G-Funk Page #7

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[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'

Sh*t 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 f***in' 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, sh*t, hit."

And then, of course,

he had Nate Dogg ridin' shotgun.

It was un-f***-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.

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