Neville Livingston, a.k.a. Bunny Wailer, has officially excommunicated Snoop Lion from the "Rastafari Community." I say "officially": He made a Facebook post wherein he said, "SNOOP LION IS OFFICIALLY EXCOMMUNICATED FROM THE RASTAFARI COMMUNITY!" and then posted a definition of excommunication from Wikipedia. The post has 34 likes and 24 comments, two of which are Bunny repeating himself and asking rhetorical questions, respectively.
Bunny does have some room to talk in that he's the one who bestowed upon Snoop the Lion moniker in the first place. He has since come out repeatedly against Snoop's "conversion" on the grounds that he feels his culture is being mocked and exploited for marketing purposes.
That rings faintly true -- Snoop's been very public and very savvy about his spiritual journey. But he's also been consistent. He said he'd explore the culture and record an album and he's doing both of those things. At the very least, it seems premature on Bunny's part. Snoop Lion makes his recording debut later this month with Reincarnated, which of all earnest things will be accompanied by a documentary about his Rasta journey.
Bunny is, of course, welcome to say whatever he wants and defend his life's work and beliefs with whatever force he feels he possesses. But unless his goal is to increase publicity for Snoop Lion's album, this strategy seems pretty unproductive.
As for the sincerity of Snoop's efforts, judge for yourself:
