Snoop Lion Joins Tupac, Prince and Other Musicians Who Have Changed Their Names

Jamaica is known for exporting rum, sugar and apparently spiritual and artistic revelations. Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr, the rapper formerly named Snoop Dogg, recently finished a three-part project in the Caribbean country and came to a revelation. He is like a rapper caterpillar who shed his Snoop Dogg skin to become the Rastafari butterfly named Snoop Lion.

Really though, Snoop is just one artist among many who have changed their names at some point in their career. While Madonna usually sticks to changing outfits (or losing parts of them) to stay fresh and relevant, others have decided that they needed a new handle. Prince may have had the most famous name change when he decided to go by just a symbol, a love symbol. Cat Stevens became a follower of the Qur’an and became Yusuf Islam. 2Pac released under the names Tupac and Tupac Shakur , but also released an album under Makaveli. But the best name change ever was when Burn the Priest became the Lamb of God. Maybe they were having trouble booking gigs with such a violent name?

Maybe in the grand scheme of things Snoop Dogg becoming Snoop Lion is nowhere near as newsworthy as R-Patz and KStew breaking up…

Look for the album Reincarnated to be heavy on traditional reggae style. Also accompanying this record will be a documentary and coffee-table photo book. Snoop believes that “is Bob Marley reincarnated” and Marley’s son, Rohan has given his blessing to the upcoming Rastafarian. So maybe we should be surprised he’s not calling himself Snoop Marley or Bob Dogg…wait, those sound ridiculous.

Don’t worry though, Snoop won’t turn his back on rap music completely. He still has many jams and hooks to give the world. This is just one step in his musical and life progression.