As the top emcee at Death Row Records in the 1990s, Snoop Dogg made millions as the face of the West Coast “gangster rap” sound, with its glorification of drugs, violence and murder.
But the rapper — whose real name is Calvin Broadus — is singing a different tune with his latest effort to convince Americans to divest their retirement accounts from investments in gun companies.
The #ImUnloading campaign launched on Monday with the release of a PSA encouraging investors to ask their financial advisers to divest their 401k plans from gun companies and other corporations that support the National Rifle Association.
“I’m unloading for my loved ones that I’ve lost,” Snoop Dogg says in the PSA. “I’m going all in for gun free investing.”
#ImUnloading is a collaboration between two pro-gun control groups, Campaign To Unload and States United To Prevent Gun Violence. Ron Conway, a Silicon Valley-based tech venture capitalist, has joined the initiative along with several athletes and musicians.
“Over 51 million people have a retirement portfolio that’s likely invested in guns,” the PSA reads. “Is your 401k one of them?”
“It’s time to go to your financial adviser and demand that there are no gun investments in your 401k,” Conway says in the ad.
Snoop Dogg’s transition from pro-violence gangster rap to gun control activist only occurred recently.
He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his first album, “Doggystyle,” which is replete with references to gang-related gun violence.
In one song from the multi-platinum 1993 album, “Pump Pump,” Snoop Dogg rapped “And I was a fool, don’t make me have to grab my strap and go rat-tat-tat-tat.”
In 1996, Snoop Dogg was put on trial for murder in a case involving the shooting death of a Los Angeles gang member. The lyricist was riding in a car when his bodyguard opened fire on the man.
Snoop Dogg’s defense, led by Johnnie Cochran of O.J. Simpson trial fame, argued that the gang member who was shot was reaching for a gun in his waistband when the rapper’s bodyguard opened fire. He was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges.
Snoop Dogg was also arrested on illegal gun possession charges in the 1990s but has glorified gun violence much more recently. He appeared on 2007’s “9mm,” contributing the lyrics “I set aside all my feelings when I’m killing like a villain; Move quick like a cheetah – I’m a killa; I ain’t here to lock up – I flash the heater; Then lock your whole block up.”
But with 2013’s “No Guns Allowed,” Snoop Dogg marked a stark departure from the lifestyle he once embraced. That change culminated in the partnership with #ImUnloading.
Following the release of that song, Snoop Dogg joined the League of Young Voters to form the group No Guns Allowed.
Besides the PSA, the campaign offers links to Unload Your 401k’s website which allows visitors to look-up their retirement account “to see if it is supporting the gun industry and its lobbying group, the National Rifle Association.”
“Employees now have the tools available to get their money out of gun investments,” a press release reads.
“There is a straight line from gun industry investment, to gun industry profits, to funding of the NRA,” Jennifer Fiore, executive director of Campaign to Unload, said in a statement.
“Half the value of these companies comes from mutual funds and most of the ‘investors’ in these funds have no idea they are inadvertently part of the problem. Now they can be part of the solution.”
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