On Tuesday, Snoop Dogg drops his 13th studio album, Bush. However, he’s not merely an elder statesman of rap music. He’s also acted on occasion. There have been cameos and voice roles and films of questionable quality. Here is a brief, partial history of Snoop Dogg, the actor…
More: Why Snoop’s Tha Doggfather is criminally underrated
The D-O-Double G’s first role was in Half Baked. He appeared alongside such luminaries as fellow weed and music icon Willie Nelson and the most trusted man in news, Jon Stewart. Snoop is credited as Scavenger Smoker, as he portrays a gentleman who appears whenever other people are smoking, but never has any weed of his own. His performance is actually fairly strong for a first-time actor, even if little is asked of him.
In 2001, Snoop appeared in several movies, including his first two major roles. He starred as Jimmy Bones in Bones, a gangster who comes back from the dead to avenge his murder. Pam Grier is also in it. Asking Snoop Dogg to star in a movie, particularly one that required dramatic acting, was probably not the best choice.
Then, Snoop starred against fellow West Coast rap legend Dr. Dre in The Wash. They work at a car wash, like in the song “Car Wash.” A bunch of rappers are in it, including Eminem and Ludacris. Also, Shaquille O’Neal and Pauly Shore make appearances. The plot synopsis reads more seriously than what one would expect from a movie about a car wash starring Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.
In 2003, Snoop went back to what he’s more qualified for, playing himself in Old School, his first cameo since 1996’s A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. Later that year, he voiced a talking rat in Malibu’s Most Wanted, a relic of a bygone era when Jamie Kennedy was considered a viable lead for a movie.
The next year represents the pinnacle of Snoop’s acting career. He took on the role of Huggy Bear in the Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson Starsky & Hutch movie, a film that’s much better than one would expect, both in terms of it being a remake of an old cop show, and it being a Todd Phillips movie.
Also in 2004, Snoop played Captain Mack in Soul Plane, which is a ridiculous movie.
Since then, Snoop has had a couple voice roles in notable family movies such as Racing Stripes and Turbo, which are both about animals who participate in races. His most recent role came in Scary Movie 5, where he played somebody named Ja’Marcus. It’s the fifth movie in a hit-or-miss spoof series, so you can guess how good it is. In 2012, more notably, Snoop and Wiz Khalifa, another reefer aficionado, starred in the marijuana centric comedy Mac & Devin Go to High School. Snoop plays Mac, a high school student. To reiterate, Snoop Dogg, who is turning 44 this year and played a high school student in 2012. This was not a movie concerned about verisimilitude.
Snoop Dogg is not in Who’s Your Caddy?, by the way. You may think he’s in Who’s Your Caddy?, but he’s not. Seems like a missed opportunity for all parties involved.
