Snoop Dogg is reborn as Snoop Lion in this exclusive excerpt from the new documentary Reincarnated, set for limited release in US theaters today. The hip-hop megastar spent much of 2012 in reggae’s spiritual home of Jamaica, accompanied by a diverse entourage of global heavyweights such as Diplo’s Major Lazer, Usher and Theophilus London collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid, and Kingston’s Grammy-winning Supa Dups. The result is a bass-heavy album due out next month that shares its title with this release from Vice and Snoopadelic Films. For the Long Beach, California-born star, the trip was as much a quest to learn the teachings of Rastafari and renew himself in the sun as it was to record under the guise of his reggae-infused alter ego. Along the way, the intrepid rapper met his hero Bunny Wailer, caught up with his friend and son-of-Bob Damien Marley, and was given his new name by a High Priest in a Rastafarian temple. “Being in Jamaica with Snoop for three-and-a-half weeks was a dream gig,” says the film’s director and Vice Global Editor Andy Capper. “February was a great time of year to film in this beautiful place, when everywhere else has disgusting weather—you just want to run around and shoot as much as you can.” 

Is the Snoop Lion persona a rejection of Snoop’s past violent image?
Andy Capper: He's still hand in hand with gangsta rap but this is his attempt to do something positive for his kids and family. Singing songs that aren’t about shooting and saying “fuck the police.” The album is straight positivity.

The film shows crowds surrounding him in the areas of Jamaica he visited. Did people recognize him wherever he went?
AC: Yeah—his management company worked out that his global recognizability rating as a black man is higher than Obama’s. He is one of the most famous people in the world. You kind of forget that when you hang out with him just doing stuff. When you go into a public scenario you realize who you’re with.

Do you think he will keep going in this reggae vein?
AC: It depends on how people react to it. It's a risky thing to do—it’s not a banker. He’s going out on a limb. Snoop Dogg is always going to be there. Snoop Lion is just his new thing, but the motivation behind the change and the record is for real.

Reincarnated will be screened in select US cities from tonight, March 15, and released in UK cinemas from March 22.