1
[Nate Dogg] Hey, this Nate Dogg.
Blow some stuff, Doctor.
[Snoop Dogg] I got my natural
in effect for the Nine Trey.
[Nate Dogg] Y'all recordin'
audio on this motherfucker?
[man speaks indistinctly]
[laughing]
[Snoop Dogg]
Warren G, got the tape?
- [Warren G] Right here.
- [Snoop Dogg] Put it on.
[Snoop Dogg] One thing about
magic, when you makin' magic,
the ingredients sometimes
don't come with instructions.
You just gotta know
how to put that shit together.
["Flash Light"
by Parliament playing]
Now I lay me down to sleep
Ooh, I just can't
Find a beat
- Flash light
- Ohh I will never dance
Flash light
Flash light
Flash light
Ha-da-da-dee-da
Hada-hada-da-da
Oh it's no use
- Flash light
- Red light
- Neon light
- Ooh stop light
Now I lay me down to sleep
I guess I'll go
Count the sheep
Oh but I will never dance
Everybody gotta
Feel the light
Under the sun
[echoing]
["Summertime in the LBC"
by The Dove Shack playing]
Summertime
Yeah this is C-Knight
From The Dove Shack
Gettin' dojahed out
Kickin' it at King's Park
With all the homies
[chuckles]
Shit.
Hey you know what I'm sayin'
So why don't you, uh
Check out my homie
Bo to the Roc
Hear this little solo thing
I ride with the
I slide with the
Locs and doggs
From the LBC
All of the tricks
Wanna kick it with me
'Cause I run with Warren G
Braid your weaves
Bustaz and G's
[Warren G] I was
raised off of 21st & Lewis,
pretty rough side
of the east side of Long Beach.
- East Siders
- East Siders
Growing up on the east side,
it was fun. It was cool.
Lotta sports, activities.
Ways to make money.
No matter what it was, you know,
we could get that at King Park.
King Park was the epicenter
of where all our
relationships started.
- It was our home.
- Let me hear you say
Ooh ooh ooh ooh oh
Ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh
Summertime in the LBC
[Warren G] I would walk
to school in the morning,
me and my sister,
Snoop and his mom...
His mom used to walk him
across the park
to go to school
at the same time.
So we used to see each other
goin' across the park.
[Snoop Dogg] When we would
see each other at King Park,
we would always, you know,
click and hang out.
It was every time you
seen Warren, you seen Snoop,
every time you seen Snoop,
you seen Warren.
["That Lady, Pt. 1 & 2"
by The Isley Brothers playing]
United Teens was a man
named Jeff in a blue van.
We called the van the Voltron,
and we was the Voltron Crew.
He used to pick us up,
take us to different
neighborhoods to sell candy.
We would work real hard,
we would sell all of the candy
that's in the boxes,
and all we would get
out of the deal
was, like, $25, maybe.
You know,
we'd go to school, $15, $20,
you ballin', you know
what I'm sayin'?
And we was able to, you know,
learn how to hustle,
learn how to communicate
and have dialog and dialect.
And to be articulate,
knockin' on doors,
"Hi, Ma'am,
we're with United Teens,"
and learnin'
how to sell product
and, you know,
look somebody in the eye.
And that went
a long way with us
because it was like a skill
that wasn't being handed down
in the neighborhood.
Nobody was teaching this.
And most of the guys
that did that,
back when we were kids,
all of them niggas got money
or got jobs.
[Warren G] He gave us the
opportunity to make something,
even though he was makin'
a lot of money off of us.
We weren't smart enough
to understand everything.
["The Message" by Grandmaster
Flash & The Furious Five playing]
[siren]
Towards the late seventies,
music had
begin to change, and
hip-hop was being created.
You could just see
breakdancin'
and pop-lockin' and rappin',
you know, become the new
sensation in the neighborhood.
[Kurupt]
And when it comes to hip-hop,
it was New York and Philly
that really connected.
That was the core of it.
[Chuck D] And the record
company, mainly the majors,
they only sold it as vinyl,
'cause they didn't think that
hip-hop and rap music
could sell albums.
And that was
the pioneering era.
[Ice Cube]
You know, hip-hop,
when it came out
in the eighties,
it... it gave us new hope.
You got to remember
that before rap,
you had to be in a band.
You know, you had
to really play instruments.
If you couldn't sing
or you couldn't play
no instrument,
you couldn't be
in the music business.
You know, not as an entertainer.
Hip-hop changed all that.
You know, say, yo,
if you got this other skill...
You know, if you can
make records like this,
you know, you can hit
the same stage
as Prince and Michael Jackson,
and, you know, all the stars
of the day.
[Ice T] And that was the
breakaway thing with hip-hop.
Average kids were able to make
a form of music.
[bell ringing]
[Snoop Dogg] Being in school,
helped me a lot as a rapper,
because battle rap was like,
you know, your 15 minutes
of fame back then
as far as having
a record deal.
Nobody really had deals
back then.
So I entered
into the battle rap world.
[Ice Cube] When you're an
amateur, that's all you got.
'Cause you gonna make your mark
at nutrition
or at lunch
on the same quad.
You know, everybody
gonna get around and rap
and gonna see who the best.
[Daz Dillinger]
It's like a gang fight.
You know, after school
you're ready to rumble.
And sometimes you win,
sometimes you might lose,
sometimes you might
have a fight.
Snoop was just...
was so talented, you know.
And I was his
hype-man/security/MC,
just, you know,
talkin' to the crowd.
I would call his battles out.
You know, I would tell him like,
"Snoop, da-da-da-da
wanna battle.
Let's go get him."
Warren G was like Don King
or a promoter,
'cause he would always,
you know,
say, "My homeboy
could do this and do this."
[Warren G] And I'd be
like, "Hold up, Snoop.
Wait a minute.
What's that right there?"
[Snoop Dogg] And I would rap about
whatever he was pointin' at.
"Hey, Snoop, what about
that right there?"
"Oh, you talkin'
about the water bottle?"
Goin' off on him, off a bottle.
Dogg would bust like that.
And he'd be like, "Hey, Snoop,
what about this Chinese food?"
And he would rap about it
and break it down.
And make it work towards
whoever he's battling.
It was incredible the things
that he could do.
As far as Nate, Nate came
from Mississippi as a kid,
and he rode right
into what was goin' on.
[airliner landing]
[Snoop Dogg]
First time I met Nate Dogg was,
uh, Poly High School in 1986.
We had a science class.
I was beatin'
on the table, I think
to a Rakim song that came out,
"I Ain't No Joke,"
and I was doin'
that beat on the table,
and I was rappin'
and freestylin'.
And Nate was sittin', like,
right on the side of me.
And he started, like, singin'
and freestylin'.
And we just... we jammed.
Snoop was like, "Man, you need
to get down with me and Warren."
Back in the days
At Poly High
Yo, check me, yo
Back in the days
At Poly High
Got to get your scrap on
Do or die yo
Back in the days
At Poly High
Old school
Old school mother...
[Warren G] I didn't even know
that Nate could sing like that.
The soulfulness
that was comin' from his voice
was just... was incredible.
Just woke up
Off my bed
And to my surprise
I had to brace myself
I couldn't believe my eyes
[indistinct]
[man] Hey! This shit burn
my motherfuckin' eyes, man!
She said to listen homes
[Snoop Dogg] Nate Dogg was lettin'
me use his car for the prom,
'cause I didn't have no car.
And we used his car
for, um, grad night
or whatever that was
when you go to Magic Mountain,
and we dogged his shit out.
I mean, me and Warren G
drove that mothafucka
till the brakes was gone.
And that was like... [chuckles]
That was like the first time
213 was really like...
We got a group, man.
And, uh,
we just started creatin'.
[Snoop Dogg]
And we liked the group 415,
which was from the Bay Area,
so we was like,
"Shit, we gonna be 213,"
'cause we
from Southern California.
[Warren G]
Nate was the soulful vocalist,
but keeping it gangster
at the same time.
I was the producer/artist/DJ,
and Snoop was just like
the architect, the player,
the pimp, the gangster,
all in one.
We wasn't shit
until we all came together
and took all of those powers
and maximized our strengths.
You know, people knew
who we were,
so we would come in the club
and come in and just turn
the whole club upside down.
You know, and I set it off.
You drink whiskey
I drink wine
Come on everybody
It's gangster time Boom!
[hip-hop music playing]
You know, those were,
like, some of
the funnest times of my life.
[Snoop Dogg] It was just
Snoop, Nate Dogg, Warren G,
always was about the group.
All of us.
[Warren G] Music, family,
you know, and just friends.
That's what it was.
That's how we became
popular in the city.
You know, that's when 213
actually started
to mean something.
[Snoop Dogg] Naturally the
neighborhood loved it, but...
it's trying to get
the world to love it.
And once we would
take our cassette
to certain people and have
meetings with record labels
or executives or whatnot,
or people that we could get
to at that time,
we weren't what they
were lookin' for. Never.
[funk music playing]
[Warren G]
Dre came into my life,
I probably was around
seven, eight years old.
My father married Andre's mom.
I didn't have no brothers.
["La Dre" Bolton]
People say they're brothers,
people say
they're step-brothers,
I say they're brothers.
They grew up
in the same house, so...
Dre, at the time, too,
was really trying to figure out,
you know, his path in the game.
You know,
I mean, he was producing
World Class
Wreckin' Cru's stuff,
but I don't know if his heart
was totally into that style.
So he started working
with Eazy-E and me
and started doing
the NWA thing.
[Warren G] The World Class
Wreckin' Cru and the NWA,
they inspired us a lot,
you know.
We was around that
and just wanted to be like them.
Oftentimes, Warren would come to
the studio to hang out with us.
Um, this was before Death Row.
I mean, you know,
I knew Warren G was...
He was always there.
So I never not saw him.
[Warren G] We shot Dre a tape of some
of the music that we had, but...
I don't even know
if he listened to it or he...
He did or he didn't.
He was just like... [scoffs]
Snoop used to
get discouraged a lot,
you know, because
wasn't nothin' happenin'.
My mind was tellin' me,
you know,
"Man, fuck this rap shit.
Ain't no money in it."
So I would give up
and not focus on my craft.
At one point,
I had got so frustrated
where I just took
all of my rhymes,
I had about, like, 100 raps
all wrote down on paper.
I just took all
them motherfuckers
and just threw them
in the trash,
like, "Fuck this shit.
It's all what..."
And motherfuckin' Warren G
went in that motherfucker
and pulled all them
out of the trashcan.
All of them.
It's like, you know,
to be able to believe
in somebody
to where it's like,
"You know what,
I can't let you give up
because your dream
is our dream.
If you make it, we make it."
[Warren G] You had three guys
that, you know, was talented,
but at the same time,
we still was tryin'
to survive and really
the only way we knew
to get money was to...
you know, get into the,
you know, the drug trade.
[Too Short]
Go find me a rapper
who didn't start his career
on crack cocaine profits.
There was not
a lot of people who saw
the path of staying away
from that shit.
'Cause you taste it,
you're hooked.
You try it, you're hooked.
If you sell it, you're hooked.
[George H. W. Bush] Frequent use has
almost doubled in the last few years,
and that's why
habitual cocaine users,
especially crack users,
are the most pressing
immediate drug problem.
All of a sudden, you had
this influx of this new drug
that's making all kinds of money
and creating addicts.
You know, I remember doing
music, and we were doing clubs,
and cats was hyper in the club
till like 6:00 in the morning.
We thinkin' it's just the music.
Nah, cats was...
back there, like, zoned out,
not even blinkin'.
Dope game just
blew out of proportion in L.A.
and cross-country.
To win in the war against
addictive drugs like crack
will take more
than just a federal strategy.
It will take
a national strategy.
[Daryl Gates] It is a rock
house and a smoke house.
That is they buy rock here
and smoke it here.
[Nancy Reagan] I can't say enough
for the, uh... for the police
and the SWAT team,
They're just doing
a fantastic job.
[Too Short] When you have a
million-dollar business,
and it's street money illegal,
you gotta protect it.
We went from just guys havin'
six shooters and shotguns
and shit like that
to fuckin' M16s
and all this shit.
Man, it's like
you got a fuckin' gun
that's gonna shoot...
pop pop pop pop pop pop...
and not stop
for a long fuckin' time?
This influx of drugs,
guns, addiction,
Reagan and Bush
disenfranchisement.
[Kurupt]
When Reaganomics kicked in,
it took away
all the after-school programs.
So what else is there
for you to do
but hang out in the streets?
You got your friend
comin' over to you,
talkin' 'bout,
"I got $500 for doing this."
And you're like,
"For real? Dang!
How can I get me some?"
It all started to turn
into a cocktail.
You know, more murders went up,
it separated
territorial groupings
and made them hardcore
gun gangs and drug gangs.
[police officer, on radio]
9-3 and 3-0-8.
13-03's behind the unit.
[police officer 2] 13-43. Stopping
the vehicle, Central and 40th Place.
[police sirens blaring]
[helicopter]
[Snoop Dogg] We got involved
with all of the wrong shit.
Gang-bangin', sellin' drugs,
shootin', gettin' shot at,
watchin'
the homies go to jail.
I mean, all of the above.
I was like, "Look, man,
we can't keep doin' this.
You know, you goin' to jail,
me goin' to jail.
We got to let
all this stuff go, man,
and just be some squares."
My theory was if we did that,
we would get blessed.
[photographers shouting]
I don't know what made me call
my brother Dre.
I just called him, like,
"Man, what's up?" you know.
Just to say hi.
And he was just like,
"Shit, come up to
this bachelor party we havin'."
So I was like, "All right."
[2Pac] California
knows how to party
California knows
How to party
In the city of L.A.
In the city
Of good ol' Watts
I was getting married.
Dr. Dre was my best man.
We had a few guys
come over to the party.
My last night of freedom,
Warren G being one of them,
and, uh, the DJ
ran out of music,
so Warren presented me
with his demo tape at the time,
and we popped it in, played it,
heads went to bobbin'.
Of course, Dre wanted to know,
"Who was that?"
and I told him, "That's 213."
[Warren G] And I was like,
"Snoop, I seen Dre
and I played
some of our music,
and he liked it, man."
Snoop was like,
"Fuck that shit,"
boom, hang the phone up.
[Snoop Dogg] Warren G was always
pushin' to get Dre to hear me.
Whenever Dre would come by for
a family function or a holiday,
Warren G was like "Snoopy, rap.
Snoopy can rap."
He's like, "Oh, okay."
And I'm like, "Okay,
he ain't payin' no attention."
[Ice T] Snoop was exactly
what Dre needed at that time.
Eazy had gone this way,
Cube had gone that way,
Dre needed a rapper.
So I called him again.
I said, "Snoop, please, look,
Dre want us to come
to studio on Monday."
And it just was like,
"You know what?
We gonna go see Dre,
see what he talkin' 'bout."
And we went to go see him,
we never came back.
[funk music playing]
One thing about music,
it always has a forefather,
and it always has a generation
that takes it to the next level.
G-Funk, to me,
is the extension of P-Funk.
P-Funk was created by George
Clinton of the Parliament.
P-Funk is the combination
of all the eras of funk
that we've done.
Parliament started in
the fifties as a doo-wop group,
came through Motown,
then we started doing
the psychedelic
Jimi Hendrix thing
with Funkadelic,
and then we got horns
and all that mixed together
and we called it P-Funk.
On the West Coast,
it was religion.
We were raised
on Parliament-Funkadelic.
["(Not Just) Knee Deep"
playing]
[Ice T] Funk was all
I had to grow up on.
Parliament came on,
I could boogie, baby.
That was like
the most gang-bangin' shit ever.
Boy was it neat yeah
Not just knee deep
She was totally deep
When she did
The freak with me
Well, my musical background was
basically given to me
hands-on by my mama first.
["Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield
playing on stereo]
My mama loved great music.
She had a bar where she had
eight-track cassette players.
Always had parties
in the living room.
Man, my mama partied
Monday through Monday.
[Mayfield]
Hush now child
And that's how
it was back then.
You know, her friends
would come over,
there would be partyin',
drinkin',
music in the living room,
and all the kids
would be in the back room.
And then, me, I would come out.
And I'd come out there and dance
and bump with a big fat girl,
you know, do my thing
and whatnot.
You may find
From time to time
The entertainer side of me
was being groomed
without me even knowing it.
My family members and my mom
would be the ones who would
encourage me to be,
like, the life of the party
at the age I was at.
Party, dance,
and, occasionally, sip
some Schlitz Malt Liquor bull.
You hear me?
My mama was like,
"Snoopy how you feel?"
I said, "How the hell
you think I feel?"
[laughs]
And then she's like,
"You ain't never havin' another
drink again a day in your life.
You ain't
gonna talk to me like that."
Just move on up
That's how I got my first dose
of real good music,
you know,
the R&B, the Betty Whites,
the Isley Brothers,
the Gap Bands,
the Curtis Mayfield,
Marvin Gayes,
all of the above
came from Mama.
So hush my child
[Warren G]
I'm a very soulful person.
I like to do music
to make people to feel good.
And that came from, you know,
being around my father.
["Lowdown"
by Boz Scaggs playing]
I'd come over,
stay with him, uh...
He had his little plants,
and, you know, he would water
his plants, and...
you know, he would go in
you know, to his room, and...
I would smell the smell.
I didn't know
what it was... back then.
I would just lay down
by the records,
you know, with my headphones on
that he got me,
and just listen
to music all day.
["Lowdown" continuing]
Everything's supposed
to have a period, time period
and supposed to
get out of there.
People didn't have
enough of funk
when our time was over.
There was always
the area funk
that was laying around,
that was always in the crates
of that uncle
who might've just collected 45s.
So when we go
make our own music,
we're just kind of doing an
interpretation of what we grew up on.
You got these influences.
[Ice T]
The G-Funk was really like
bringing Parliament
and bringing that sound
to hip-hop.
["V.S.O.P." playing]
Very fine
[Warren G] The "G" in
G-Funk stands for Gangster.
Above The Law was the group
who made me a part
of what was goin' on,
which was the Gangster Funk.
Gangster Funk.
That's our shit,
we some gangsters,
we make funky music,
we talk gangster shit,
music sound good,
makes you feel good.
Sounded like
gang-affiliated street,
hip-hop music coming
from the underbelly of society
despite the melody.
It was poppy, but under it,
you could hear the grit.
Well, the East Coast
perspective of G-Funk,
you know, is the East Coast
perspective, back then, of funk.
[Russell Simmons] Funk
didn't get played in New York.
'Cause New York's
on this rhythm,
there was only certain records
that New York wanted to hear.
We were disconnected
from our black music.
We had disco music,
so we missed funk.
People always
try to differentiate,
like, West Coast rap
from East Coast rap.
I always would say it has to do
with the lifestyles.
New York, you have
a static lifestyle.
You're on the train,
everything is in front of you.
When you're listening
to something smooth, G-Funk,
it doesn't really match
walking through Times Square.
[Chuck D] The beats that
were coming out of the East
were, like, 90, 95,
100 beats per minute.
But in L.A., you in
your low low, you rollin',
you need somethin' to ride to.
Go funky,
and funky meant
droppin' it down
to 80 beats per minute,
get some instrumentation
in there, and ride it out.
[Warren G] It was sine waves,
it was, you know, oscillators
and bass guitars and guitars
at the same time with keys.
You know,
all mixed up in melody.
And nobody was doin' that,
and that's what
was changing the game.
[man] Yeah, but
they brought up all that punk,
'cause I didn't see
if it was Chronic.
If it was Chronic,
it would have been no problem.
[man 2] They brought up
some Backyard Boogie...
[Dr. Dre]
Summer of '92, you know,
there was about 20 guys
staying at my house at the time.
You know, Snoop, Warren,
all the guys,
just, um, that were
on The Chronic,
they were involved
in that album.
Turn the music up, cuz.
Come here, Warren G.
[Warren G] Movin' in with Dre, he
was just being a big brother to us
and giving us a place to stay,
because...
he knew that...
a lot of the situations
that was going on
where we was from,
it wasn't cool.
You know what I'm sayin'?
So he took us out
of the urban community,
away from the drive-by's
and stuff
to create some dope records
that we were doin'
for The Chronic.
["Funky Drummer (Bonus Beat
Reprise)" by James Brown playing]
Snoop, D.O.C., RBX,
Daz, Kurupt,
they were all the guys
that would write.
Rage, Nate, and Jewell,
they're role was
to create melodies.
I was the guy that'd go out
and go buy records and find
ideas and stuff like that.
And then if he liked it,
I was like,
"Take it.
I mean, we're family."
It wasn't, like,
on no business shit like,
"I did this or that." No.
You my big brother,
and I'm with you.
I'm ride or die with you.
So whatever I do,
you can take that shit.
I would come in and show him
a few things every now and then.
But he basically
picked it up on his own.
He actually taught me how,
you know, to start samplin'.
You know, so I started
gettin' the records,
I started samplin'
different sounds
and makin' my own shit.
"Little Ghetto Boy,"
he brought that... that sample.
[man] Wassup.
Rhythm Rock live.
We're in the studio
meeting the killaz.
We got Warren G right here.
You better work
on yourself, man.
Here's a song called
"Back in the Day."
[Donny Hathaway]
Little ghetto boy
[Warren G] One of the
ones that he really liked
was the "Let Me Ride" sample.
And he took it and re-did it.
Dre just went back to, you know,
Leon Hayward, 1974,
"I Want To Do
Something Freaky To You."
Big, you know, black hit.
He's old enough to know that.
New kids not old enough
to know it exists.
Figure that out, figure out
how to run the studio,
find somebody with
a rap style over it, boom.
You got an old cat diggin' it
on their memory,
you got a young cat diggin' it on the
rhythm that's already in their blood.
Crank the beat up for me.
Motherfuckin' Dr. Dre
Is on the piano
Doggie Dogg
Is on the vocals
And I swing like soprano
An old tin can-o
Oh my God like oh man-o
It's Snoop Doggie Dogg
He's on the mic
You understand as well
[The D.O.C.]
Once Snoop came in,
and we decided
that this is the person
that we're going to work with,
this is the road we gonna take,
I took it upon myself to
put the kind of
energy into him
it would take for him
to be great.
["Atomic Dog"
by George Clinton playing]
Yeah, this is a story
Of a famous dog
Rhythmic dogs
Harmonic dogs
House dogs street dogs
[Snoop Dogg] D.O.C., that's
when he became my sensei
and my... my writing guru.
Dr. Dre and D.O.C.
had a bond with Snoop.
It's called artist development,
'cause Dr. Dre had the beats,
D.O.C. with the lyrics.
We would go to his house
to write the songs
and get the music
and create the ideas.
We took the beat home
from Dre's place.
We'd walk up the street
to the store
and get us some
Miller Genuine Drafts.
And we'd sit down,
we'd listened to the thing,
and I said,
"Okay, now you take the beat.
You go upstairs, I'm gonna stay
down, and we're gonna write.
He would go upstairs,
take about an hour, we meet up,
he goes down what he wrote.
"That part is
really cool, Doggy,
the way you started it off
was kinda iffy.
So let's erase these four,
let's move these eight up.
Let's make four new ones.
Now we got sixteen."
Now you understand what it takes
to make a verse complete,
from beginning to end,
no flaws,
everybody can ride.
There are no mistakes.
Atomic dog
Bow wow wow
Yippie-yo yippie-yay
Bow wow yippie-yo
Dr. Dre is a bad motherfucker
in the studio,
meaning that you could be doin'
this shit that sound like this,
and when he finished with it, that
mothafucka gonna sound like that.
Even with me, when I came
to Dr. Dre, I was good,
but he made me great.
Like, that's what he has
the ability to
make you great, to shine you up,
to polish you up.
Like I said earlier, I deserve
a lifetime achievement award.
[Kurupt] You know, everybody
knew a little somethin',
but Dr. Dre enhanced it,
developed it,
and helped it to evolved
to a higher level.
Yeah, man,
The Chronic is like, you know,
it's the bomb thing on the
street right now, you know?
And I figure, you know, my album is
the bomb, so I had to call it that.
[Deion Sanders] Rap has always
been like the NFL, man.
Some cats are Pro-Bowlers,
other ones are just good,
But The Chronic was like,
you know, shoot,
that was Hall of Fame
type stuff, man.
I had the same feeling about that
album back then as I do now.
Wow! Dang!
Of that era,
that was the best album.
It had everything
you could want in a record.
Political, socialism,
fun, enjoyment.
And it was revolutionary
because it was transcending,
and it was gonna
change the world
to have different people
who never would listen
to hip-hop listening to hip-hop.
When we get somebody like Dre
and you have access
to all that good talent,
it was just a masterpiece.
When The Chronic was released,
that was your introduction.
'Cause we already knew Dre
from Wreckin' Cru,
we knew Dre from NWA,
but now you got Dr. Dre
as a producer again,
but he's introducing you to cats
that you've never heard of.
Now you can look and
you can say, "Oh, Snoop Dogg,
Lady of Rage, Daz, Kurupt,"
those are names that you've
been knowing for years.
These dudes was
masters of their craft.
It was like a dern dream team
right here on one album.
[Too Short] The songs never really
ended before the next one started.
It was... they fused together,
and it just...
It was an experience.
You weren't allowed
to skip to the next song.
You just listened to the album
and let it play.
I think what made
The Chronic different
than anything
that came before it,
was that you heard voices
matched with
great production concept.
It was a story.
It told a story of an era
in Los Angeles, California,
around the riots.
If NWA scared you,
for whatever reason,
Snoop, Dre and everybody was pretty
much saying some ill shit, too.
They just
presented it different.
I don't believe that
white America could take NWA
as much as they could
take The Chronic.
NWA opened their eyes,
but The Chronic
opened their ears.
They didn't understand
what NWA was goin' through
when they was sayin', "Fuck the
police, they doin' this to us.
This is then dah dah."
But when The Chronic came out,
Rodney King got his ass beat.
"Oh, that's what you niggas
was talking about."
[sirens]
[The D.O.C.] It's funny.
It seemed like a time
black folks as a culture
were progressing.
The Cosby era.
But when I got to California,
the police was doin'
those dudes real bad.
[male TV reporter] The 362 page
report was unsealed this morning,
presenting what one
high-ranking official said
was an ugly picture
of his own department.
[police commander] What the
report clearly says to us
as the leaders of the
Los Angeles Police Department
is mediocrity is alive and well.
[Ice T] L.A.P.D. is
a totally different type
of police force
than any other.
And when they come out of those
cars, they're on a mission.
They're never coming
out that car
to talk to you,
to be nice.
I got a bunch of stories.
They always used to whoop on us.
You could be, um,
in your white shorts,
and that motherfucker be like,
"Lay on the ground."
Then they'd pat you down,
let you go,
your clean white pants
are now brown and black.
Guy rolls off
like it never happened.
I got arrested,
uh, for some warrants,
and on the way to the station,
I got a beatdown.
I mean, straight up beat.
Boom!
[British reporter] If they're
acquitted, there'll be an outcry,
a lasting fear and mistrust
of the law in L.A.
I don't think Rodney King's
beating was a big deal
to anybody who was
from anywhere in the streets.
That was just another nigga
got his ass whooped,
except on camera.
I have no complaints
about my police officers.
I watched them, I was there
on the streets for 36 hours.
And I watched them time
and time and time again.
Now, there's lots of ways
you could deal with this.
You could be mad at the police.
Call them out,
talk shit about it.
But at the end of the day
all we was saying is,
"We just want a fair shot."
[George H. W. Bush]
What we saw last night
and the night before
in Los Angeles,
is not about civil rights.
It's not about
the great cause of equality
that all Americans must uphold.
It's not a message of protest.
It's been the brutality
of a mob, pure and simple.
That affected my lyrics on Dr.
Dre's album, The Chronic.
Naturally the music is going to
depict what we're livin' like.
The lifestyle of the music
is the lifestyle of the person.
Eased rap,
stories that are relative.
Yeah, there's gonna be
some anger in some of it,
'cause the anger
never dissipates
until it has clarity
of education.
It's commentary. We were
speaking, not just to us,
we were speaking
to the world.
What do you think the reason
people were so into the album?
Why do you think?
'Cause, you know, it's just
some funky shit, you know.
There's nothing out right now
that can compare to that album.
You know, I spent a whole
year working on it.
This is the longest I ever
spent workin' on a project.
And, um...
it definitely deserves...
deserves everything
it's gettin' right now.
You know,
'cause its a good album.
You know, people want
to hear some good shit.
[Kurupt] Dr. Dre took
a chance on all of us,
and it paid off in many ways,
not just financially,
just being a part
of hip-hop history
by puttin' entities in the game
that helped change the game.
Never play
your life like...
This is a song I composed.
When I first made it,
I took it home,
and I played it for my mama.
[man] And I'd like to
play it, and here it go.
And, uh,
when I played it...
She looked at me and said, "Boy, I know
you're not gonna sing another song."
- Yeah.
- Chronic, baby!
Check it out!
My Chronic on
Your motherfuckin' ass
With my naked dance
Yo, just
sing just like that...
When I went to the earlier sessions
before the Suge influence,
they were havin',
like, a party, man.
They were...
they were like a family.
And we sittin' here
with Dr. Dre right here.
Gin and juice.
[funk music playing]
[The D.O.C.] Nobody was
thinkin' about money,
which is why
the music came out great.
Dre, he's not greedy at all.
He's probably the most
nonchalant with money
and with the business
part of it,
because he's not sittin' here
going, "What can I get?"
He's like, "What can I create?"
- [plays chord]
- Dee dah dah
[laughs]
[glissando]
Suge took over.
It was a different vibe there.
It was a little more intense.
[Kurupt] And Suge was the CEO.
He ran the whole ball game.
You know what I'm saying?
He ran Death Row.
Dr. Dre just gave us the lane
to do what we loved to do.
We loved to make music
and work and all that.
And Suge made sure
we had that lane
and made sure
that lane was clean.
[The D.O.C.]
Suge didn't do shit musically.
Suge wouldn't know
a hit record
if you took
a Parliament Funkadelic album
and slapped him
in the face with it.
But he helped
facilitate the deals
that put us in a place
to be able to do shit.
And then
once we started doing shit
then he started going and making
back door deals by himself.
He started to bring in people
that he termed as "security."
[Too Short] Suge had all these,
like, gang-banger kinda cats
all over the place,
and then you'd come in the door
and like, "You got a gun on you?"
and if you did,
they were like,
"Can you just check it
right here at the front desk?"
so they'd open up the drawer,
and there'd be like
20 guns in the fuckin' drawer.
You're like, "Man,
where the fuck am I at?"
[Warren G] At that time, we was right in
the middle of doin' a lot of good music,
and we was creatin'
some dope records.
Things was movin'
in the right direction,
so there was a tour
for The Chronic.
I was charged up,
'cause I'm like,
"Shit, I'm gettin' ready
to go on tour."
And, uh... packed up clothes,
everything, and, uh...
got up to the airport,
and everybody
had a ticket but me.
My best friend, my brother,
everybody out havin' fun,
and I'm sittin' up here
just tore up.
Warren G was a part
of The Chronic album, too.
Don't get it fucked up.
He brought a lot music
and, you know, ideas and,
you know, shit to the table,
skits and this and that.
It made me feel like, you know,
"Motherfuckers
don't even give a fuck."
You know what I'm sayin'?
It's like,
"Damn, I thought I was...
really tight, you know,
with... in the... in the family."
And it was fucked up, man,
it was real fucked up,
'cause it was like
you could just see
the frustration in his face.
And it was like it was hard
for him to deal with it.
It was real hard
to deal with it.
[Warren G] It was a very,
very devastating situation.
Just me not being able to go
and be a part of the people
who I was down with,
you know, with 110%.
Warren G was never signed
to Death Row records.
And they did it
so scandalous to where
they didn't present
him a contract.
Nate didn't sign, either,
but he was so tight,
Dr. Dre couldn't do a record
without Nate.
In my hand,
it says "all access."
I got it goin' on here.
[Kurupt]
Suge was fuckin' with Warren.
He was treatin' Warren funny.
It was real
fucked up because...
I'm not sayin' that Dre knew,
but I felt like
he could've made it happen.
We're here live
in the house.
[Snoop Dogg] And then one day they
called me up to another floor,
and the contract was there.
And I'm askin',
"Where's Warren G?
and, you know,
the rest... Nate Dogg?"
"Oh, they gonna
come do theirs later."
I went to Dre,
and I talked to him.
You know,
and he was just like,
"You know,
you gotta be your own man.
I don't want you
to go through no bullshit,
so just go out
and create your own shit,
you know, on your own."
But, me,
uh, being such a fan of him,
it hurt.
I think Warren G
is one of the unsung heroes
when it comes
to that whole crew.
[The D.O.C.] Without Snoop,
there is no Chronic.
Without Warren,
there is no Snoop.
That early explosion,
had a lot to do with Warren G.
He was there and Dre
is not the kinda guy
who gives everybody
detailed credits.
We was just kickin' it around.
I put some samples together.
Snoop and D.O.C. came over
and put some lyrics to it,
and, uh,
just put it together like that,
and it was the bomb.
Nobody gets to make a record
that Dre doesn't control.
He's not gonna
barter his brand,
and so if Dre doesn't see you
as valuable behind a microphone,
then your work is dead
in the water, period.
That was supposed to be
the thing that made us all win.
When it cracked,
it's just the thing
that made Suge and Dre win.
Warren G,
he didn't get anything.
Death Row pushed him out
when it started to explode.
[Warren G] After that, that kind
of, like, made me feel like
I gotta go do my own thing,
so I went back to the hood,
you know, slept
on my sister's floor
and just started
tryin' to build myself
back into who I knew I was.
So, now, tell me a little bit
about Death Row Records here.
Death Row Records. Death Row
Records gonna be the next Motown.
- You know what I'm sayin'?
- Mm-hmm.
We buildin' up somethin'.
You know, the Chronic
album was the foundation,
Snoop's album is gonna be
another brick in the house
that Death Row built.
And I don't need
No type of support
I stand on my own two feet
I defeat any MC
Who tries to step to me
Blow 'em like ashes
Mashes with the DPGs
Niggas freeze at ease
Please I'm the S
Oh yes I guess I'm blessed
When I take the microphone
I don't be smokin'
[Snoop Dogg]
I would've never signed it
if I'd have known
he didn't have a deal.
You know,
it was thrown in my face
like everybody was signed.
And then once
I found out he wasn't,
what was I supposed to do,
go tell them,
"Hey, take my name
of the paper"?
I had to continue to do
what I was doin',
and this is what you wanted.
You've been wantin' me
to do this shit
for the longest.
I'm here now.
But at the same time,
I can't do it with you,
but I involved him
in everything that we did.
[Warren G] I was around Snoop
sessions around '93,
just bein' there
to try to be creative
and try to help my homeboy
be successful.
[music playing,
no audible dialogue]
Just seein' and watchin'
how far he went from being here
to growin' up
into a full fledged artist.
["Who Am I (What's My Name)?"
by Snoop Dogg playing]
From the depths of the sea
Back to the block
Snoop Doggy Dogg
Funky as the the The D.O.C.
Went solo on that ass
But it's still the same
Long Beach is the spot
Where I served my cane
Doggystyle was the most
anticipated rap album
of all time when it came out.
It was like you just
couldn't get enough Snoop.
- Snoop Doggy Dogg
- Yeah yeah yeah
Snoop Doggy Dogg
Everybody had heard Snoop
on The Chronic
and was waitin'
on his own record.
The stage was set.
[Big Boy] That was a record
that introduced the world,
not just to Dogg,
because we got The Chronic,
But I'm talking about
introduced the world to
what Long Beach was,
what this look was,
what "cuz" meant.
Then when you think about
the "What's My Name" video,
to be in Long Beach
and shoot that video on top of,
you know, the V.I.P.
It wasn't a pretty video
where it had to be
pretty ladies,
and it had to be
the most beautiful car.
It was like,
"Nah, I'm in the hood,
this is where I come from,
this is where they love me and
this is where they accept me."
Doggy Dogg Doggy Dogg
When he hit, he hit.
He hit it out the park.
He hit it out the park,
believe me.
Snoop Doggy Dogg in the house
With the fans like every day
And I'm right back up in here
With Dr. Dre
And like I said none
Of y'all can get with this
And none of y'all
Can get with that
[applause]
- Hey, Snoop, how you doin'?
- Excited.
You are?
Nancy Fletcher.
- Jewell.
- Warren G.
- How you doin', Snoop?
- I'm chillin'.
So what's the message that
you're trying to send out
on your new debut LP?
Just somethin' to groove to.
Get your mind off your problems.
Stop the violence.
Somethin' to groove to.
So I understand Dr. Dre is
a major influence on you?
It's all a family thing.
You know what I'm sayin'?
It's a Death Row coalition.
It's like his music
with my words.
It's like it's a family thing.
Somethin' to groove to.
Give it up for
Snoop Doggy Dogg.
[The D.O.C.] The day
that it was released,
me and Snoop just rolled
around L.A.
and saw the lines in all
the record stores, you know.
And I remember that because
he was so blown away by it.
He had to have known
on some level,
but I think Snoop is just
a really humble guy.
Everywhere I went,
all you could hear
was something coming out
somebody's window,
and it was Dogg
or the conversations of,
"Man, have you heard this one?
What's your favorite?"
[Too Short] Let's just hold
Snoop Dogg up on a pedestal.
He's a worldwide household name.
Icon. Iconic. Snoop Dogg.
That is the G-Funk
in a lightning bolt.
Like, that's it.
[Ice T] Snoop was dope.
I just wanted to hear more
and more music from him.
Such a cool person,
you know.
White girls turned Snoop Dogg
into a sex symbol,
you know what I'm saying?
Like, girls from our end,
they can say,
"Oh I love the hair,
I love this,"
but then MTV girls was like,
"Oh, my God, do you see this?"
[Snoop Dogg] "Doggystyle"
jumped straight pop.
Like, I was
number one pop album.
I'm tryin' figure out
how the fuck am I pop
when I don't make music
that popped?
There was always this perception,
like, you make a pop song
or a song
that has pop possibilities even,
that's not hip-hop.
But from a person who's cultural
and loves hip-hop,
that is very hip-hop.
[song continuing]
[Snoop Dogg]
Pop means that you're popular.
As real as I was,
as hard as I was,
as gangster as I was,
white America accepted it
faster than black America.
[The D.O.C.] White motherfuckers
smoke weed just like niggas,
probably more 'cause they don't
get in trouble for it.
[laughs]
You know? Shit.
They probably
on they bongs and shit
and havin' a good time.
They can relate to the Dogg.
So I became popular
with being the lead voice
from the Chronic album
that stepped into his own,
produced by Dr. Dre,
with a new spirit,
new feeling,
and a whole new swag.
Nobody had a swag
like mine that was hard
but in-pocket and mellow.
[Ice T] Snoop had
an original flow,
an original cadence,
an original look.
Never seen somebody
where they were
gettin' their hair braided
on the porch in their video.
You know what I'm sayin',
you'd never seen someone
doing a black Home Alone.
Aah!
[Chuck D]
His vocals was funk.
His vocals was some vocals
that people ain't
never heard like that.
You know,
Ice Cube was coming East Coast.
"I'm coming at you" style.
Snoop was
"I'm in the pocket" funk,
way in the back,
[Ice Cube] I'm a straight-up,
no-ice liquor,
and Snoop was one of them
Long Island Iced Teas.
You know, it's smooth,
it goes down nice,
it flows,
but it has the same effect.
He was laid-back.
He didn't really care about you.
But he'd shoot you.
That's why when I came,
I was the one and only.
And the number-one male
artist of the year is...
Snoop Doggy Dogg!
[cheers and applause]
[song playing]
You are responsible for the
producing of this album.
Now what goes
into being the producer
of a hit album
like this?
A lot of hard work, you know,
kickin' it in the studio.
A lot of people
like these people in the studio.
- You know what I'm sayin'?
- [cheering]
Everybody drops their two
cents in the bucket.
You know,
I can't do it by myself,
and we come up
with a masterpiece.
Dr. Dre, give it up.
[Warren G] You know,
things went the way they went.
I still wasn't gonna give up
on bein' a part
of what was goin' on.
You know, they was...
They my family.
One day,
I was up at the studio with...
You know, with...
with everybody, with Dre,
Snoop, and just everybody,
our whole crew.
And, uh, John Singleton
and Paul Stewart was up there,
you know, lookin' for songs
for their soundtrack.
I had recently got hired
by John Singleton
as the music supervisor
for his second film,
Poetic Justice,
and we talked about,
you know, trying to get a Snoop
record for our soundtrack.
So while I was
hangin' out the studio,
tryin' to get this Snoop
song, I met Warren.
I can see the lens
I mean it's Minolta
It's me Warren G breakin'
Shit like [indistinct]
And, uh,
Warren came up to me,
and I'll never forget,
he said...
"Man, can I play, you know,
this cassette for you?"
And I was like, "Okay,"
and we went out
to my Ford Explorer truck.
I pop in a cassette,
and I played it,
and it was a song
called "Indo Smoke."
It was me and Mista Grimm.
Smokin' on the bud
Feelin' kinda high
Sippin' on the gin
Feelin' kinda fly
A Warren G production
Sits in the tape deck
As Mista Grimm raps
Yes, we're signing this.
This is done.
I already knew I loved it.
I didn't have to hear any more.
I was sold.
And I was like, "What?"
Said,
"You gotta be kiddin' me."
I mean,
the 213 stuff was demos.
They never came out or anything.
So this was the first records
that ever came out by him.
Whoo hey
Now you know
Inhale exhale with my flow
Breakaway
Come again like this
The LB to the C
Two times don't miss
'Cause if you do you break
You get broke
Me and Mista G
And the Indo Smoke
[Warren G] "Indo Smoke"
opened up the flood gates
for a lot
of the record companies
to start reaching out to me.
'Cause "Indo Smoke" was
on the radio being promoted.
People was just like,
"Who is this guy?
Who's the other guy?"
They wanted to know
who we were.
[Russell] It's about
is there a melody?
Is it soft?
Is it accessible?
"Indo Smoke" was made to be
on the radio,
to go through the roof.
That was street
even though it had melody.
["Down with the King" playing]
Down with the king
Down with the king for years
About ten of 'em
I wanted to be
on Def Jam Records as a kid.
Def Jam was the home
of all of my favorites
The opportunity to be
on a label
with all these different groups
that I look up to and that...
and never think I was gonna
be able to be around them.
Or rather form a circle
Around a loud
'Cause brothers
Or others...
But I didn't know
that the company was in debt.
Def Jam was dying.
Def Jam wasn't making
no fuckin' hits.
They was dead.
We was wearin' their asses out.
Death Row, we was
the number-one label, period.
You understand me?
Gangster rap
and in this music industry,
but Def Jam
is historic for hip-hop.
You know, they'd had that huge
run with the Beastie Boys
and Public Enemy
and all that stuff,
and they had kind of lost
their way, so to speak.
Here's a company
that's 20 million in the hole,
and we had just reset
the company.
Polygram was in.
And the first thing
that came out was Warren G.
They needed something to
take them into the next realm.
And by that time, you know,
funk had gotten around.
G-Funk had been around,
and the East Coast record label
had to figure out how they
could kinda get in on this.
The signing of Warren G
to Def Jam at that point
was a lifesaver for the label.
- Is this filming?
- [man] Yeah.
Hey, this is Warren G,
you know what I'm sayin'?
This is live coverage,
you know what I'm sayin'?
My documentary.
I'm up here at the studio.
You know what I'm sayin',
handlin' business.
["Regulate"
by Warren G playing]
[Casey Siemaszko]
Regulators.
We regulate any stealin'
of his property.
We're damn good, too.
But you can't be
any geek off the street.
Gotta be handy with the steel,
if you know what I mean,
earn your keep.
Regulators! Mount up.
[Warren G] "Regulate"
was a song I did for my album.
What I told Nate to do
was sing...
you know,
"Let's tell a story,"
you know,
"just follow my lead."
So I set it off by saying,
you know,
"It was a clear black night,
a clear white moon,
Warren G was on the streets."
Tryin' to consume
Some skirts for the eve
So I can get some funk
Rollin' in my ride
- Chillin' all alone
Nate came in,
and he followed what I said.
He was like, "Just hit
the east side of the LBC."
On a mission tryin'
To find Mr. Warren G
Seen a car full of girls
Ain't no need to tweak
All you skirts know
What's up with 213
It's a duet,
you know what I mean?
It's like a great answer
back-and-forth kind of record.
[Simmons] Here's the way it's sang,
really melodic and no problems,
but it had
a threatening tone to it.
That's what made it cool,
right?
[Warren G] We would feed
off of each other.
We didn't even think
that it was gonna be
as big as it is today.
First time I heard "Regulate,"
like, "Dang, who's this?
This... You know what?
It's smooth."
I felt inspired
when I heard it.
You know, I felt something,
like, "Oh, shit, hit."
And then, of course,
he had Nate Dogg ridin' shotgun.
It was un-fuck-with-able.
That was like
a dream team right there.
That was like playing two on two
with anybody you want.
Y'all, come on,
let's go two on two, all right?
I got Nate Dogg.
I'm tweakin'
Into a whole new era
G-Funk step to this
I dare ya
Funk on a whole new level
The rhythm is the bass
And the bass is the treble
"Regulate"
was just such a smash.
It was just such a huge hit.
And it got full,
100% West Coast respect.
That's classic hip-hop.
That record goes down
in history.
And most people can say
that record word for word.
Chords strings
We brings melody
G-Funk
Where rhythm is life
And life is rhythm
There was no love lost
between Death Row and Def Jam.
Def Jam had Warren signed,
but Death Row had Nate.
You know what I mean?
And one can't can't do one
without the other.
Suge had a problem
with Nate Dogg
being on Warren G's shit
because he felt like Nate Dogg
was a part of Death Row,
but if Suge was
a great businessman,
he would've signed Warren G
the same day he signed me.
You allowed that to happen.
[Kurupt]
Warren wasn't goin' for it.
He wasn't scared of Suge.
So he was like,
"Man, fuck you,"
then he went and did
his own thing.
And, you know, Suge didn't like
none of that.
[Stewart]
At the end of the day,
everyone had
to kind of give in.
The song was featured on
the Above the Rim soundtrack,
which is an amazing soundtrack
on Death Row Records,
one the best soundtracks
ever made, and
was Warren's first single
from his album.
It was incredible to come out
on Death Row
and be the lead single
on a Def Jam record.
Speaks a lot
to what a great song it was
and how popular it was
at the time, too.
The phone is ringin'
And I'm in the Benz
I don't wanna answer
'Cause I know
It's some chickenhead
Sure enough
When I picked up my phone
Supid-ass bitch
Wanted to come into my home
I'm contemplating now
Do I need to prove
[Warren G]
When I dropped my record
right before
the summer of '94,
it just took people by storm,
because they had never heard
nothin' like it.
["Do you See"
by Warren G playing]
[Stewart] I think one thing
about Warren's album was
you know, it had all
the great G-Funk elements,
but it was even more accessible
in some ways
than, like,
the Dre/Snoop stuff,
'cause it was more fun party,
less gangster.
Warren isn't
some big gangster,
and he kept it real
to who he is.
[Ice T] There's different levels
of gangster rap.
So Warren was more like,
"I'll shoot you if I have to"
type motherfucker, you dig?
Where a lot us were
"we're coming to get you"
type shit, you dig?
My reaction to hearin'
Warren G's debut album in '94
was classic because
Warren G wasn't a good rapper
as a kid to us.
We used to always clown,
'cause he used to take
all the Dr. Dre raps
before they came out
and be using those
and cheatin' and shit,
so when I heard him on there
rappin' and doing his shit,
his production was next level.
He was basically
on the same level as Dr. Dre.
Didn't use none of the shit
that I do, you know,
none of my sounds
or none of that shit.
He just came out
and did his own thing,
came up with his own shit,
which is dope.
[Stewart] His album was like
a runaway success.
It was very quickly
triple platinum.
This is Warren G,
you know what I'm sayin'?
[interviewer] Has it gone
platinum yet, Johnny?
It's platinum now.
- Almost double.
- Double.
It'll be double
by the end of next week.
[laughter]
I don't even think Russell
and Leore and them understood
what was really goin' on.
I'm an optimist,
so I thought we would survive
and we would grow and we would
do something innovative,
and, you know,
I didn't expect that deal
to go just the way it did.
Warren's music was worldwide
because the melody plays
no matter what the language.
He showed the pop potential
of hip-hop.
He saved Def Jam
with that record.
It was the biggest record
that they had
in a long time,
that's for sure.
[Simmons] Without Warren G,
we would've had
to sell the company,
we would've fell apart.
Without him, would we have
a Jay-Z or a Foxy Brown?
I don't know.
I don't think so.
We certainly wouldn't have
had the support
to go out
and build those acts.
[Snoop Dogg] I thought I was
like the biggest thing
in the world
when I went to Europe.
I performed for,
like, 50,000, 60,000,
Wembley Arena, you know
what I'm sayin', I'm popular.
So this time I go,
Warren G is already over there.
So I'm like,
"I got my homeboy in the house.
I'm gonna bring out
a special guest."
I bring this motherfucker
Warren G on stage.
What's up, man?
All 100,00 motherfuckers
stand up, lights.
I'm like, "This nigga
is Elvis over here."
[crowd screaming]
That's right.
All right. All right.
That's right.
I gotta give it up to
[indistinct]
[Warren G] I didn't really look
at myself as a superstar.
I didn't understand
what gold and platinum was.
And I was like, "This is what
I get for doin' music?"
Home videos, baby, yeah.
G-Funk rocks it every time.
Don't get it twisted, yeah.
Be-yotch.
The Lady of Rage,
Kurupt,
Daz and Snoop,
Nate Dogg and myself,
we loved it, loved it.
Bumped it and loved him
for doin' it.
But Suge reacted.
[Snoop Dogg] Suge Knight
was so fucked up at the time,
well, he wouldn't even allow us
to do shit for Warren G
without him tryin' to get paid.
[rhythmic banging]
[announcer] The 1994 Billboard
Music Awards will continue.
The 1994 Billboard Awards,
they asked us to do "Regulate."
Suge told Nate
he couldn't perform with me.
Nobody asked me to call Suge
regarding Nate's performance.
That's what I was there for.
I would've called.
So I don't think Warren
was afraid of him either
at that time.
[Warren G]
I had my people there.
We wasn't trying trying to
be the aggressors, you know,
but at the same time wasn't
nothing gonna happen to Nate,
'cause that's my homeboy.
It was a clear black night
A clear white moon
Warren G is on the streets
Tryin' to consume
Some skirts for the eve
So I could get some funk
Rollin' in my ride,
Chillin' all alone
[Nate Dogg] I just hit
the east side of the LBC
On a mission
Tryin' to find Mr. Warren G
Seen a car full of girls
Ain't no need to tweak
All of you skirts know
What's up with 213
[Warren G] So I hooks a left
On 2-1 and Lewis
I just think Suge know
that he fucked up
when he let Warren G go.
He always wanted to try
to get somethin'
off of the fact
that he coulda had Warren G.
[Stewart] It wasn't a good
reflection that this artist
who was part of his camp
and viewed as his camp
by almost everybody
left and kind of went
to this East Coast label
that he didn't like, Def Jam,
and had all this success.
You know, and we all know
how Suge deals with business
and negotiates.
Just throw your hands
In the air
And wave 'em like you
Just don't care
And if you're down
With Nate Dogg and Warren G
Somebody say oh yeah
[crowd]
Oh, yeah!
Oh, yeah!
[giggles]
Hello, Warren.
Hello, Patrick.
Just wanna say you guys...
you guys
know how to throw a party.
I just wanna say that...
that I'm having
a really good time
and that I'd like to play
a tune for you.
["Ain't No Fun"
by Snoop Dogg playing]
My nigga Warren, boy, this
the party of the year, nigga!
Gonna find Miss Tucker in here.
When I get married, I'm gonna
invite you to the weddin'!
[Too Short] During that era,
G-Funk sold more records
than any group
in any era number-wise.
[screaming]
No matter where we went
all over the world,
people embraced G-Funk
and what we did.
G-Funk was more
than just a sound.
See, G-Funk opened rap up
to a bigger audience,
because it would never go
out of style or come in style
because it was a melody.
[Big Boy] People were so
intrigued for whatever reason.
It could have been you
really enjoyed the music,
you really enjoyed
the lifestyle,
or you also felt
this little thing where
you felt like, man, this is-
you know, this is dangerous.
White folks is gonna always
be fascinated with niggas.
It's the nature of the beast.
[man] 'Cause I love...
the beat lives.
I've always
listened to it.
You know, white people
are gettin' into it.
[The D.O.C.] The reason they
fell in love with it is because
it's just dope, you know,
and they wish
they could do the shit.
[Big Boy] You'd see boxers
walk out to it.
You would see
football players.
You'd see cats from baseball,
that's their walk-out song.
[Sanders] You know, most people
in their locker rooms,
you know, trying to get...
hype themself up to play.
In Atlanta with the Falcons?
It wasn't nothin' but noise.
The head coach,
Jerry Glanville,
he brought
in these huge speakers
where it was a concert
in the locker room, man.
I wouldn't say
it crossed over
because when
something's so good
and something's
at another level,
it ain't a crossover.
It is what it is.
Like Jordan's so good,
Jordan ain't black or white.
Jordan's Jordan, man.
So when you hear
that beat drop...
the white dudes, yeah.
The black dudes.
The coaches.
The ball boys.
Everybody, you know?
It's the lifestyle
of partyin' and smokin',
drinkin', hangin'.
Everybody gotta get on.
It was like a new day.
That basically opened the door
for East Coast listeners
to feel cool
with playin' West Coast music,
because before that point,
niggas on the East
couldn't just play
West Coast music like that.
They was looked at as like,
"Nigga, what is you doin'
playin' that shit?"
until we made it
fashionably cool with the sound
that took over America
to where it was like,
"Oh, you not playin' it?
You the only nigga on the block
that ain't playin' it."
[Ice T] Everybody
had their own level of success,
so there wasn't no hatin'
goin' on.
We were handlin' business.
Business was getting handled.
But at the same time,
it was just too much fun
at that age to be makin'
that sort of impact
in the music industry.
It was just too much there
to not enjoy.
And I was like, "These dudes
is turned up, man.
They livin' la vida loca."
[woman] I got handcuffs
at home waitin' for you!
I got handcuffs waitin' for
you on my bed at home!
[sound fades]
[money counter clicks]
[jet engine whining,
pen scratching]
[Ice T] Death Row
had really come out
and really made a mark
in the music business.
Takin' rap's shine from New York
had never been done.
Death Row, you know,
they was the best
at that G-Funk style,
and only people that can
even... hint
or sniff in their direction
was Bad Boy at the time.
["Hypnotize"
by The Notorious B.I.G. playing]
Sicka than your average
Poppa twist cabbage
off instinct
[Snoop Dogg] Puffy, he
had started Bad Boy Records,
you know,
out there in New York.
Timbs for my hooligans
In Brooklyn
Dead right
If the head right
Biggie there e'ry night
Poppa been smooth
Since days of Underroos
[Snoop Dogg] He had signed
Biggie around this time,
and he was starting
to blow up with a lot of hits
that used the same samples
from the same era
that influenced us.
You know, but Suge,
he wasn't down with that.
Just hit the east side
Of the LBC
On a mission trying
To find Mr. Warren G
Seen a car full of girls
Ain't no need to tweak
All of you skirts know
What's up with 213
First of all,
I'd like to thank God.
Second of all, I'd like thank
my whole, entire
Death Row family on both sides,
you know what I'm sayin'?
I'd like to tell Tupac
keep his guards up.
We ride with him.
And what else
that I'd like to say?
Any artist out there
wanna be an artist
and wanna stay a star
and don't wanna have to worry
about the executive producer
trying to be all in the videos,
all on the records,
dancin', come to Death Row!
[audience hooting]
I think that was the moment...
just period, the moment
where everything Suge said
was directed directly to Puffy.
And he put that out there,
Puff took it in,
and the shit went to where
it went to.
It was a bold move
also to do it in New York.
Suge had a problem
with Puffy.
That was his personal problem.
But the thing is
this one particular guy
is a representation
of the East Coast.
So the East Coast
took offense to it.
That's what made it
an East Coast/West Coast war.
The East Coast was behind Puffy
'cause they supported him,
and the West Coast
was behind Suge,
and he was behind us.
By him being on our team
and being our leader,
we'd naturally have
to ride with him.
Divide and conquer
is his primary tactic.
In order for me to get
the support I need,
let me make sure
that I alienate the ones
that aren't going to be with me.
They say it all the time
in that culture...
"Either you with me
or you against me."
That's gang culture.
They're throwing Bad Boy,
Bad Boy and Death Row.
So it's like I'm lookin'
at the room,
you could see all them
New York niggas,
like, huddlin' up
like, ""Nigga, it's all of us
versus them niggas."
Al these weak rappers, Naz,
all these suckers,
they battlin' over East and
West like this is a game.
This ain't no game.
[Snoop Dogg] Media did what
they were supposed to do.
They took a story
and ran with it.
And turned it into something.
Controversy.
And controversy sells.
Every other question
they would ask us
was about East/West.
[Simmons] I blame
The Source magazine,
and I especially blame Vibe
for creating an environment
where people got killed.
They were instigating
something
they didn't even understand.
These nonviolent poets
who escaped the hood
were surrounded by
violent people with no future.
[Knight] Ain't nothin' between...
you with us?
Those who are with us,
we got love for you.
Those who are not with us...
you don't even exist.
We didn't know the...
consequences
and repercussions
from what the youth
would see out of it,
what the streets would see
out of it,
and what the music industry
would see out of it.
We was just kids.
Shakur was shot four times
after leaving the Mike Tyson
boxing match in Las Vegas
in a car driven
by Marion "Suge" Knight,
the head of his label,
Death Row records.
[Simmons] I should have
got involved earlier.
I should I should've put
Suge and Puff in a room.
I should've put people
together.
[male reporter]
On March 9, 1997,
Biggie Smalls was shot
and killed in Los Angeles.
Smalls was leaving
a music industry party.
The shooting was eerily similar
to Tupac's six months earlier.
[Simmons] After Biggie's death,
it's too late, right?
You know, I regret it because,
you know, I could've maybe...
maybe saved some lives.
I should have did more.
[Snoop Dogg] We was just trying
to create music
that made people feel good
no matter where you was from.
But when everything happened
at the Source Awards in '95,
it no longer became
about the music.
It became about
what side you was on.
And G-Funk was never
the same after that.
["The Shiznit"
by Snoop Dogg playing]
[jail cell door slams]
[crowd murmuring]
[Ice T] There's
a lot of people in hip-hop
that made records that drifted
into oblivion.
I think the key with music
is that you're trying to make
something that'll stand
the test of time.
[Ice Cube] When you're doin'
original music
and you're bringin'
in melodies,
and you're bringin'
in the fusion of rap and R&B,
I think that's the legacy
of G-Funk.
[Too Short] I do believe
that that G-Funk era
was when hip-hop
figured it out.
It was like these guys
were like,
"Let's fuckin' smoke and drink
and make the best fuckin' music
in the world."
You could've locked those people
up in a studio for years,
and they would've just
kept givin' us timeless music.
The one thing I could truly say
about all these cats, man,
they've been consistent.
Warren G has always been
the same cool, calm, collected,
intelligent dude
who thought before he acted.
Snoop, same way.
What Dogg and Nate and Warren G
are to each other
are the type of friends
that you want.
They are the reality and vision
of what you would call
childhood friends
that grew up together
and been friends
until the end.
[The D.O.C.]
Good dudes.
Even in the midst
of all of that shit
that they had to live in,
their heart is good, you know?
The rest of us,
we changed our thing.
We thought more of ourselves,
and it came back to bite us.
Warren G is excellence.
Warren G's an era.
You know what I'm sayin'?
Not everybody's an era.
Some of y'all are just down.
Bein' down is cool.
We need you.
But an era,
everybody don't get that.
[Too Short] I know Snoop hears
the same thing every day.
Warren hears the same thing
every day.
Daz and Kurupt hear
the same shit every day.
"Y'all raised me."
We raised millions of kids.
We raised them,
and the same person
wouldn't even say that
to his own daddy.
[Warren G]
These cocksuckers is
not rappin' like the fuck
we was rappin',
and the shit today
is some bullshit.
Straight up. Fuck it.
Nah, I don't mean that.
[laughs]
["Twist My Fingaz"
by YG playing]
If you were to delete
G-Funk music,
I think that rap today
would be totally different.
[Simmons] G-Funk changed
hip-hop dramatically.
And artists of today,
some don't even realize it.
There's so many branches, limbs,
whatever you wanna call it,
they came
from what G-Funk was.
[Simmons] There's these
beautiful, melodic songs
with these gangsta rappers
on 'em
that the artist would never
have dreamed to make 'em.
Man, I think everybody
playin' now with the funk.
If you listen
to those bass lines
of all the songs
that come on nowadays,
it's straight G-Funk.
[Ice T] Kendrick Lamar
is kinda like the culmination
of all the old souls
of the West Coast.
Kendrick,
that's a funky mother.
You put that on at a party,
everybody's up off their ass.
[Warren G]
You got Problem,
YG,
he got that funk in him.
Ty Dolla Sign,
Wiz Khalifa.
Shit, Wiz Khalifa's
from the West Coast now.
He ain't from Pittsburgh
no more.
He out here.
He got the funk.
For Warren to say
that I'm G-Funk is cool as hell.
I would definitely consider
Dre and Warren and Snoop
to be big influences
of mine,
and not even just on my music,
but on my lifestyle.
There's a absolutely 100%
influence of G-Funk on my music,
the fact that, you know, I sing
all of my hooks like Nate Dogg,
my producers that I work with,
Sledgren, E. Dan and everybody,
they're all heavily
Dre-influenced
and just that era of music.
I definitely keep
the G-Funk alive.
[Snoop Dogg] The young rappers
nowadays are saying,
"My mama used to play
your music
all the time
when I was a baby."
They didn't grow up
off Motown and R&B.
They grew up off of us,
so that's how the foundation
has spinned around that
we are the Marvin Gayes
and Smokey Robinsons.
[Khalifa] You have
to pay respects to the G-Funk.
They smoothed out music
and added certain elements
that are now stamped
in the game.
All of my core fan base,
anytime they hear me
or anytime you think about me
or listen to my music,
those are the core...
those are the elements
that you're gonna think about,
so it's like that's...
that's how I've been inspired,
and it's always
gonna be a part of me,
and it's always gonna be
a part of my fans as well.
[music continuing]
The whole West Coast era
is the foundation
for a big chunk of hip-hop
right now.
That different credible factor
made G-Funk
the best brand-building thing
for hip-hop.
G-Funk completely commercialized
gangster rap.
It just pushed it to a whole
'nother level, you know?
[Ice Cube]
The economics of hip-hop
finally kind of settled in.
You know, people knew
what they were worth
and knew what they were
supposed to get.
To me,
that's the money age.
We just realized that this is
a multi-million-dollar business,
that you gotta...
you gotta do what
the people expect of you.
Whether it's makin' music
for movies,
makin' music for video games,
makin' just cultural moves.
You know, because a lot
of corporations of today,
they're using hip-hop
to sell their products.
You know, I just got finished
doing a Sonic commercial.
I just got finished
doing a GEICO commercial.
So now it's part
of American culture.
[Clinton]
And hip-hop became pop.
Hip-hop is the biggest music
around the world.
Any country you go to,
they love some hip-hop.
Everybody got they're
own version of it, too.
So, you know...
we now are at a point
where, yeah,
it's very commercialized.
[Snoop Dogg] Just a small
introduction To the G-Funk era
Every day of my life I take
A glimpse in the mirror
I think G-Funk set the
foundation as far as clarity,
quality, lookin' good,
feelin' good,
and havin' a visual piece
to support your musical piece
and to stand by what you say.
[Ice Cube] Artists
shouldn't be responsible
to do anything else
but that,
because everything should come
from the heart.
You know, you shouldn't
feel obligated.
Just come from the heart.
[Snoop Dogg] G-Funk gave
a voice to many people,
not just from California
or from gang-bang
neighborhoods,
but people that
didn't have a voice
that felt oppressed,
that felt like
this was a way
of expressing themselves
through music, good music
that sometimes made a point
to address,
you know, social issues,
but to be mainly party music.
[Warren G]
I said London!
[crowd cheering]
["Regulate" playing]
We want y'all to sing
this motherfucker
with us tonight, y'all.
[Casey Siemaszko]
We're damn good, too.
But you can't be
any geek off the street.
Gotta be handy with the steel,
if you know what I mean,
earn your keep.
Regulators! Mount up.
It was a clear black night
A clear white moon
Warren G was on the streets
Tryin' to consume
Some skirts for the eve
So I can get some funk
Rollin' in my ride
Chillin' all alone
Just hit the east side
Of the LBC
On a mission tryin'
To find Mr. Warren G
Seen a car full of girls
Ain't no need to tweak
All you hoes know what's up
It's 213
So I hooks a left
On 2-1 and Lewis
Some brothas shootin' dice
So I said let's do this
I jumped out the ride
And said what's up
Some brothas pulled some gats
So I said I'm stuck
These hoes peepin' me
I'ma glide and swerve
Was lookin' so hard
They straight hit the curb
Gonna think of better things
Than some horny tricks
I seen my homey and
Some niggas all in his mix
I'm gettin' jacked
I'm breakin' myself
I can't believe they're
Takin' Warren's wealth
They took my rings
They took my Rolex
I looked at the niggas,
Said damn what's next?
Got my homey hemmed up
And they all around
Ain't none of them
Seein' if they goin'
Straight pound for pound
I gotta come up real quick
Before they start to clown
I best pull out my strap
And lay them busters down
They got guns to my head
I think I'm goin' down
I can't believe this happened
In my hometown
If I had wings I would fly
Let me contemplate
I glanced in the cut
And I see my homey Nate
16 in the clip
And one in the hole
Nate Dogg is about to make
Some bodies turn cold
Now they droppin' and yellin'
It's a tad bit late
Nate Dogg and Warren G
Had to regulate
Just throw your hands
In the air
And wave 'em like you...
This documentary's
probably so important,
because G-Funk is three dudes,
singer, rapper, producer.
And from that friendship
spawned the careers
of a whole bunch of people
and made a whole lot of money
for a bunch of people,
and there'll never be
three dudes
like these guys ever again
in music.
As it should be.
213, baby!
Say oh yeah
I'm tweakin'
Into a whole era
G-Funk step to this
I dare ya
Funk on a whole new level
The rhythm is the bass
And the bass is the treble
Chords strings
We brings
Melody
G-Funk where rhythm is life
And life is rhythm
You know like I know.
Come on, y'all.
If you know like I know
You don't want to step
To this
It's the G-Funk era
Funked out
With a gangster twist
And if you smoke
Like I smoke
Then you're high
Like every day
And if your ass
Is a buster
213 will regulate
Nate Dogg, rest in peace.
[cheering fades]
Nobody
Does it better
Nobody
Does it better
They can come closer
than close
Yeah
Original,
they never will be
We bumpin'
from coast to coast
Yeah, yeah
We're just tryin'
to make you see
Nobody does it better
I was sittin' here
trippin'
My mind is blocked
Nate Dogg just bit it
so it's time to concoct
No monkey do it better
like this two-man crew
They say,
"We won ahead of quitters
Now what y'all gonna do?"
Always into something,
that's my name
Only out for money,
hey, 'cause that's the game
People always ask me
why I'm out for scratch
He who has the most
is he who won the match
Strike one,
me and Nate Dogg is a match
Strike two, make 'em stand
still in their tracks
Strike three,
you could call us, 213
It's the L and the B
that makes me act like a G
My exhibition started
back in '93
But when nobody listened
they were warmin' in me
To all the nonbelievers
now I bet you see
Nobody does it
better than me
They can come
closer than close
Yeah
Original,
they never will be
We bump it
from coast to coast
Yeah
Just tryin' to make you see
Nobody does it better
They call me
teasin' the spark plug
Keepin' it lit
There is no accident
for these platinum hits
So when you make it
you show love
Bangin' in your club
Hangin' with chill thugs
Givin' 'em G-love
You remember back
on the east side
When all of us niggas
used to love to ride
We didn't care
what we did
Time was nothing to us
We were just kids...
Times are different now
but you still get stuck...