Rapper/actor Snoop Dogg needs no introduction at any university community in the Western world.
Dogg, who plays street informant Huggy Bear in the new flick "Starsky & Hutch," had a few extra minutes yesterday to teleconference with student journalists all over the nation and wax-playalistically on a host of quizzestions.
Here's a sampling. Foshizzle.
Q: I read when you were younger, your mom used to play records and that's what got you into music, so I wanted to know if something like that happened with movies.
A: When I was young, my mom played music on the 8-track player and she always used to take us to the drive-in or the walk-in theater to go see the '70s Blacksploitation movies. I would love to see the players, you know, "The Mack," "Superfly," "Shaft." All those characters on the big screen really made me dream that I could be one of those guys.
Q: Rumor had it that P. Diddy really wanted the part of Huggy Bear but he was going up against you. In reality, how much of a chance did he have?
A: Slim and none.
Q: I read you cut out smoking weed from your daily routine. How does that affect you and the way people perceive you?
A: I'm always going to be Snoop Dogg, whether I'm smoking weed or not. That really had nothing to do with it. It was a matter of what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to do was try to better my body and to better my health. So I wanted to stop smoking.
Q: You said in a quote that you were trying to educate the kids. What did you mean by that and how does that play out in your music?
A: What I mean by "educating the kids" has nothing to do with my music. It's more about me personally and the struggle that I went through and how I've made the U-turn as far as being an ex-drug dealer, ex-gang-banger and now, being something of a positive role model and doing the right things and making the right decisions with my life. That's more the message about the education and elevation as far as the kids. Not with my music, because my music is an expression of what I'm feeling, and sometimes I feel like an adult. And I feel like an irresponsible adult sometimes.
Q: What are your views on gay marriage?
A: Gay people been together, you know? People ain't been saying nothing about it. If they want to tie the knot, go all the way with it and let them go.
Q: When Tupac died, did it make you look at your life a little differently?
A: It definitely made me take a look in the mirror and re-examine myself and try to do better things with my life and try to be a better person, a better father, a better husband, a better individual. It just taught me how to slow down in certain aspects, and it taught me how to speed up in the music side, as far as music and movies.
Q: Where did you get the idea for adding "izzle" to the end of words?
A: Just conversating, you know. Me and my partners just be sitting around, chopping game and whatever sounds good. We just go with it. The "izzle" just sounded good on the end so we ran with it.
Q: I want to know where you were for Mardi Gras this year? You weren't doing any "Girls Gone Wild: Reloaded" were you?
A: I had my own little private "Mardi Gras Girls Gone Wild," you know what I'm saying?
Q: How do you keep your pimp hand so strong?
A: I do a lot of exercises with 40-ounce bottles, you dig?
Q: All my girlfriends want to know how you keep your hair so fly?
A: I eat right, take a lot of vitamins, and you know, keep my backfield in motion.
Q: What's the hardest part of being a "true player"?
A: Telling certain women "no."