Snoop Dogg Announced As SXSW Keynote Speaker Ahead Of New Album 'BUSH'

Snoop Dogg has been announced as the keynote speaker for the music portion of South By Southwest. The keynote takes place on Friday, March 20 at 11 a.m. CT (12 p.m. EST) in Ballroom A of the Austin Convention Center. The SXSW festival runs from March 13 through March 22. Snoop's appearance follows up Lady Gaga's keynote address at last year's festival.

Snoop Dogg is currently prepping the release of his thirteenth studio album BUSH, which was produced by Pharrell Williams and is due out May 12. Today the 10-track album became available for pre-order on iTunes and Snoop dropped his first single "Peaches N Cream," featuring Charlie Wilson.

In addition to Wilson and Pharrell BUSH will also feature an appearance from Stevie Wonder.

"It's a great record me and Pharrell did from top to bottom. It feels good and I'm happy to be back in the studio working with one of my favorite producers and homeboys," Snoop told MTV News last fall. "It's different -- it's completely different than anything we've ever done. It feels good, sounds good, looks good."

Snoop and Pharrell have previously collaborated on songs such as "Beautiful" and "Drop It Like It's Hot."

In an interview with Los Angeles' Power 105 last June, Pharrell talked about how amazing Snoop's album is.

"Snoop's album is better than mine," he told them. "You're gonna bug out from the approach of what we did. If I say the references, I'll just give it away. I'm so proud of Snoop. It's so jammin'...It's one of those things where it's so obvious...But it feels so good."

Pharrell went on to say he believed the effort will earn Snoop a Grammy.

BUSH will feature Uncle Snoop as Snoop Dogg. His last album, 2013's Diplo-produced reggae albumReincarnated, was put out under Snoop's temporary name, Snoop Lion. The album debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Reggae Albums chart. Later that year, he teamed with Dâm-Funk under the name Snoopzilla for their collaborative album 7 Days of Funk, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Album chart.

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Snoop Dogg, SXSW