Casino Scene: Snoop Dogg's 'Wonderland High' tour comes to Tunica
In the game more than 15 years now, rapper Snoop Dogg (born Cordazar Calvin Broadus) has long been the most contradictory of hip-hop artists.
A former gang member and unapologetic pot smoker, he is, nevertheless, one of mainstream America’s most popular rappers, thanks to his easy wit and laid-back style. A pioneer of gangsta rap, he is also an inveterate Top 40 hitmaker with innocuous, infectious singles like “Beautiful” and “Drop it Like It’s Hot.”
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Snoop will showcase both those sides on his new record, Malice N Wonderland, due to drop Dec. 8. The album, Snoop’s 10th, features appearances by The-Dream, R. Kelly, Brandy, Jazmine Sullivan and Soulja Boy Tell Em, and productions from Pharrell, Tricky, The-Dream, Lil Jon and Teddy Riley among others.
“I start off with so much malice in my heart when the record kicks in,” Snoop recently told MTV. “By the time I get to the end of the record, I’m in Wonderland. I’m feeling good about life. I’m celebrating, happy about my wife, my kids, life in general. It’s just a roller coaster of what I’m going through as I speak.”
Snoop’s “Wonderland High” tour promoting the album and its just released first single, “Gangsta Luv” featuring The-Dream, arrives in Tunica Saturday for a show at Harrah’s Tunica Event Center. Opening acts include Method Man, Redman, and Devin the Dude.
Malice N Wonderland’s roller coaster ride mirrors Snoop’s own. A member of the Rollin’ 20 Crips gang in Long Beach, Calif., Snoop spent his first post-high school years rolling in and out of correctional facilities. But when he wasn’t in trouble with the law, he was working on his rapping and at the age of 21 he was discovered by former N.W.A. member and producer Dr. Dre.
Since becoming a music star, Snoop has diversified. He recently launched a new clothing line, Rich & Infamous. And like many rappers, he’s become a film and television personality, making expected appearances in films like the pot comedy "Half Baked" and as Huggy Bear in the Ben Stiller farce "Starsky & Hutch", but also popping up on “The Martha Stewart Show” and the soap opera “One Life To Live.” Last month, he also hosted the wrestling show “WWE Monday Night RAW.”
Snoop’s most recent business turn, however, finds the gangsta rapper invading the boardroom as the newly appointed creative director for EMI’s re-launched Priority Records label.
Showtime is 9 p.m. Tickets are $31 and $41, available at the casino gift shop and through Ticketmaster. For more information, call (800) 946-4946 or visit harrahstunica.com.
Also In Tunica This Week
Country singer Miranda Lambert just released her third major-label album and is marking the occasion with a tour that includes a stop at Gold Strike Casino’s Millennium Theater Saturday.
Following her appearance in the 2003 season of the USA Network’s “Nashville Star” music competition where she placed third, Lambert made a mark in Nashville playing the part of wronged woman on the warpath in hit songs like “Gunpowder & Lead” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”
Seemingly content in a relationship with fellow country singer Blake Shelton since 2006, Lambert is easing out of her vengeful hottie routine on the new Revolution, singing more mature songs without so much gunplay in them.
“It feels like something’s changing, something new is coming,” Lambert recently told Rolling Stone. “I feel like that about music right now and about this record I’ve made.”
Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets are $39.95, available at the Gold Strike gift shop or by phone at (888) 24K-PLAY. For more information, visit goldstrikemississippi.com.
The 9th Annual Hollywood Casino/St. Jude Red Carpet Bash returns Saturday. One of St. Jude’s most popular area fund-raisers, this year’s black-tie-optional event has a “beach chic” theme with island cuisine and music from the Jimmy Buffett tribute band A1A.
Individual tickets are $100 per person. For more information and to purchase tickets, contact Lisa Heros at (901) 373-5051 or lisa.heros@stjude.org.
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