NEW YORK (AP) -
Snoop Dogg continues his onslaught into movies with Wednesday (Nov. 14)'s opening of
The Wash, his latest co-starring vehicle with fellow rapper/actor Dr. Dre.
The comedy follows Snoop's appearances in the horror movie Bones, in which he topped the marquee as an enraged ghost, and the Denzel Washington drama Training Day, for which he earned much better notices as a paraplegic drug-pusher.
"The Wash is based on a story out of DJ Pooh's head," says Snoop, referring to the writer/director/producer. "He saw me and Dre as The Odd Couple."
In the movie, Snoop plays a car wash attendant who smokes pot and has sex with women on the job. Dre plays the straight-laced boss faced with the possibility of having to fire his best friend and roommate, who actually got him the job there.
But, Snoop wants it clear that the only thing this movie has in common with Car Wash -- the hit 1976 comedy starring Richard Pryor and Franklin Ajaye -- is setting. "None of the characters or scenarios are the same," says the 29-year-old rapper.
Snoop doesn't go to car washes himself anymore, by the way. "Muthafuckas be stealin' your shit out the car, scratching your paint, taking all your roaches out of the ashtray," he says. Instead, Snoop regularly has detailers up to the house an hour east of L.A. to buff his fleet of 21 blingin' rides.
"But I still roll my own blunts," he says. "That way I know what's in 'em." The rapper passes around a joint rolled cigar-thick as he speaks.
Despite his burgeoning film career, Snoop insists that his roots will remain in rap. "I'm gonna do more movies," he promises. "But I'm gonna keep doing music, too. Every good movie needs a soundtrack."
Snoop plans to have his next solo album, tentatively titled Big Snoop Dogg: Paid the Cost To Be the Boss, out by mid 2002. "I think my first single is called 'Whatever,'" he says.
Snoop's next film is Crime Partners, due next year, in which he plays a hitman for boss Ice-T. Meanwhile, the soundtrack to The Wash, featuring Snoop, Dre, Bilal, Bubba Sparxxx, and others, debuts at No. 19 on The Billboard 200 this week.
