Snoop Dogg lends voice to navigation system

(AFP PHOTO / ANDREJ ISAKOVIC)

Snoop Dogg is the newest voice for TomTom's GPS navigation system, the company announced December 1. TomTom owners can download a skin in which the rapper adds his personal style to all of the system's classic navigation instructions.

In a promotional video on the VoiceSkins website, Snoop Dogg explains, "Really it was because I'd be riding in my car and I'd be hearing that boring ass lady doing it all the time. ...She'd always be turning my music down, going, "Turn left, go right, straight ahead.' We gotta add some flavor to that."

Directions include "Come on man, let's get this thing cranked up" and a suggestion to play Snoop Dogg music while going "round and round" at a roundabout. For an extra small price, users can buy Snoop Dogg's additional sounds pack, with instructions to turn on and off the car, slow down in school zones, and watch out for speed cameras. US residents and visitors can also make use of a "points of interest" pack with directions to some of the rapper's favorite spots, including Roscoe's Chicken N Waffles, Staples Centre in LA, Foot Locker, and Times Square.

The Snoop Dogg skin is available from the TomTom Voice Skins site for $12.95 (€9.95, £7.95).

Snoop Dogg's tenth album, Malice N Wonderland, is due out internationally December 8 (December 5 or 7 in some countries). In early 2010 the rapper plans to release a short film of the same name in which he fights an evil dictator to save the mythical city of Wonderland.

http://www.voiceskins.com