Ital Snoop: Snoop Dogg’s Top 10 Jamaican Moments

Words by Jesse Serwer—

Snoop Dogg has really been soaking up the vibes in Jamaica recently. By now you may have heard that the Doggfather has been recording tracks for his next album, Reincarnated, at Geejam Studios in Port Antonio, with a documentary crew in tow. Or perhaps you’ve seen the recent video of him participating in a Niyabinghi ceremony, or his video tribute to Bob Marley. We even have it from a reliable source that Snoop was anointed as a Rastafarian in a ceremony and is now growing locks. We’re also hearing that he’s just cut a tune with Popcaan. Can the inevitable opening of Snoop’s Ital Shack be far behind? Click the numbers below to take a voyage through Snoop’s most memorable interactions with Jamaican culture.

10. Snoop x Bob Marley

The G-Funk legend let people know he was headed to Jamaica earlier this month by taking to YouTube, and lighting up a spliff for Bob Marley on the late legend’s birthday. Not the most inspired or even reverent move but, based on the number of people we’ve heard mention it, it definitely got the word out that tings a gwaan for Snoop (“a/k/a Bob Marley Reincarnated”) in JA.

9. Snoop x Anthony B

Ten years after the Dogg Pound’s hip-hop classic “What Would U Do,” the D-O Double recorded the similarly named (but differently themed) “What Would You Do” with Rasta crooner Anthony B—a/k/a “The Big Anthony Bizzle.”

8. Snoop x Barrington Levy

Snoop and Barrington have collaborated twice, but haven’t really done justice to the magnitude of their collective awesomeness on either occasion. The first, a cover of Israel Vibration’s “Poor Man Cry” featuring G-Funk all star squad of Snoop, Crooked I, Daz Dillinger and Soopafly, appeared on Barrington’s 1998 album Living Dangerously. The second, an update of Levy’s classic “Murderer” also with one-hit wonder/Jamaicaphile MC Mims, came and went with little notice two years back.

7. Snoop x Kes

Okay, we’re cheating a little with this one, but one of Snoop’s best and freshest recent link-ups with a Caribbean artist is this remix of “Stress Away” from Trinidad’s Kes the Band. While the song ultimately didn’t deliver Kes a second consecutive Groovy Soca title with it, “Stress Away” looks to have the biggest crossover potential of any soca tune this season.

Snoop x the Marley Brothers

When the Doggfather decided to get his feet wet in production, he decided to re-brand himself “Niggarachi.” So that explains the ID at the intro to this hip-hop remix of Stephen Marley’s “Traffic Jam,” which features a semi-patois-inflected Snoop verse (“Smoke so much ganja dem call me Marley” to go with the original’s Damian Marley feature.

5. Snoop x Damian Marley x Timbaland, “Get A Light”

Got Snoop’s 2006 album The Blue Carpet Treatment? No? Then you’d have missed this star powered (yet not exactly earth shattering) tag team effort with Damian Marley, produced by Timbaland.

4. Snoop x Mr. Wacky

Snoop had no active involvement in Gerald “Bogle” Levy (a/k/a Mr Wacky)’s “All Dem Deh,” but the version of the song that became a posthumous underground hit for the late dance legend borrowed its beat from Snoop’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” Maybe Snoop can pick up the steps after watching this video interpretation from NYC dance crew, Blackgold.

3. Snoop x Cutty Ranks

This choice cut from Snoop’s classic 1993 debut Doggy Style opens with a sample of Cutty Ranks’ famed “Six million ways to die, choose one” line from “A Who Seh Me Dun”

2. Snoop x Sumfest

Snoop came to Montego Bay for a performance at Reggae Sumfest in 2001—the same year that Bounty and Beenie had their infamous onstage spat at the festival. Watch a clip of him performing the aforementioned “Serial Killa,” “Ain’t No Fun” and “Lodi Dodi,” with some help from the Dogg Pound’s Kurupt. And look out for Alicia Keys (who, as it turns out, has been working at Geejam in recent weeks, too) soaking up the whole thing at 5:04.

1. Snoop x Rastafari

This footage of Snoop participating in a Niyabinghi ritual at a tabernacle in Scotts Pass, Clarendon, turned up online about a week ago. Unfortunately, the cameraman filming the proceedings appears to have been smoking whatever Snoop probably was, but if Snoop really is a ras now, this clip is the first evidence of his transformation.