Linda.
[Linda Carter]
And you had two of my heroes in there, Louis Farrakhan.
[Snoop Lion]
Yes, ma’am.
[Linda Carter]
If you are on the path with Farrakhan so many years ago, I believe that you are in that – what brought you to Rasta?
[Snoop Lion]
I believe so to, I believe that, you know, by me associating with Minister Farrakhan, you know, 11, 12 years ago trying to find peace, trying to put, you know, some harmony in the music industry and it never really got you know, the attention. It never really got talked about, but we didn’t care, because we knew that underground we were doing our job and doing our services for us keeping the hip-hop community alive and doing some positive. And now that you see me doing reggae music and becoming close to Rastafari, it’s only a natural transformation for me coming from that to this.
[Linda Carter]
You went to the true heart.
[Snoop Lion]
Oh, yeah.
[Linda Carter]
You went to the true heart of Jamaica, the true Rastafari?
[Snoop Lion]
The Nayabhingi temple, the Nayabhingi center, they took care of me. They laced me with the information and the guidance and the nurturing that I needed that my mind and my body was so desperate for, you know, because I’ve always been a peaceful caring individual. I’ve always been one in the hip-hop community who has been look at as the peacemaker, whenever there is a beef or misunderstanding they call me to end it all, but I never really knew what the reason was, now, that I understand what my calling is now, I can truly do what I need to do.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
How’s your relationship with leadership changed and has it changed with that word to you as, does it mean something different to you now?
[Snoop Lion]
No, because anything about a leader, anything that you know about a leader, he knows, he is a leader from day one. So it’s just more, you know, to the table, more to add on, more people to leave more information that I will receive in order to give to people who want to know this information. It’s all about getting to the right part of your life where you know who you are and where you want to be, it’s about living healthy, being happy, and showing love and that’s all I’m about.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
When did that start for you, when do you think you needed that?
[Snoop Lion] Source: LYBIO.net
I believe it was always a part of my life, but I was just double dutching like jumping in and out, you know, halfway in, halfway out, and still live in the young childish, you know, gangster life, because that’s what I was brought up to love and to know. But once I sought out information on my own and found out what a true man was and what true love was all about, that’s when I became a Lion today.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Go ahead. Rudy you got the mike back there.
[Rudy Blair]
Snoop Lion, Rudy Blair, 680News. Two questions, one when did it actually happened for you that you realized that this was the path you wanted to lead, if you can talk a little bit about that. And two, with this film, are you hoping that people will understand what you have gone through, because you do have some people who don’t believe that this is for real?
[Snoop Lion]
Well, when it all happened for me was the day that I accepted myself and said, that I wanted to go to Jamaica and to do a record and to film it and to document it. And my whole thing was I was always, saying to myself that I was Bob Marley reincarnated. So I wanted to just figure out how could I get into the minds, bodies, and souls of the people of Jamaica, and not just go and steal their culture and take their music and run off with it, but go be a part of what they are going through and understand the struggle, because at the same time people from different parts of the world go through the same things no matter where they’re from. And what I found out and what you will find out from watching this movie is that, the Wailers was similar to 213 that we grow up the same way struggling and trying to make music and trying to find our way. And once we made it, we gave back and we looked and found ways to help out other people and to inspire people. And for those who feel like it’s not real or it’s not authentic that is what it is, you go have your own opinions and your views of it. I am just trying to do me, I can’t do you, I can’t make you like, what I like, I can’t make you get down to where I get down. But what I can do is put a clean glass of water and a dirty glass of water in front of you and you can have the choice to drink whatever one you like.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Ted when an artist that you have says I am Bob Marley reincarnated and now we’re going to Jamaica, how do you feel about that?
[Ted Chung]
Well, I think what, you know, Snoop is specifically referring to is that, as hip-hop artist do, there have been lyrical references, where, Snoop had mentioned that in rhyme form. And so that wasn’t necessarily like the – like an inspiration to go to Jamaica and try to make all these things happen. I think the intention was to go to Jamaica, be influenced by the culture and the people and try some new things. And then, Snoopadelic Films being such a important initiative for Snoop. Right now with the long form content we are creating and partnering with an incredible company like VICE we felt we would just capture some of that.
But the actual spiritual element and the connection with Rastafari was something that just naturally happened out there. You can’t plan for that, right. I mean, we didn’t know who we are going to meet, or what we are going to be doing or that we would have the chance to go to the Nayabhingi Rastafari temple.
So that was just Jah, higher power, you know, bring all of us together to the right places in Jamaica to make that happen.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Of course — care to get mike there?
[Karen Bliss] Source: LYBIO.net
Hi, I am Karen Bliss from rollingstone.com. Just like a fan of the Rolling Stones may go back and discover Robert Johnson or a fan of Bob Dylan may look into Woody Guthrie, are you hoping that your fans will also go back and discover Bob Marley and Tosh and other artists? And my second question is you say in the film that you would like to spend more time with your family and less with your dream in your job and have you reversed that since the filming?
[Snoop Lion]
I will answer the second question first, yes, I have reversed that, I made my family more a part of my business as far as my everyday life. And not putting them second, like I was as far as following my dream and I believe that my dream is my family, because who wouldn’t want a family over a dream with being a star, so I chose family first. And back to the other question, yeah, definitely I want, the people who listen to my music to go back and pay homage and get to understanding of reggae music and where it came from and what it was started on and what it was built on and know that I am not, you know, I am not what reggae music is. I am just a piece of it, I am an extension of where it’s going to go, because I believe it was made as a seed to grow to go across the whole world for people to enjoy it and love it and make it a part of their life and that’s what I am doing.
It reached me all the way in Long Beach, California and I am bringing it back around to the world again, so people can love and respect reggae music, because it feels good when you listen to reggae music and when you make a reggae music.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Right there, sir.
[Sean Condon]
Thank you. Hi, Sean Condon from MSN Canada. You talk at one point in the film about how you and they grew into man – being man together, but also you
talk about your mother, the tough love and the absence of a father figure growing up. Is Rastafari sort of the piece that is bringing that out within you now for yourself?
[Snoop Lion]
I believe, it’s showing me the righteous way to be a family man, because I’ve never been talked that. You know, I was raised by my mother and she did a great job, but I never really understood a mother, a father in a household. So I believe that this lifestyle that I am choosing right now this liberty is definitely shaping me and molding me into a better husband, a better father, a better person. So most definitely I agree.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
This is for both Suroosh and Andy, what was the biggest challenge in putting this film together when you were there?
[Andy Capper]
Jamaican drivers, like the truck that tried to kill us that night. We had to drive, do a lot of driving into the jungle late night, sort of stuff with very rainy stuff going on, na, love that, that guy trying to kill us.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Yeah.
[Andy Capper]
The esoteric ways of the Jamaican security team I enjoyed and how they clashed with the American security team was something that I enjoyed a lot.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Yeah.
[Andy Capper] Source: LYBIO.net
As an a – as a like a – as a bystander. But I don’t know of a serious answer. That was one of the most challenging things.
[Suroosh Alvi]
I mean, George you are familiar with the type of content we’ve been doing and this was definitely a different project for us.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
He has been in Pakistani gun markets and (inaudible) from VICE has been in North Korea and places and you guys clearly pushed the boundaries
so…
[Suroosh Alvi]
Well you know, and when we’re filming these conflict zones the idea is blend in and go with a small crew.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Yeah.
[Suroosh Alvi]
But when you are rolling with the Lion, you know, it’s there is — you have to take a lot of security precautions.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Yeah.
[Suroosh Alvi]
And like Andy said, there is Jamaican security, we have our American security and you end up and then you hook-up with Damian Marley and he’s got his
scene. Next thing you know you got 16 SUVs cruising through Kingston and that’s not like a blending-in kind of where to shoot.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
No, sure.
[Suroosh Alvi]
So there were like lots of challenges like that, but it was also you know, how can we get the good stuff and this isn’t just kind of going to end up being, you know, Snoop in Jamaica like a puff piece.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Right.
[Suroosh Alvi]
And then Snoop was gracious enough to open up and let us in to his world and take us on that journey. So it was a new kind of shoot for us, but it was one of the most amazing projects we worked on.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
You are the first one that said puff though, I mean the amount of (inaudible) so it was out of control. It’s incredible. This is that film.
[Andy Capper]
It was the amount of (inaudible) away that Ted and Uncle Snoop that they let me do without being slapped. Please let me do this, can I do that, let’s do that, let’s do this, let’s do this. And I didn’t get a slap once.
[Snoop Lion]
Now but you were good to work with, I’m going to let you all know, I call him little head, that’s his nick name, but little head is – he is the kind of guy that want you to jump on the back of a motorbike and ride down a cliff and hold on for dear life and get a great shot. But I mean, you know, he pushed it to the limit and that’s what I was looking for. I was looking for people who were willing to go with me to Trench Town, to Tivoli Gardens to go through the neighborhoods where people aren’t permitted to go through with a camera and really get some real insight on what these people in
Jamaica are going through, what their struggle is. And like I said I didn’t want to just come to the city and take what I’ve given so on another note, we’re building a program called Mind Garden is what we’re building and showing the people in Jamaica how to plant fruits and vegetables and grow their own produce and they will be able to reproduce and make money and sell it at the same time.
So we’re coming back and giving back to these same communities that we went to, well we’re seeing where there is lot of struggle and people say where they are lazy. They are not lazy; they’re just not given the opportunity. So we’re going to give them opportunity to get it and that’s what we’re doing.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Right, and maybe if you want to get a question, it helps if you get the microphone as well, go ahead.
[Nadia]
I got it. Hi, Nadia from South Africa. Snoop, I want to find out you – how do you deal with now the requests for you to play your old music, you know, your old tracks that people know you for and love you for? You played the Doggystyle the night before the announcement came out about Snoop Lion and your change, so how do you deal with that?
[Snoop Lion]
Well, one thing about me as a performer. I understand the business and, you know, a lot of my friends going to want Snoop Dogg and I will give to them and it is, what is it and yes, I’m, I will adjust to the Snoop Lion. And it is, you know, it’s the – to being able to be versatile. I am able to do that. I can give you a little bit of both or I can give you one of the other. It depends on what the people want, and whatever the people want I can give it to them uncut, up close and personal.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Yeah.
Hi Snoop, this is for you. {inaudible} from Fast Company Vivendi Create. There was a comment made earlier about discovering the historical reggae through this change for you. But there is a point in the film where there is an acknowledgment of the fact that reggae culture is incredibly commercialized and it’s almost become a bit of cliché, you know, got to college, put on a patch kind of thing. How do you hope that and you’re
also a very commercial star? How do you hope this balance between commercialism and what you’re really experiencing through this transition through Rasta, will be kind of play out I suppose?
[Snoop Lion]
Well, what we are hoping on doing is getting some sort of television program with the Nayabhingi center and letting them teach you Rastafari, the righteous way, the real way, from the people who know it and understand it, so it won’t be no gimmick that way you get the full understanding from the people who live it, who lived it and who understand it. And to me, that’s the thing that I would like to do is give it from the people who understand it, as opposed to myself who’s just learning it.
I could never teach it. I can only learn along the way and I am going to make a lot of mistakes and I don’t mind making mistakes, but I rather be told from the people who know about it more than I do. So we are looking forward to creating a television program that’s going to give that understanding so it won’t be so commercialized and so connected with trying to get money out of it or when you through red, yellow and green on, we getting paid off of it, that’s not what we intended for, we intended for the spirit.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
A question back to you sir.
[Victor]
Hey Snoop, first of all, respect for bringing us this great music and for always challenging us through your music and my name is Victor (inaudible) radio region. I got two questions, first of all, how did you hook up with Diplo? What was the process about Major Lazer and the other question would be how has — have you gotten any feedback from other rappers in, you know, throughout North America primarily and what – what do you think of your journey?
[Snoop Lion]
My answer to second question first. All of the rappers in the hip-hop community respect me because I’ve always given them respect. No matter if I was
the biggest star in the world or smallest star I’ve always look at him eye-to-eye. I’ve always been able to give people respect and love and information and guidance and that has always helped me down. So 20 years later, I am looked at as uncle Snoop. So they respect everything that I do so when I decided to make the transformation into reggae music, a lot of my rap brothers come from Jamaica and are from the reggae world. So they really (inaudible) me on and they, you know, they really wanted to do it or really or so happy that I am able to bring a new light to our world of music to where people don’t have to feel like we just one sided and we’re one dimensional.
On LYBIO.net you can find – The Largest community of text-script-video blogging service. http://www.lybio.net
So it’s all love and all praises from my people. Now, the first question that you asked. What was that again? How did I hook up with Diplo? Well, we love Diplo from working with him in the past and we loved all of the music that he did all the international music and then we were looking at the reggae scene and we’re seeing that he was really going in and getting all the audience from the reggae world, mixing the old with the new and just keeping the spirit alive. And he was really like he had his pose on the reggae scene in Jamaica. So that’s what we wanted and to me not to even be like a gimmick, but he was like what Chris Blackwell was to Bob Marley for me, you know, and it just – it felt like that. And when I had a chance to have a conversation with Chris Blackwell and Diplo and myself together it felt like that vibe in that circle was rekindled, you know, to give us the blessing that we were doing the right thing and then we’re going in right path as far as making this music standout first and foremost because the whole
project was about that music. Reggae music getting the attention that it deserves because I’m tired of it not being classified as one of the great genres of music because many people have made lots of babies off of reggae music and made lots of great things happen off of reggae music. So we need to treat reggae music like rock music, like rap music like any other genre music that’s been here for over 50 years.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
You been rapping for a long time, you have a confidence when you get on the mike, and you know, it’s routine in a sense, making a regular record,
did you have the same confidence because you know that you’re doing a completely different thing?
[Snoop Lion]
Yeah, because the confidence is within yourself. I’ve always had reggae music associated with the music that I was making. If you listen to any early Snoop Dogg that was always reggae influences like blam blam, blam to them fall, listen to the sounds from my nigga Doggy Dogg, badi bah bah; Dr. Dre him bust gun shots, Diggity daz and rbx them bust gun shots, come again! You know just little shit like that, that I was doing.
That I was known for, but I never really was fully locked and loaded in the reggae and once I was able to get locked and loaded into it and I get people to write for me and really give me what I was missing, see, this project was about me bringing in the best producers and the best writers. It wasn’t about me writing from my spirit or me, telling you my story. It was about bringing in the best writers who could bring to life what I wanted to
express, which was an album about love, peace and struggle. I’ve never had album that I could putout that represented love, peace and struggle. I always had to maintain my Snoop Dogg aura or the things that came with the gangbanging and the shit that I was so accustomed to as a kid. But as I became a man, I learned to get rid of my childish ways and to do things that feel good to me, and this reggae project feels good to me.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Yeah, a question, or if with the mike?
Hi, {inaudible} from the London Independent. And Snoop, in the film, I counted you wearing five different soccer jerseys. Do you collect soccer jerseys and what made you choose those teams?
[Snoop Lion]
Yeah, because I hope you don’t ask me which team I like. I don’t know, which, what is which. No, but over the years of going to Europe, I became a big soccer fan, playing FIFA, playing the video game FIFA. In every country that I go to, I get close to the soccer players because I’m a fan of the sport. I don’t have a particular team that I like. I love the sport. So, I can juggle from jersey-to-jersey, player-to-player because I love the sport and I haven’t locked into a team yet. So, you’ll see me, you know, wearing a lot of different jersey’s that represent different players, because I love
the sport.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Another Twitter question here is what’s something you tried for the first time, while you were in Jamaica?
[Snoop Lion]
What’s something I tried for the first time in Jamaica? Oh! some – so real coffee that was made from coffee beans that they picked off the tree and they made it for me rightly on the spot, and I don’t drink coffee.
[Andy Capper]
But the soup, the Rasta sip, the soup…
[Snoop Lion]
Oh, yeah, I tried the Ital soup.
[Andy Capper]
Yeah.
[Snoop Lion]
I tried that too, Ital soup, it was all vegetables and made with natural herbs and spices, it was awesome.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Go ahead with that…
[Christine]
Hi Snoop, Christine from Reuters. Can you talk a little bit more about the name change? Can you compare the image of the Lion to the Dogg, and why we kept Snoop in your name? And secondly will you keep playing your old hits?
[Snoop Lion]
Yeah, I’m always going to continue to do my music; you know what I’m saying. And as far as the name thing, it wasn’t me making the name changes, the name that I was given. So, you know, when you given something, you like to honor it, hold it up with pride; I’m still Snoop Dogg. This is me, right now. I’m Snoop mother fucking Dogg till I die. But at the end of the day, when I’m making my reggae music, I’m in the
light of Snoop Lion. So, you know, you have to respect both worlds because there is a softer, more gentler peaceful side when he is the Lion. But if you disrespect me or get out of pocket you will get the mother fucking Dogg?
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Back there we have a question.
[Snoop Lion]
You bet you.
[Susanna]
Yeah, hello, I’m Susanna with German National Public Radio. You mentioned earlier it was all about love. However, there’s been some criticism from Jamaica to by Sizzla, who said that there was an aspect of exploitation maybe of the Rasta culture? What’s your response to that, and have you talked to…
[Snoop Lion]
I don’t – I don’t have no response to that because I come in love. So I can’t – I can’t answer hate with love. But all I can do is say, my mission and my journey was genuine from my heart. The people that I connected with, we had a great time. We built a brotherhood and a fellowship and the people that I didn’t connect with, it’s like that sometimes. When you go to a community and you don’t touch everybody’s hands, you know, some people going to feel left out, and they’re going and feel like, it wasn’t real because it didn’t come through me.
Well one thing about Rastafari, it’s not about the people. It’s about the spirit. So not one man or one person can say whether you’re right or you’re wrong, it’s within the way you live, your way of life, your liberty. So, I want to say peace and love to Sizzla and hopefully he’ll get a chance to meet me, so we could sit down and chop it up, man-to-man.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Andy, you want to get, Ted?
[Ted Chung]
I think, I’m sorry. Yeah, adding to that spirit, you know, and updating from that is that there has been a YouTube video recently where I think because of the spirit that Snoop Lion has been carrying. He actually expressed his support for the change and his spreading of the vibes of Rastafari so should check that out, on You Tube.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Go ahead sir.
[Dalton Higgins]
Yeah, hey Snoop and George and everybody else, Suroosh, Ted, Andy, its Dalton Higgins from CBC Music.
[Snoop Lion]
This nigga, sound like you.
[Dalton Higgins]
Well you got to say that, Snoop eh?
[Snoop Lion]
Not, go ahead.
[Dalton Higgins]
After the press conference, so the question I have for Snoop is, you know, like most music genres, reggae I’m actually of a Jamaican descend, so when I heard you say like, Ital, that’s what I grew up with Ital cuisine, you know. And what I want to ask you is, did you feel a need to take on the Jamaican nation language as we call it or speak patois while you’re recording or while there? Because it’s – the language is part of the music, you know?
[Snoop Lion]
Yeah, most definitely, but I felt like some of it, you know, through the direction of the producers and the writers, some of that was necessary for me to put the patois on it, and then some of it was necessary for me just to do it naturally, the way – the way I do, but at the same time, when you listen to it, it’s a natural blend to where you hear it in there. You know what I’m saying like even the first song what I put out la, la, la if you listen to that, you can hear a little bit of the, then my walk, then my talk about this is a one, then my laugh and go one about that a one, hey what you, what you can’t get it, get it, and the problem will get real dready, dready, sing. You feel what I’m saying so I can do that, but I’m going to do me at the same day.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
It’s in the film, but I mean, if you can build on it the passing of Nate Dogg and the impact that had on you as it relates to this journey.
[Snoop Lion]
That’s the part of the movie that I don’t never watch because I’m still touched by it, I’m still hurt by it. And when you lose somebody that close is – is never a reality, you know what I’m saying, you can never really like sometimes I may sit in my apartment and I look at a picture on a wall and he looking at me, and it’s like he’s right there with each other. I don’t – I don’t think of him as being gone, but when I see this particular part of the movie, it really touches emotion in me that, you know, I rarely get to, get into as far as being able to cry and just to give real weep. So this is one part of the movie that I really don’t like watching. You know what I’m saying, I expressed that to them, but, you know, I left in there because it was, it was necessary, but as far as me — even if we were to watch it together I would have to walkout because I can’t take that that part of the movie because it’s something about our friendship that I don’t never want to let go.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
We have a question here?
Hi Snoop, this is {inaudible} from the Montreal Gazette. We see it in the movie like your transformation I mean that we kind of watch your month in Jamaica but maybe you can tell me, tell us in your own words what the month was like, what you went through and how you see that time, how it changed to you?
[Snoop Lion]
Well, the whole month was a roller coaster, emotional roller coaster. You know, I believe Whitney Houston passed while we were out there as well. And that was heart breaking as well. My little cousin Dazz lost his nephew while was out there. It’s just – it was a lot of emotions that was going through. One of our guys that was shooting with us lost his grandmother. It was just – it was a lot that we were dealing with as far as the whole crew emotionally but we were standing strong and just something about Jamaica, this time has really held me down. Usually when I go to Jamaica I go to my hotel room, give me some smoke on, do my show and leave.
But this time I was really trying to be about the community. I really wanted to see and touch the people and I really wanted to get in depth and give some understanding on why, you know, the Jamaican culture was so close to my heart, why they love me so much and why I love them so much and come to find out, we brothers and we sisters and we all the same. So it was just a family reunion and to me that was the biggest part of it all that we
came out of their family and we can look at this project 30 years from now the people that made it. And I believe it blessed everybody on the project, not just me. I think it helped everybody up because everybody was going through some things and they just not in front of the camera like me to say it, they not just, you know, going to say that they, hey, would it be touched and to be lifted from the negative spirit in their life, I feel like it
blessed everybody that was with us.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
At one point at Coachella, your back was to the audience and you turned to the crowd and said Jah Rastafari, was that a tease for what was coming, or you just opening the door?
[Snoop Lion]
That wasn’t a tease, that was a spirit, when the spirit is there, you know, you – you got to come up, you know, what I’m saying, that’s my way to release, you know, what I’m saying, when I say Jah, Rastafari, you know, it’s – it’s an emotion. And the crowd, some of them are overwhelmed that I am even that – that I am even on that page and then the ones that are, they are with me, you could just see them jump out and their skin like, yes, he’s home. So, it’s it’s a feeling, it’s not a act, it’s an expression, and it comes, it’s like, it only comes every once in a while, you can’t even plan it, it just going to come when it’s ready to come.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Do you have any other questions?
[Unknown Speaker]
Yeah, one quick question and something else I wanted you to elaborate on. Last year I actually saw a film that Donisha, Bob Marley’s granddaughter
made and she was discovering the roots of Rasta and she left Jamaica and went around the world including actually to Toronto. And I’m wondering if you’ve seen that film or if you’re aware of it because that’s got so much history about it. And my second question is, because I have this silly job as a music journalist I started a website, that’s sort of my anti-tabloid called Samaritanmag.com and I’d like you to elaborate a bit more on what
you said earlier about giving back to the people, you mentioned something about them…
[Snoop Lion]
Yeah, Mind Gardens, we have a program called My Gardens. Ted, elaborate on them and let them know what’s going down with My Gardens, so she can know what’s that and spread the word real quickly.
[Ted Chung]
So, Mind Gardens is a nonprofit initiative that Snoop Lion started with John Paul DeJoria, who runs Patron and John Paul Mitchell hair care products, who is very involved in community giveback initiatives. So he and Snoop partnered up to basically create self-sustainable gardens starting in Kingston and utilizing the tenants of the Nyabinghi, Rastafari diet and Ital diet with the specific fruits and vegetables to give back to the young kids in the community. So we want to make sure that, you know, and Snoop is very obviously involved in the community even at home with the Snoop Youth Football League which is a huge initiative of ours. And it’s just kind of like how he’s always been, everywhere we go that we are part of that community, we want to make sure we give back as well as, you know, entertain and create content. So Mind Gardens is that program for what this journey is with Reincarnated.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Andy is there extra footage that didn’t make into the film that to you can see having another life elsewhere?
[Andy Capper]
Yeah, there’s tons of it. We’ve got like a lot, have more work to do.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
We have a 130-hour footage that we…
[Andy Capper]
Which are like 250, something crazy. Why do you need more content, why do you need more?
[Snoop Lion]
I haven’t seen that movie. I need you to get it for me.
[Andy Capper]
It’s with whole Las Vegas visit, which is like a movie itself and then…
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
From Jamaica to Vegas.
[Andy Capper]
We went to Ali’s birthday party.
[Snoop Lion]
Oh, yeah, we didn’t put that in there, eh? I went to Muhammad Ali’s
70th birthday party while we were in the process of filming. This is the only time that I left, I didn’t even want to leave Jamaica while I was out there, but I got a call from the champ, the greatest of all time. And the champ said, I need you at my 70th birthday party so I had to stop what I was doing in Jamaica to go, you know, bless the champ and I performed for him and he was enjoying himself and I sat with him and took pictures with
him and that’s like my childhood, you know, I wanted to be Muhammad Ali.
And for him to call me for his 70th birthday and for me to perform for him and his daughters and his family, I mean that was the biggest treat in the world for me. And then it happened round the time I was doing this project. So, that let me know that the project was a definite blessing and I was headed in the right direction.
I also got a chance to talk with Quincy Jones in the back, that’s when I met John DeJoria – I mean it was a beautiful situation where everything felt right in place to where it is right now. So, I’m thankful for that night, happy birthday Champ.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Why did you guys choose VICE?
[Snoop Lion]
Why VICE?
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Yeah.
[Snoop Lion]
Because VICE is on the edge and VICE is – they connected to everybody as far as like multicultural and they hip and they know what it is and they are connected to what I need to be connected to, and who I’m connected to. They are my audience. They are my people. They are who I am and they are the only ones who really could’ve went on this journey with me because they knew how to push me to the limit and they knew how to get what I needed as far as having the right team ahead. They had female that was working with us, and she was – she used to get on my nerves in the beginning, but she got it. No, on the real though but she was like – she was the bomb like she went got us all the hook up with all the places we needed to go, all people we needed to meet, and, she was, she was like hard, like a dude like you know what I’m saying like I got to get this done like but you…
[Suroosh Alvi]
That’s (inaudible) our co-producer. She’s in the back, she’s in the back, bro.
[Snoop Lion]
You got to be like that when you’re working with me thought, as far as like being a woman. You know what I’m saying and it’s just — because I get down like that. I want everybody to go hard and she went real hard, she went very hard and to me she was like a very big help to this thing getting done. And if they wouldn’t have put the right people in the place even picking Andy and picking, you know, all – making all the people that they had that made this project easy and fine for me because I’m not the easiest guy to work with, when you got a camera in my face everyday.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
A question – yes, sir go ahead, with the mike right, yeah, you’re good.
[Michael Hogan]
Yeah, just Mike Hogan from Huffington Post. I wanted to ask you about the controversy about the B word and whether that’s something that comes to you
especially with this transformation in your life?
[Snoop Lion]
Well, I didn’t use it on his new album, but I still use it in my everyday life, there’s a lot of bitches and bitch ass mother fuckers in the world. So, I don’t think I’m going to ever stop using the word so, you know, forgive me for keeping it one on it, you know, and don’t let the word fool you. It shouldn’t be the word, you know, what I’m saying, it’s the people that you projecting the word to, you understand me, if you can dig that.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
But there is a part of the film where you talk about wanting to be positive like the big part of it and I know that when the (inaudible) had their many
transformation and a major one in the late 80s, there were some things that they didn’t want to say from their old music. As there’s — I know you want to play your hits, but other words and things you don’t want to do anyone?
[Snoop Lion]
Well, it’s not that I don’t want to do it anymore. I just didn’t want to do it on this particular record and I don’t want to do it when I’m making reggae music because I feel like it was never intended for reggae music. Those words were hip-hop words. Those were the hip-hop language. That was the language that hip-hop communicates with but reggae music can, you know, articulate with different language, with a different style of language, a language of love, a language of struggle and peace at the same time. So, to me I wanted to exercise a record that I didn’t have to use those words. I didn’t cuss one time on this album and it’s like – they was edging me and pushing me like, you should rap on this song, you should rap on this song, I know like no, I don’t want to. I want to keep the spirit of what we doing, and as I listen to all of these songs as they come back with the mixes on them, they sound exceptional.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Going to, we’ll go in there and then we’ll come up here.
[Snoop Lion]
Presidential election? Uh, they need to give Obama four more years, man. I mean, Bush fucked up for eight years, so you gotta give him at least eight years, I mean he cleaned half the shit up in four years. Realistically, it ain’t like y’all gave him a clean house. Y’all gave him a house where the TV didn’t work, the toilet was stuffed up. You know, everything was wrong with the house. So, he had to come and you know, get y’all thing together.
And then he went knocked down our most hated and most wanted. The one who had our terror on orange or red or whatever color it was on. He went and found him. The one that Bush couldn’t seem to find, that seemed to fly away, the day of 9/11, remember all that. He went and found him and knocked him down, so don’t forget about that. Now everybody is peaceful and able to move and you know, go to have a good time. It’s because he made that happened.
So, please don’t forget that. You understand me, so give him four years to get his thing together and finish this deal out. You heard what Clinton said, you loved Clinton, didn’t you?
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Go ahead.
[Linda V. Carter]
Yes, hello again, Linda Carter from G98.7. Mind Gardens, will you be doing anything like that in the States, and do you think that reggae music will help to quell some of the anger, particularly with the young people, the hip-hop generation that’s happening in the States right now. Do you think that, that could cross over to them also?
[Snoop Lion]
I believe that my influence alone can do that, and I’d like to put a lot of pressure on myself, because lot of people following me. And I believe that the best example I can be is by doing the right thing and when I do the right thing it makes others want to do the right thing and that’s one thing about hip-hop, we’re very influential. We influence the nation of people to follow. We have so many different genres and, you know, ethnicities who love hip-hop that is never quoted as a black thing anymore. It’s your thing now, it’s everybody’s thing. So with that influential, so if we do the right thing with one person at a time, it will reflect and it will pass on.
[George Stroumboulopoulos]
Any more questions from the audience? Well, thank you very much guys. One last twitter question, we’ve covered a lot of it, about the journey, but someone from Twitter asked what was your best part of the journey? What was the thing that matter the most to you?
[Snoop Lion]
Realistically, it was that my wife was able to come, and see it happen, because that’s to me is like, the change was most necessary for her more than anything, because I’ve always been there for my kids. I’ve always been a good dad, but I ain’t been a great husband. So I wanted to try to reverse that and for her to be there with me to see that I was willing to make a change and the change just happened like right before her eyes, like just to see that; even if it wasn’t going to happen, the point was that – that the effort was there. And that takes a relationship a long way when you see somebody
making their effort to want to do the right thing to keep it together. So that was the most important part to me is that my wife was there in the beginning of this whole process.
[George Stroumboulopoulos] Source: LYBIO.net
Everybody. Andy, Ted, Snoop, Suroosh, thank you very much
Snoop Lion Reincarnated TIFF Press Conference. The spirit called upon me to do this record and do this movie. So to sit back and watch it and see it all come to life, it’s special because it’s everything that I wanted. Complete Full Transcript, Dialogue, Remarks, Saying, Quotes, Words And Text.
Filed under Interview by on Sep 20th, 2012. 
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