G-Funk Page #3

---

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,

"Sh*t, 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,

"F*** that sh*t,"

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' sh*t 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 sh*t,

we some gangsters,

we make funky music,

we talk gangster sh*t,

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]

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes