All Doggs Go To Heaven

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Snoop Dogg

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Of course, the scenario in which a newly sober celebrity drug user announces he's done with drugs, only to calamitously fall off the wagon at the drop of a dime bag, is fast becoming a cliché. Still, his business associates are finding the new Snoop to be noticeably more dependable. Michele Dix, cocreator of the ''Doggy Fizzle Televizzle'' show, calls him ''extremely professional. He's the type of artist who shows up on time and, whether it takes two hours or ten, he's present. He's very natural, has great comedic instincts, and has a huge connection to our audience.''

Not all of Snoop's colleagues find him so cuddly, however. The Jim Henson organization cut him out of its upcoming holiday TV special ''It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie'' after ''The O'Reilly Factor'' ran a segment decrying the drug-and-porn-associated rapper's kinship with Kermit the Frog. Snoop is still smarting over the resulting media flap and its outcome, blasting host Bill O'Reilly for ''talking s---. Now that's 3 or 4 million black kids who are not gonna watch the Muppets 'cause I'm not in it. No matter how much good I do, they still gonna talk about the bad.''

Depending on your moral compass, there's still a good deal of ''bad'' in Snoop's game. ''Paid tha Cost,'' most of which was recorded before he got sober, includes several references to smoking marijuana as well as the usual hard-guy bluster (although there's also a love song -- a first for Snoop -- to his wife), and ''Girls Gone Wild'' includes plenty of footage of a stoned-to-the-bone Dogg toking down on monster blunts. He's no role model yet.

But even if his current projects don't reflect his new persona, only a fool would claim that giving up dope and booze is anything but a positive move. In a sense, Snoop is venturing where few rappers have gone, attempting to retain his street cred while setting aside the mantle of High Priest of Hedonism. And if he chooses to turn a blind eye to the contradictions in his life choices, well, chalk it up to the realities of commerce. Like a traditional mafioso, Snoop draws a clear line between his life as a family man and the often unsavory nature of his business dealings. If the people want sex, money, and murder fantasies, he'll serve 'em up -- just so long as there's still time for his son's football practice.

The future may even hold some surprises. Snoop admits his addled state led him to spout ''the same s--- over and over again'' on his records. ''I want to try something different,'' he says. ''I can make records without talking about drugs. [Being clean] is gonna open me up, make me more open to making different songs. That's what it's all about: growth, development, and change.''

Hey, mystery solved. That extra ''g'' in Dogg? G-rated!