Snoop Dogg Gets Cinematic For New Album

Right after the leak of “Special,” Snoop Dogg’s collaboration with Pharrell and Brandy (who may yet pull off a comeback via carefully chosen guest slots) comes the trailer for an original Snoop film, created to accompany his new album Malice N Wonderland. Think Scorsese, directing an extended revamp of the “Smooth Criminal” music video, as set in Sin City… or maybe not. The film features cameos by Soulja Boy, Murs, Diplo, Mayer Hawthorne, Xzibit and Oscar winner (I repeat: Oscar. Winner.) Jamie Foxx. Trailer after the jump.

Of course this isn’t the first time Snoop has made a short to provide a backdrop for/piggyback on a musical release, though it has been a minute since the Faustian Dr. Dre/Fab Five Freddy-directed Murder Was the Case to go along with the Snoop recording of the same name. But plenty of others have picked up on the movie tie-in model since then, not least 50 Cent , who released his film Before I Self Destruct to follow his (underwhelming) album.

If only more artists would jump on the bandwagon—where’s Adam Lambert’s space adventure, set to the score of For Your Entertainment? Or Taylor Swift’s coming of age high school drama featuring all the tracks from Fearless? We might even settle for Captain EO.

(FYI, “Malice in Wonderland” is already the name of a scary maze at Knott’s Scary Farm in Anaheim, the title of a full-length movie starring Lost‘s Maggie Grace coming out next year, in addition to many other things, so we sort of wish Snoop would start using Google before titling his projects.)

Snoop’s album comes out December 8, and if you can’t find your way to the record store, fear not: Snoop can tell you how to get there.