Snoop Dogg might have shed his old moniker and evolved his image after a trip to Jamaica had the rapper embracing Rastafarianism, but the artist currently known as Snoop Lion isn't afraid to look back. In an interview with Vice, Snoop talks about his style transformations, being fashion forward and even being masculine enough to get a French manicure.
"When I was in the pimp world, I'd be shopping all over the world and we would always try to find things nobody had, because when you go to a player's ball you get some of the flyest pimps in the world, and they show up with some of the grandest outfits you can imagine," Snoop says. "So you try to upstage. One year I remember I had a big black-and-gold sombrero with diamonds and rhinestones on it, and I had it tied around my head. All my girls dressed like they were Mexican girls, and it was just awesome. When I was there I was the real el jefe."
Snoop also discussed his hairstyles over the ages saying that even though it's always been different, it's always been something that fits him, looks right and tells the story of his current journey. While Snoop might not be faithful to certain designers or trends, he does add that brands like Adidas and Polo have won his loyalty because they represent the same things he does, they "stay true to the streets." Once the rapper was appointed creative chairman of EMI's Priority Records, Snoop said his style had to evolve to represent his new role as boss man.
"It was about transforming myself from an artist to a boss, and then trying to be more effective on the business side and not just creating but understanding that, creatively, I am the boss because I'm creating everything people want to buy and see — so why not be in control? It's the fact of me having to fire people and having more control over what I do and say. I had to have a look to match that. You have to look the part to play the part. No one would take me seriously if I came in with a jogging suit on. They would think I was going to jog. So I was going to put a business suit on so they would know I was going to do business."
Now that Snoop's fashion has evolved once again, this time to include classy, white linen suits, he says he's always seeking to look sharper without losing comfort and knows that women look for a man who looks good, a skill he learned early on watching the pimps when he was growing up.
"It was flamboyant and outlandish," he says of the pimp lifestyle. "One thing about that look is that it represented you, your girls, the car that you drove, and this is in the pimp world. It represented the pimp. If his color scheme was green and yellow, he had on green and yellow, his car was green and yellow, his apartment was green and yellow, the girls wore green and yellow, and everything was about that particular color scheme. They matched all the way from the top to the bottom. It was about flair, glamour, glitz, and all of that comes out of the era I grew up in. I was infatuated after seeing it from afar. Most of my uncles dibbled and dabbled in pimping, and my wife's father was one of the biggest pimps around. It was fascinating for me to see that look and say that I was in that world and to wear that fashion for the eyes of the world. It was a beautiful feeling because I know what that fashion means; it's a real fashion statement. Even when I'm getting my nails done, that's real player. The average guy can't see himself getting a French-tip manicure, but I'm not the average guy."
"It's about being spooned and groomed, dipped and whipped, suited and booted, gooted and looted, scuttered and buttered."
To read the full interview, click here.
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(Photo: Brian To/WENN.com)