It used to be that you could take the rapper extinct of the hood merely not the hood out of the rapper.
But what happens when the rapper leaves the streets of Los Angeles for the gold-plated paths of Bollywood?
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Snoop Dogg, the West Coast doorknocker who ran with the Crips crew and served time for selling cocain, traded his baggy jeans for a slim-fit kurta and his cornrows for a diamond-studded turban to appear in "Singh Is Kinng," a Bollywood moving-picture show that scarce hit theaters in limited release. He raps on the film's title cut, spitting lines like "Yo, what up. This Big Snoop Dogg. Represent the Punjabi," and "What up to all the ladies hanging kO'd in Mumbai."
What up, so: In a video posted online, Snoop said he'd like to follow up the "Singh Is Kinng" track, already bumping in bars and clubs crosswise India, with a tour.
"Snoop Dogg has a portion of fans in India and I love 'em right back," he said. "Get ready for me."
Of course, Snoop's far from the first-class honours degree rapper to look extraneous the hip-hop community to raise his pop culture quotient. Diddy pioneered that trend.
Among Diddy's host of ventures: developing reality series for MTV and VH1, endorsing high-end Ciroc vodka, starring in the Broadway production-cum-Emmy-nominated TV movie "A Raisin in the Sun" and putting out a line of fragrances, the latest of which will be called, simply, "I Am King."
Jay-Z followed in his footsteps. He co-owns the chain of 40/40 Clubs and the New Jersey Nets and latterly sealed a game-changing $150 million handle with concert promoter Live Nation, which promises to finance his entertainment ventures for the next 10 years, however vast they may be.
But some of the up-to-the-minute partnerships 'tween rappers and pop culture seem downright bizarre. Snoop Dogg rapping in a Bollywood film and starring in an E! reality show? LL Cool J designing a kids article of clothing line for Sears? Aren't these guys supposed to be thug?
Apparently, it actually ain't null but a G thang -- that's G as in august, not mobster. With the recording manufacture unsure exactly how to monetize music, rappers demand to go where there's money to be made and a market to be tapped, whether it's the children's clothing department, the South Asian subcontinent or reality TV, street cred be damned.
"It's very much a sign of how times have changed in the hip-hop world," said James Auburn, a hip-hop historian. "MC Hammer did a lot of product endorsements. He was considered a sellout and not true to his base, merely now rappers can startle their have clothing lines and make all the money in the cosmos. It's
