Snoop Dogg remixes BadBadNotGood's Lavender into politically charged track

Snoop Dogg's remix of a song by Canadian group BadBadNotGood has triggered a controversy with its politically charged message and satirical music video.

Intention to make a song 'real to the voice of the people who don't have a voice,' says rapper

CBC News Posted: Mar 14, 2017 11:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: March 14, 2017

Snoop Dogg's remix of a song by Canadian group BadBadNotGood has sparked some controversy with its politically charged message and satirical music video. (YouTube)

Snoop Dogg's remix of a song by Canadian group BadBadNotGood has triggered a controversy with its politically charged message and satirical music video.

The veteran rapper released a music video Sunday for his remix of BadBadNotGood's Lavender, a track from the Toronto instrumental hip hop-jazz troupe's latest album IV and featuring a collaborationwith Montreal DJ and producer Kaytranada.

In the trackLavender (Nightfall Remix), Snoop offers foul-mouthed commentary on the current troubled state of race relations in the U.S., police brutality against African Americans and the presidency of Donald Trump.

Co-directed by PrankvsPrank YouTuber Jesse Wellens, the accompanying music videodepicts a world peopled with clowns. It features actor, filmmaker and hip hop fan Michael Rapaport pulled over and shot by a police officer during a traffic stop, with an onlooker filming the incident echoing the death of Philando Castile.

The footage also features an orange-faced, Trump-like clown figure named "Ronald Klump" ranting during a televised press conference. Later, the figure is shot at with a fake gun which releases a flag with the word "bang" by Snoop.

The intention was "making a song that was not controversial butreal real to the voice of the people who don't have a voice," Snoop told Billboard magazine.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a self-described hip hop fan, chastized Snoop Dogg for the music video. (Steve Helber/Associated Press)

"Snoop shouldn't have done that," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a former Republican campaign rival to Trump, said in a video postedby TMZ.

"We've had presidents assassinated before in this country, so anything like that is something people should be really careful about," declared the self-professed West Coast rap fan.

"If the wrong person sees that and gets the wrong idea, you could have a real problem," Rubio added.

'I'm trying to fill in a void'

Snoop added he is not looking for any response for the video.

"I don't ever expect or look for a reaction. I just put it out because I feel like it's something that's missing. Any time I drop something, I'm trying to fill in a void," the rapper told Billboard.

"I feel like it's a lot of people making cool records, having fun, partying, but nobody's dealing with the real issue with this f--king clown as president, and the shit that we dealing with out here, so I wanted to take time out to push pause on a party record and make one of these records for the time being."

Snoop (whose real name is Calvin Broadus Jr.)was apparently inspired by Lavender after hearing a studio engineer playing the new BadBadNotGoodalbum and, afterdiscussing the timely music video conceptwith Wellens, immediately wrote fresh verses for the remix.

"I love what they do," he said in a statement, calling the Polaris Prize-nominated BadBadNotGood"so real."

With files from The Associated Press

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Snoop Dogg remixes BadBadNotGood's Lavender into politically charged track

Intention to make a song 'real to the voice of the people who don't have a voice,' says rapper

'I'm trying to fill in a void'

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