CHICAGO -- He's gone from being a ladies' man to brokering ladies of the night to speaking in front of church congregations. Now one of the first pimps to pay taxes for his street activity is turning into a recording artist.

Yes, Archbishop Don "Magic" Juan is putting out an LP.

"We damn sure doing that album," Snoop Dogg said last month in Cleveland about the project that he and his close friend are putting together. "It's called Game: General Amount of Money Earned.  He's gonna talk about his game and a lot of other people are gonna rap on it. A lot of his rap friends that's in the game owe him favors or wanna be down with him."

It seems like everyone in the hip-hop community wants to be down with Don Juan. Although the Bishop, who says he's an ordained minister and is even rumored to have his own church, mostly rolls with Snoop, MCs including 50 Cent, Nelly, Busta Rhymes, Rakim and Ice-T have shown him love in their videos or stage shows. Not to mention the countless number of mic marksmen who have referenced him in their lyrics.

Don "Magic" Juan Takes Chicago

"Well, let me see, Snoop heard about my game," the flamboyant holyman said, sitting in a hotel room in his hometown, recalling how he and the Dogg became friends. "He saw me at a concert [and I like] anybody [that's] attracted to what's real, so I came backstage. Me and some other players got a chance to kick it with him. The fellowship was good.

"We saw that we were in different areas, but we were really on the same level. I been there, he's been here. Him being a young player like that, I got a chance to be able to express some of the things that I feel through him, giving him this game. And that's what I do, man. I give our game and I like people to know game ain't just something you go and play. It's all about life."

Although the green-and-gold-plaid-wearing, pimp-stick-holding minister appears in the new video for 50 Cent's "P.I.M.P.," he frowns on the current hip-hop trend of MCs claiming to be pimps in their music.

"You know, they say a lot of things about pimping, but I want y'all to know something -- y'all can just keep that pimpin' out your mouth if you don't have a prostitute on the corner," said Don Juan, who sports glasses shaped like stars. "You're not pimping anything. It ain't the pimp game ... OK?"

The Bishop started off in the pimping game almost 30 years ago. Even back then, he said, he had a special connection to the man above.

"Well, first I started off as 'Don Juan,' " he said. "You know, 'Don Juan' is known to be a lover, so I continued to play as a lover and be successful. Then the pimp god, he gave me the name 'Magic' because I kept on playing the game so tough when everybody else seemed to be failing and turning another way. I stayed true to the game and he said, 'Well, you oughta be "Magic." ' Then the Bishop part is when I got saved in 1985. I've just been part of the chuuuuuch movement. So chuuuch."

Earlier in the day, the Bishop had been spreading his pimping goodwill throughout the streets of Chi-Town. Dressed in a green polka-dot suit to match his toenail paint, hat, boxer shorts, boots, Eldorado, iced-out pimp cup and diamond-studded sunglasses, he let everyone within earshot know that the day was going to be "official like a referee with a whistle." ([article id="1476163"]Click for photos of Don "Magic" Juan in Chicago[/article].)

"This is 'P.I.M.P.' for real!" Don Juan yelled over the sounds of a G-Unit mixtape blasting in his vehicle. "I'm the greatest player who ever played the game," he said before walking into a hotel to meet with peers like Mr. Chicago and Snoop Dogg.

The true fanfare, however, would happen in the Archbishop's room, where he and Snoop sang songs and the Magic Man unveiled enough custom-made suits that he could go three weeks without wearing the same outfit. He also had jewelry and personalized turntable covers with spray-painted pictures of himself on them.

"I mean, I've got to be dressed from head to toe," he said of his famously conspicuous fashion sense. "I don't do like a lot of other people -- get up and put on [my] jeans and gym shoes. I like to be dressed for occasions. You don't know what might be jumpin' off. Somebody might say, 'Let's go to a wedding or let's go perform.' I want to be ready so I don't have to get ready."

--Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by [article id="1453178"]Sway Calloway[/article] and Kevin Slimko