When Snoop Dogg first announced his plans to change his name from the D.O. double G to the more rasta-friendly Snoop Lion, the hip-hop community was taken by surprise. When Snoop also didn;t back down from his more-love-less-violence moniker and began dumping new music that would become his reggae-inspired twelfth studio album Reincarnated, it was even more surprising. But when that album was nominated for Best Reggae Album at the 56th Grammy Awards, that was the biggest surprise of all. Sadly, it didn’t win.
Ziggy Marley beat out Snoop Lion for the Best Reggae Album Grammy at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards during the pre-Grammy telecast. Marley, the son of the late reggae legend Bob Marley, won for his live album Ziggy Marley In Concert. Other nominees in the category included Beres Hammond for One Love, One Life, Sizzla for The Messiah and Sly & Robbie And The Jam Masters for Reggae Connection.
While Snoop didn’t win at this year’s Grammys, his ability to jump genres and be nominated in the reggae category after a 20-plus year career in hip-hop can still be considered a big win. No word on whether or not Snoop will make any more new albums under his Snoop Lion alias. Since, he has already gone on to become Snoopzilla.