Snoop Dogg: I may be playing a snail in movie Turbo but he’s the baddest snail ever

Rapper/actor Snoop Dogg, aka Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, 41, is now getting his ‘izzle’ on as Smoove Move the snail in new film Turbo.
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Describe Smoove Move the snail… He is slick and cool, just like me. I believe he gets his groove from being connected to the underground. He is very articulate, and he’s out there, as far as being edgy and different. He’s ‘fly’ and a trendsetter. He’s a leader and he has the kind of conversation that can put you in a trance, because his words are more about his style. He has ‘izzle’.

What’s izzle? It is what he adds to his conversation and lingo. It is not like everybody else’s. He’s the baddest snail to ever walk the face of the grass. That’s the izzle.

There are some other interesting cast members… Ryan Reynolds is Turbo the racing snail, the head voice – the voice of choice. He plays it well. He is the one you find yourself falling in love with; Turbo is moving and grooving. Samuel L Jackson plays Whiplash, another snail, who is our leader and our drill sergeant. He’s the one who gives us our direction. Samuel is a great leader, someone with a strong voice and a strong attitude. Maya Rudolph keeps everything fly.

Turbo is an underdog movie. Did you feel like an underdog, growing up poor in LA?

 Growing up in Long Beach, you had to be motivated because the whole ’hood was an underdog. You had to make avenues for yourself because no one else was going to do it for you. As a kid, I was a huge sports fan and an athlete. Basketball and [American] football were the avenues that I created to keep myself motivated, you dig?

Do you think anyone with big dreams can make them come true? 
If it happened to me, it could happen to you. You’ve got to believe in yourself, first and foremost. You have to have the right work ethic but there has to be some luck to actually bring it to reality. So, with a little bit of good timing, luck and determination, you can get there.

You are a family man – is that a priority nowadays?
 I have three kids, I love being a father and I coach kids in football. Kids are our future, and they determine what is cool. If you can win over kids, you can win over anyone. They’re going to let you know if something is cool and funny or if it was a bad idea.

You wrote a song for Turbo, called Let The Bass Go. What inspired it? 
 The inspiration for the song came from DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, my main man. Mr Katzenberg hit me up and told me the kind of song he was looking for, the kind of energy he wanted. I wanted to come with my best guns and make a song people could feel good about. I wanted to make songs about my life as a father. As a musician, that is what I do. I thrive on moments like this – to make records that change the face of a movie. I worked with hip hop producer Soopafly, and we used a lot of sounds from back in the day – the 1980s to be exact.


What makes a good movie song
? A song that everyone can dance to. When you leave a movie theatre, you want a song to take you out, so that you can sit back and watch all the credits. You don’t want to be leaving while the credits are rolling. That means the movie wasn’t good.

Where does your heart lie: music or movies? 
 I love both. Obviously, music comes first but when I find a film and project that is close to my heart, then it takes a quick first place. It all depends on where my heart and mind are at the time.

What has been your greatest inspiration in your life? 
 My family is my backbone. They are my everything. I wake up everyday with them on my mind, and that’s why I am doing what I am doing. And I have a group of friends that I’ve been with since high school. They are the people who have always stayed down and will always stay down, regardless of the fame and fortune.

Why did you recently change your name (temporarily) to Snoop Lion? 
The name was given to me and I ran with it to reflect a more peaceful and positive attitude for my Reincarnated project [including his 12th album, and a documentary]. The Snoop Dogg name is connected to hip hop, so I didn’t want to change that or turn my back on it – hip hop raised me, and I would never turn my back on that.

What’s your greatest achievement? 
 The Snoop Youth Football League is one of my greatest achievements. We’ve been going for ten years, creating dreams, avenues and jobs for our kids of the future. I made it easy for a kid in the ’hood to join a football league, instead of joining the streets or a gang, you dig? You can’t top that.