Snoop Dogg (Photo : Facebook)
Snoop Dogg has become the biggest cultural icon of West Coast rap about 25 years after its glory days. On Friday, as the keynote speaker at SXSW (South by Southwest) Music conference, Snoop talked about topics including Ronald Reagan, L.A. gang violence, and "grass."
The keynote address was mostly a promotion conversation between the rap superstar and Ted Chung, his longtime manager. It topic of discussion was mostly related to Snoop's evolution, his business ventures, and his charitable activities.
Snoop 's upcoming HBO show will focus about living on the West Coast during the 1980s. It will research the stories of people in his neighborhood who were underprivileged.
According to Snoop, during the 1970s the social-economic environment in East Los Angeles was "beautiful" due to cooperation, communication, and government programs. However, after Ronald Reagan's "Reaganomics" were implemented, guns and drugs were "shipped" into the neighborhoods, according to The Daily Beast.
Snoop believes that his neighborhood significantly changed then. The shift was from "playing football" to drugs and violence.
Neither Snoop nor the show's executive producer Chung gave any details on their HBO project. However, the TV drama will center on the devastation of one family's life after Ronald Reagan became president of the United States, according to Deadline.
Snoop has launched several means to give opportunities to those in the inner city. They include the Snoop Youth Football League; and Trap Flix, a website for cash-strapped urban filmmakers.
Snoop's son Cordell, one of the members of his football league, recently committed to playing football at UCLA. Learning this news was one of the "happiest days" of Snoop's entire life.
Snoop shared that one of the secrets to his success has been to follow developments in the music industry. That has helped him to "stay relevant."
The most interesting moment during the keynote address involved Snoop describing his unlikely friendship with country music star Willie Nelson. He said that their friendship should not be surprising since they both like good music, animals and "grass."
