Snoop Lion Is Guest Editing a Wall Street Journal Blog Today Because of Course He Is

Let's play a game. Name a publication that needs a little more influence from Snoop Dogg, a.k.a. Snoop Lion, a.k.a. Snoop Doggy Dogg, a.k.a. Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. Are you thinking a music magazine like Complex? Or how about a cheeky blog like Gawker? Heck, one can almost picture a site like McSweeney's Internet Tendency doing something creative with a guest editor like Snoop. One thing's for sure: Snoop would never collaborate with some tight-tied, News Corp.-owned financial rag like The Wall Street Journal. Right?

Wrong. Monday offered the world a unique event: Snoop Lion guest-editing Speakeasy, The Journal's arts and entertainment blog. This was not a prank, as I'd expected it was when I saw the announcement on Twitter. It really happened. But it's also worth pointing out that being a guest editor is a special, sometimes meaningless job. It's often just a stunt to get a celebrity to put his or her name on something for a day — not that that's a bad thing! Some guest editor stints turn out to be really hilarious, like the time Judd Apatow guest-edited Vanity Fair, or insightful, like the time Michelle Obama guest-edited iVillage. (Just kidding about that last one. That was just weird.)

Beyond a worthwhile essay about his transformation from rapto reggae, it's unclear what Snoop Lion's contribution to Monday's Wall Street Journal. So what! Snoop doesn't need to do things. There is an #AskSnoop Twitter thing going on—apparently Snoop will answer questions asked using that hashtag in a piece to be published next week. You can listen to his new album, "Reincarnated," in its entirety and learn about "What Snoop told LL Cool J About 'Accidental Racist.'"

Could it really be just a marketing effort for Snoop's new album? Who gives a shit! Wouldn't you rather relish the idea of Snoop sitting up in an ivory tower with a bunch of WSJ editors smoking weed and talking about world hunger than see a bunch of posters on the subway? Of course, we weren't given a true behind-the-scenes look at Snoop's WSJ stint.

For that, we go to the Huffington Post, where Snoop recently smoked a blunt and rapped about Arianna. Much like the Wall Street Journal happening, this too was a stunt. Or at least, all signs point to that deeper truth. (HuffPost doesn't keep rolled blunts on hand to smoke any time the tech team screws something up. I used to work there. It is not a thing.) It's not the first time anyone's seen Snoop smoke on camera, and it certainly won't be the last. Let us remind you that the 41-year-old is a recent convert to Rastafarianism.

So Snoop's album tour is pretty entertaining so far. Snoop's an entertaining guy, even in real life, as we now know from the TV show about Snoop and his family, "Father Hood." Snoop's also ridiculously talented and successful about building his brand and sharing it with the world. It'll be interesting to see what he does next, now that he's vowed to focus on the positive and put all that gangsta rap business behind him.

Snoop explains himself best: "It was time to say something to take the party and put it on pause and speak to some real issues and speak to some positivity and some peace." What better place to speak to some real issues than the crown jewel in Rupert Murdoch's empire? Well, we'd say VICE, as we've already had our moment with Snoop, too.