Mumbai, Nov 17 (IANS): Hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg, who is known for ‘Drop It Like It's Hot’, ‘Gangsta Zone’, ‘Underrated’ and other tracks, has announced that he has quit smoking.

The rapper took to his Instagram and shared a monochromatic picture of himself with folded hands and his signature heavy eyes, and broke the news to his 82.4 Million followers.

He wrote on the picture, “After much consideration and conversation with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time (sic)”.

He wrote in the caption, “I’m giving up smoke (sic)”.

The news left his fans shocked and pleased in equal measures. While there were some in the comments section expressing their support to their idol for his decision, others were having a gala time reacting to his decision in their amusing ways.

One Internet user wrote, “The withdrawals are going to be a big battle if you need the recipe let me know”.

There was another who welcomed him to “sobriety”. The user wrote, “The courage, the boldness, the ability to announce that you’re stopping something that made you SO SO SO much money which created a character that you and all of us are used too is truly remarkable. As a sober man I speak for me and all of us sober people around the world, welcome to sobriety”.

A third user wrote, “I am here to take over”.

Another one wrote, “Gotta know the strain that made you come to this conclusion”.

Snoop Dogg has been known to be an avid smoker of marijuana. Over the years, the rapper has created a cult and a character of himself who is known to be on a perpetual “high”. There are many videos of him smoking outside The White House, the epicentre of world politics and on talk shows.

Then there are other videos of him passing a smoke to a security guard.