Rapper Snoop Dogg was in a reverential reggae mood on Friday when he posted a video of himself catching a vibe to Tarrus Riley’s 2006 hit “Lion Paw”. The California legend tagged both Riley and Bay Area rapper E40 who was seen on the television Snoop was watching.
Snoop is no stranger to reggae having done the controversial album 2013 “Reincarnated” under the persona Snoop Lion and told the Breakfast Club hosts in May 2018 that he understands the genre.
“I always had reggae in me and when I flew to Jamaica the spirit of reggae took over me and it became me, it became my life cause I was there and i was doing it.”
Snoop also said that Tarrus Riley is one of his favorite reggae artists and that he would want to do a collaboration.
As far back as 2013 Riley has shared his mutual respect for Snoop after they performed on the same stage at Summer Jam in Germany. At the time Riley said “I am a big snoop fan years ago,” even though he said at the show the two didn’t get to meet each other.
Fast forward to today October 15, after seeing Snoop post Riley told WMV “I love Snoop music and I love Snoop vibes always, big up Snoop always.”
“It’s just love and respect 100,” the two time MOBO Award nominee added.
Lion Paw
Lion Paw was the fourth single from Tarrus Riley’s sophomore album Parables. The song is written by Riley and produced by his musical mentor Dean Fraser.
The son of reggae legend Jimmy Riley is among the last of an era of artists who sang religiously about the teachings of Marcus Garvey and Rastafari culture while simultaneously singing pop hits like Powerful with Ellie Goulding.
“Lion Paw was the first live video I did, I was so deep into the art, I wish I could sing it over today because I think I am a better singer now. Thats the cool thing about the video now,” Tarrus told World Music Views exclusively.
Lion Paw was sampled by the Bank of Jamaica in an advertisement directed by Donovan Watkis for an Inflation Targeting Campaign. Riley was the leading face and voice in the ad and he changed his lyrics from “So all the evil that mean me harm Can go back where they came from No demonic works performed shall prosper yeah” to “All the high prices that mean me harm can go back where they came from, no inflation monster shall prosper.”
The campaign was featured in 25 international publications including the WallStreet Journal, MSNBC, ABC News, Yahoo!, and Bloomberg. Subsequently the Bank Of England announced that they would be looking to Jamaica to better communicate the message of inflation targeting.
“Lion Paw is a song that make my Jamaican people love me different, a lot of christians say bwoy me nuh love this or that but me love dah song yah. That song touch the spirit and soul of Jamaica coming from rasta teaching and indigenous culture,” Tarrus told WMV.
“Lion Paw is gonna be here forever, its penmanship, its art,” Riley added.
