A controversial music video by Snoop Dogg released Monday appears to contradict the years of advocacy work the rapper has done on behalf of gun control.
The video for the song “Lavender” shows Snoop Dogg aiming a pistol at a parody clown version of President Trump, and then pulling the trigger. In an interview with Billboard, the rapper said he felt that other artists weren’t “dealing with the real issue with this f*cking clown as president.”
However, the rapper has in recent years been an outspoken advocate for citizens to disarm themselves and seek peace.
In 2013, Snoop Dogg (then Snoop Lion) launched a social media campaign titled #NoGunsAllowed with former NFL great Joe Montana.
Snoop Dogg explained his motivation for pursuing gun control at the time, saying: “As I hear more and more stories in the news about violent acts of terror and school shootings that leave innocent kids dead, it makes me upset to live in a world full of negativity.”
From my new album Reincarnated, the song “No Guns Allowed” is a call to action for people everywhere to come together and help end the senseless gun violence that claims lives every day. I’m not saying I’m against guns, but I’m saying that people need to think about their actions and be responsible for them, ya dig?! A lot of the people pullin’ the trigger haven’t lived long enough to experience a long life full of love, but I know there’s still time for them to walk in the path of peace.
In 2015, Rolling Stone reported that the rapper went as far as to ask fans to go through their 401k accounts and divest of investments in gun companies. This was part of the #IamUnloading campaign.
In July, Snoop co-hosted a press conference at LAPD headquarters with fellow rapper The Game, Police Chief Charlie Beck and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti in solidarity with both police and civilian victims of gun violence.
In his interview with Billboard, Snoop cited police violence and Trump’s election victory as inspiration for the controversial “Lavender” video.
“The ban that this motherf*cker tried to put up; him winning the presidency; police being able to kill motherf*ckers and get away with it; people being in jail for weed for 20, 30 years and motherf*ckers that’s not black on the streets making money off of it,” he said.
“It’s a lot of clown sh-t 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,” he added.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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