Snoop Lion: Parenting is a challenge

Snoop Lion admits that being a father is "never easy".

The rapper - formerly known as Snoop Dogg - has three children with his wife Shante Taylor.

Looking after sons Cordé and Cordell and daughter Cori and dealing with married life isn't always plain sailing for the musician.

"My wife don't eat meat no more. My oldest son is like Huey P. Newton and Malcolm X with some hippie juice. I look at all of my sons and see a little bit of me in them. The good, the bad and the ugly," he admitted to Fuse.

"And I see how they maximise the good and make it better for them. It's never easy to be a father. Kids go through different things and you have to be there for him and try to be understanding."

Snoop received his new name from a Rastafarian priest in Jamaica. His latest album Reincarnated is a reggae record and he has turned his back on his old, wilder ways and now claims his life is about peace and love.

"I wanted to speak from the heart and deal with some of these issues that we face with. No one has ever told me what to do or how to be. I've always enlightened people with the music that I make but I've never had a message connected to my music. I couldn't rap about what I'm going through right now. I had to sing it with reggae," he explained.

His new album features single No Guns Allowed, which he recorded with the help of rapper Drake.

The 41-year-old star explained how the collaboration came about and why he decided to speak out against the use of firearms.

"I told him I had a record that was positive and speaking to gun violence. I didn't want to have a party record; I know he's the king of making party records. I wanted him to speak to something real right now," Snoop recalled.

"He thought I was going to call him and ask him to be on a record about girls or a party 'cause that's what I'm known for. So when I hit him with that, it's enlightenment for him. You have artists who look for a way to speak from their heart, but they can't."

Reincarnated is out now.