Snoop fires a fake gun at ‘Ronald Klump’ in the new video for the ‘Nightfall Remix’ of BADBADNOTGOOD’s “Lavender;” Photo: PrankvsPrank/YouTube
As well-rounded as Snoop Dogg -zilla-adelicDoggy DoggD-O-double-GLion Dogg is, he’s usually one to favor pot over politics.
Though with his latest bars on a ‘Nightfall Remix’ for BADBADNOTGOOD‘s “Lavender,” and its corresponding video dropped over the weekend, the 45-year-old rapper wages war on the new administration.
Originally inspired by the shooting of Philando Castile, Snoop casts a narrative in which, upon nightfall, the world’s oppressors will get their comeuppance, rhyming over a lurking back-alley synth beat:
Fuck the police, from a black man’s point of view
Spray that shit, say that shit
We right in front of you, each and everyone of you
I’m not gon’ tell y’all niggas what we gonna do
But whatever y’all did, put two on it
And put a foot on your neck with a shoe on it
Resident evil, it’s all on camera and they still don’t believe you
Clownin’ around, don’t come your clown ass ’round here nigga
Paired with Snoop’s vitriol is a Jesse Wellens'(PrankvsPrank) and James DeFina-directed video starring Michael Rapaport as a white clown citizen in a white clowniverse of sorts reenacting the Philando Castile shooting, culminating with Snoop (note: not in clown makeup) shooting a strikingly Trump-looking clown called ‘Ronald Klump’ with one of those ‘bang’ clown guns.
Speaking to Billboard, Snoop cut through the figurative fat even further:
The ban that this motherfucker tried to put up; him winning the presidency; police being able to kill motherfuckers and get away with it; people being in jail for weed for 20, 30 years and motherfuckers that’s not black on the streets making money off of it — but if you got color or ethnicity connected to your name, you’ve been wrongfully accused or locked up for it, and then you watching people not of color position themselves to get millions and billions off of it. It’s a lot of clown shit going on that we could just sit and talk on the phone all day about, but it’s a few issues that we really wanted to lock into [for the video] like police, the president and just life in general.
So moral of the story: Snoop ventures into political commentary, but still cares very much about progressive pot culture.
Smoke weed (and call your local congressperson) everyday.
In other news revealed in that Billboardpiece, Snoop says the “Lavender” remix will be on his forthcoming followup to Coolaid, his fifteenth LP, tentatively dubbed Never Left, which he says will drop, “maybe in May.”
Update: The Donald has a tweet diversion response, because this is our United States of America now.
Can you imagine what the outcry would be if @SnoopDogg, failing career and all, had aimed and fired the gun at President Obama? Jail time!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2017
Watch the video for the “Lavender” remix below: