Australian officials mulling visa for rapper Snoop Dogg

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian officials said Wednesday they would carry out a full character assessment of US rapper Snoop Dogg before deciding whether to allow him to visit the country later this year.

The singer, whose real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr, applied in July for a visa which would allow him to tour with hip-hop star Ice Cube in October, a spokesman for the Department of Immigration said.

Broadus had not yet been granted the visa, the spokesman told AFP.

"The department has now decided that a full assessment of the character of Mr Broadus is required," he said.

The department will consider in its assessment the rapper's criminal history, which includes pleading no contest in a US court in 2007 to illegally possessing a gun and...