He is a former gang member who has convictions for drug dealing and a list of accusations which would make many criminals envious. But Snoop Dogg may have sealed the fate of that persona with his latest endorsement.

In what could be either the hammering of the final nail into the coffin containing his credibility or a celebration of a formerly deathly serious and earnest persona embracing his comic side, rap superstar Snoop Dogg has shed the pimp threads to don a velvet tuxedo and bad wig to croon out a famous folk song while endorsing a mobile phone offer on German TV.

Instead of the gang colors, gold chains and braided cornrow dreads, Snoop appears clad in the standard lounge singer outfit -- complete with bow tie and ruffled shirt -- with inky locks smoothed down into a groovy 1970's style to promote the service while crooning German easy listening star Roy Black's "Schön ist es auf der Welt zu sein".

After stepping out of the refrigerator in a bored young man's apartment, the former gangsta sways around the kitchen to the tune as a pair of his well-fed homies tinkle the ivories on a grand piano nearby and a couple of co-ed "bi-atches" crawl from the washing machine to dance deliriously by the Dogg. Meanwhile, the young man sits perplexed as the once edgy crime king-pin flaps his flairs and mimes badly to the German text.

Former criminal will do anything to be accepted

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Drug dealer, rapper, bloodhound...folk singer

The ad ends with Snoop -- real name Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. -- enjoying a bouquet of roses while his "be-sitches" snuggle up close to the former Crips member, apparently blissfully unaware that this smooth young man has a long list of accusations of violent behavior to his name.

The advert is the latest diversion from a path which seemed to be leading Snoop Dogg to a long stint in the pound. A gang member in his 'hood of Long Beach, California, the young Cordozar was jailed for cocaine trafficking, implicated in a long list of assaults and accused as an accomplice in a murder. Since finding global mega-stardom as a rapper, he has been slowly moving towards the mainstream and shedding his bad boy image along the way.

Appearing as a German folk singer to sell a mobile phone offering must surely rank of Snoop's most desperate attempt to leave the drugs and guns behind in his dim and distant past. And for a man who once voiced a bloodhound called Lightning in a movie about a racing zebra, that's saying something.