Is a name change a game changer for celebrities?

Rapper Snoop Dogg is to be known now as Snoop Lion. A new persona is an old trick to revive a fading career and lost fame, says Rebecca Dana

The bestselling rap artist, Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, best-known as Snoop Dogg, has changed his name again, this time to Snoop Lion, as announced last week at a press conference in a Jamaican restaurant in Manhattan. He has a new identity — as a reggae singer — accompanied by a media push, including a new album and a documentary about his ascent.

This is an explicit attempt to reboot the career of a 40-year-old musician who says, after 20 years in the business, that he has become “Uncle Snoop”.