Snoop Rakes It In

Calvin slips the gray and yellow reflective vest over his pigtails. The smile on his face is difficult to interpret. No one could be happy spending much of the day, and the better part of the next month in city parks picking up other people's trash.

The rest of the crew? That's a different story. They are almost giddy and falling over each other to gain the attention of this "new fish." They try to get close to him mumbling rhymes and lyrics that, to the speaker, are so fresh they ain't made it to the vine.

The tall, thin man with slits for eyes and a permanent smirk listens politely, then, with a well-placed stare, closes the audition. Something might stick, and the other indentured park worker might hear a treatment of his couplings in a song on the radio one day; realizing he gave it away.

Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. could buy and sell most of the parks he will clean in the 160 hours of his sentence. At the edge of the work detail waits a Bentley and several men in dark glasses, white and black, hired to protect him from undo harassment. The L.A. County sheriff's deputies don't mind the help. Should someone try to gain props by dogin' the Dogg, there could be serious trouble.

They never get used to it, the deputies. They say celebrity inmates are more trouble than the gang-bangers. Celebrity rappers are the worst. Snoop Dogg might be the most recognizable of this growing genre of mega star. Even people who would not be caught dead listening to Rap know him on sight.

One year ago he was caught with a collapsed baton, the kind the police use to break car windows or legs, if need be. It was at an airport and the item was deemed a dangerous weapon. That it is, but Mr. Broadus claimed it was to be used in a video. Since when does the Dogg carry his own props to a location? Lame doesn't even come close to describing this excuse.

But instead of using his court ordered community service in schools or community centers, drawing distinctions between the projected rapper image - something that can be very destructive - and the real business of artistic expression, he is raking leaves and spearing candy wrappers. I supposed he could have fought the conviction into oblivion. Why? Part of that crew near the Bentley includes a cameraman and sound tech.

One guy looks a little like Spike Lee.