Snoop Dogg Raps in Bollywood

MUMBAI, India (AP) -- Snoop Dogg's done Hollywood. Now he's moving on to Bollywood.

"Yo, what up. This Big Snoop Dogg. Represent the Punjabi. Aye ya, Hit em with this," the rapper says while introducing the title song to "Singh is Kinng," the Bollywood film that opens Friday.

Clad in a maroon slim-fitted Indian kurta and beige trousers and a diamond-studded turban, Snoop Dogg lounges on an oversized armchair draped with blue and pink silk alongside Akshay Kumar, the movie's lead star, in a video posted on the Internet by the producers, Cashmere Asia.

"I'm just a king sitting on my throne all alone, " Snoop Dogg raps, surrounded by energetic dancers in colorful headgear in a song peppered with rhythmic drum beats. "Singh is King. Singh is King. Snoop Dogg is also the King."

The video was shot over three days last month in Chicago.

African American Scholar Boyce Watkins says Stop Hatin on Soulja Boy

by Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com

I see all the hatin that's been going on with Soulja Boy lately. I wrote an article on the topic earlier, since I saw some of the artists I grew up on getting real mad at the brother. I don't blame the brothers for getting upset on this, since Soulja Boy is definitely something different. I can't do the dances, and I don't want to do them. In fact, I would rather you cut off my testicles and feed them to the family dog.

But with that said, I have to hate on myself just a little bit. I grew up hard on West Coast music that we love so much: Ice -T, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, NWA, Spice 1 and Tupac. Is that really what we want our kids listening to? Let's be honest: the music we were bumping to in the 90s was some dangerous sh*t! Brothers got shot on every record, and being in the hip hop game was flat out crazy.

So, if I have a choice between teenagers dancing to punk-ass songs that sound like they were made on an ice cream truck vs. rapping about peeling each other's caps, I would rather our kids be safe and happy. To the OGs in the game: let it go. Times change. At the same time, we have to give the west coast more respect and start letting them have more spins nation-wide. West coast rap has always been, in the words of Ice-T, "The bastard child of hip hop". Well, Cinderella needs to go to the ball too, since the west coast rap game has some serious ballers.

As for Soulja Boy, let that young brother make his money, he was broker than the Ten Commandments last year and now he can provide for his family. Let the kids dance instead of kill each other, we don't want them ending up like Biggie and Pac.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About College". He does regular appearances in national media, including BET, CNN, ESPN and CBS. For more information, please visit http://www.boycewatkins.net/.