Snoop Lion Talks Kids Smoking Weed, ‘Reincarnated’ Album in GQ Magazine

When Snoop Dogg announced his spiritual transformation into the Rastafarian Snoop Lion, many thought he was, well, high. But the veteran rhyme-slinger is dead serious about his newfound musical journey. Lion talked with GQ magazine about his new album, life and weed.

It's been nearly a year since Snoop went to Jamaica and became a Rastafarian. Since then, the 41-year-old reggae artist says he has a better outlook on life.

"As you become a man, you start having kids and living," he says. "You put the guns away, and your music becomes, Hey, I’m with my kid and I’m living now… as opposed to F--- that -- I’ll shoot you on sight. If I focus on death, it’s going to come closer than what it’s supposed to be. You become it."

"I'll say it to my friends: Write songs about being shot at and then the s--- happens," he continues. "And I don’t want to dwell on it long, but I wrote a song called ‘Murder Was the Case,’ and I never had a murder case in my life. But when that song came out, I had a real murder case.”

Lion has witnessed too many deaths in his lifetime, which is why he celebrates life in his newfound reggae sound. "I don't want to speak death no more," he says. "When I saw Nate Dogg going in the ground, that s--- breaks my heart. I don't ever want to lose nobody else like that, so I try to write life."

On tap for Snoop Lion in 2013 is his new reggae album and movie 'Reincarnated,' both due in February. The Rasta shaman says the album is all about him.

"I really didn’t want to have too many featured people on my next couple of projects because if I’m doing an interview with you and you say, ‘Hey, Snoop, you’re working on your next album. Well, who’s on it?’ that’s always the first question," he says. "Who the fuck you think is on it? Me, motherf---er!"

He also addresses the topic of his children --  who range in age from 12 to 18 -- smoking weed, which he's not opposed to. “It’s not that I would ever push weed on our kids,” Snoop states, “but if they wanted to, I would love to show them how, the right way, so that way they won’t get nothing put in their shit or overdose or trying some shit that ain’t clean.”

You can read Snoop Lion's entire interview in the January issue of GQ magazine (with Bill Murray on the cover), on newsstand now.

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