60 Songs That Explain the '90s - “Regulate”—Warren G & Nate Dogg

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

Rob looks back at some of his most embarrassing song lyric snafus caused by radio edits while deep diving on Long Beach legends Warren G and Nate Dogg. Later, Rob is joined by Logan Murdock to discuss west coast rap, Warren G’s orgin story, and more. Host: Rob Harvilla Guest: Logan Murdock Producers: Jonathan Kermah and Justin Sayles Additional Production Support: Chloe Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Joanna Robinson. Join us every week on the Prestige TV podcast feed is your favorite ringer hosts like Bill Simmons, Van Lathen, Mallory Rubin, Sean Fentasy, Chris Ryan, Julia Lippman, and many more cover the latest episodes of your favorite TV obsessions. From boardrooms to throne rooms to courtside and through the mushroom apocalypse, we'll be here throughout the week breaking it all down. Subscribe to the Prestige TV podcast feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I feel like I'm going to lose my nerve if I don't do this immediately.

And so, do you mind if I tell you a tremendously embarrassing fact about myself as a teenager and also possibly about myself right now? Do you mind? I didn't think you'd mind. All right, thank you. Here we go. I laid all them busters down. I let my dad explode. Now I'm switching my mind back into freakbowl. If you won't skirt, sit back and observe. I just slept a gang of those over there on the curb. This is Nate Dogg, of course. Halfway through the All Universe, 1994, Warren G. and Nate Dog, classic, Regulate. Yes, I am already discussing the song this episode is about. I realize that ordinarily there's between 20 minutes and six hours of loopy discursive preamble before we even mentioned the artists responsible for the song in question. You're not listening to the wrong show. It's really me. I don't have a concussion or anything. It's just I got to do this now before I think better of it. Okay, Regulate. This is a song that most likely you have heard like 200,000 times, right? And if you're like me, roughly 125,000 of those 200,000 times, you've heard the radio or MTV edit.

Yes, the family-friendly, the tastefully censored version. The version of Regulate, where these Nate Dog lines go like this. switching my mind back into freakbow. If you won't skirt, sit back and observe. I just left a gang of over there on the curb. Can I tell you too embarrassing facts about myself? Yeah, two. Just now I discovered another definitely current embarrassing fact about myself,

which is that I always thought he said, I just left a gang of those over there on the curb, T-H-O-S-E. And I actually still think it's those, but the fact that the MTV Edit takes the liberty of censoring that word suggests to me that the censored word in question isn't those. That's less embarrassing to me. That's not the real issue here. Can I confess to you that honestly, to this very day,

when I hear the censored version of regulate, that first line Nate Dogg sings there in my head, I still fill in the censored word there as, I laid all them busters down. I let my dick explode. Honest to God. Now listen. I laid all them busters down. I let my...

Listen to me. Let me be clear in stating that I know he doesn't say I let my dick explode. I know that. I have always known that. I know what he says. I let my gaddx. but that's what he says, meaning his gun. I know that's what he says.

Thank you, but I still hear it in my head as I let my dick explode. I do not have a concussion. I don't really think the censored word is dick, right? No, I don't. That's absurd. I do think that. Why do I think that? It's not that I think I let my dick explode is slang for I shot those people.

I guess I thought it was metaphorical. Maybe I detected some self-awareness. Maybe I thought Nate Dog regards his gat as an extension of his. Oh my God. I want you to imagine that you're throwing dice at the corner of 2.1 in Lewis and Long Beach and Warren G. shows up. And you make the regrettable decision to attempt to rob him. But then Nate Dog appears and you go, oh shit. And Nate Dog goes, and before you can even figure out what exploded, his mind's already back in freak mode.

now I'm switching my mind back into freak mode if you won't start sit back and observe I just slept a gang of those over there on the curve just a remarkably efficient an instantaneous pivot back to freak mode as though freak mode were a light switch you can just flip off and back on

I assume that the switch back to freak mode also restores your forget it remarkable I'm still like 75% sure he says just left the gang of those. Geez, Louise, what a disaster. Just a disastrous misread of a radio edit. Let's try a radio edit that does not even give you the chance to disastrously misread it. Creep with me as I crawl through the hood. Maniac lunatic. Call him Snoop Eastwood. Kicking dust as I bus police.

And you never hear me howling about peace. It is the spring of 1992 and Dr. Dre, formerly of the Blockbuster Future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rap group NWA is embarking on his blockbuster solo career, which he launches officially with the song Deep Cover from the soundtrack to the tough guy action movie Deep Cover and Dr. Dre rapts some stuff but who cares because his new protege Calvin Broadus aka Snoop Doggy Dog also wraps of stuff and Snoop Doggy Dog is immediately clearly way, way better at rapping stuff. Snoop also definitely sidesteps the tastefully bleep out the dirty words

approach to radio edits that has caused so much confusion for me elsewhere and instead he writes entirely new lyrics for the radio edit. Kick and dust as I bust police and you'll never hear me holler in bout peace. That's the edited version. Creep with me as I crawl through the hood,

maniac lunatic calling Snoop he's wood, kicking dust as I bust fuck piece and the motherfucking That's the not edited version, and of course the superior version, and it's not even the superior version because he rhymes fuck peace with the motherfucking punk police. No, the dirty version of Deepcover is superior solely for the way Snoop Doggy Dog deftly handles the word and. He lets the word and explode. the way he lingers on and and then rumbles through the motherfucking punk police unbelievable it is

1992 snoop doggie dog born and raised in a long beach california is 21 years old this on deep cover is his recorded debut and the 12 inch single cover art deep cover is credited to dr dr dr dr dr drey introducing snoop doggy dog snoop wrote all the lyrics he wrote his own lyrics and he wrote Dr. Dre's as well. You have no way of knowing in 1992 when you first hear Snoop Doggy Doggy Dog's voice that this person will spend the next three decades in counting as a tremendously almost unprecedentedly famous person. Now of course we know Snoop is a crossover rap superstar with 19 solo albums. He's a close personal friend of Martha Stewart's. He is either the most famous of the second most famous weed smoker in recorded history. Either he's number one or

Willie Nelson is. You pick. Snoop now co-owns the famous and also infamous death row records. Snoop is also the legit purveyor of official death row cannabis. Currently available in the flavors S-F-V-O-G, L-A. Runs or Strawberry Gelado. You pick. I'm going strawberry gelato myself. Of course, I'm just kidding. If I smoked Snoop Dog's weed, I would literally die. Snoop is the beloved and semi-cuddly multi-millionaire mogul who almost became part of owner of an NHL franchise. His group almost bought the Ottawa Senators, and I am so mad that didn't happen.

I would watch hockey if Snoop Dogg owned part of a hockey team. I can't decide what's funnier there, Snoop-wise, the Ottawa part or the Senators part. You hear deep cover for the first time. You hear this guy's Snoop Doggy Dogs of voice for the first time, and you have no way of knowing that'll be one of the biggest rappers, the biggest celebrities of his generation. But on the other hand, of course you know all that's going to happen.

You know how famous he's going to get from the way he hesitates there on the word and and then rumbles through the words the motherfucking punk police. You know how famous Snoot Doggie Dog is going to get from the very first chorus. That's the radio edit Because it's 1.87 on an undercover cop Yeah, man you don't stop Because it's 1 87 on an undercover cop

That's the radio edit There is no point in attempting to censor Snoop Doggy Dog rapping Because it's 187 on an undercover cop In early 1992 Not everyone in suburbia knows What 187 means But everyone in Suburial

be sure as hell knows what 187 means by the end of 1992. And everyone knows because of how Snoop Doggy Dog says it, the melodicism, the swagger, the colossal charm, the oddly lackadaisical ferocity of Snoop Doggy Dog wrapping anything, any words, any letters, any numbers from his very first recorded appearance. He sounds so fantastic rapping anything that even on the radio he's allowed to wrap pretty much anything he wants. Turn my back and grab my gat and guess what I told him for a shot.

If you don't quit, yeah, if you don't stop, yeah, I'm letting my gat pop. Still the radio edit, Snoop Doggy Dog can repeatedly wrap the word gat on a radio edit. No problem. This only strengthens my case that Nate Dog is saying, I let my dick explode, incidentally. Deep cover, the song is a song about killing cops. You may recall that another song from 1992, Cop Killer by Ice T's metal band Body Count is also a song about killing cops

that gets more or less banned from polite society. There's a huge political backlash. Then Vice President Dan Quayle gets big mad. Ice T quickly pulls it from Body Count's album. To this day, you still can't officially stream cop killer, etc. That backlash kind of happens to Deep Cover. You can't officially stream Deep Cover either. The song was reportedly supposed to appear on Dr. Dre's solo debut album, The Chronic, but it does not.

Nonetheless, Deep Cover does establish that Snoop Doggy Dog is going to be so famous that he can wrap pretty much anything he wants. And indeed, when Dr. Dreys, The Chronic does come out in December 1992, Snoop Doggy Dog does a great deal of exploding. Olive Green. It's the capital S.O.S.O.O.O.G.D.O.G.D.D.O.G. G. We have discussed the chronic single, nothing but a G-thang in this venue at great length. And we have therefore discussed the fact that on this song, Snoop Doggy Dog immediately asserts himself as the best speller of all time. The most dexterous and charismatic speller of words in any medium at any time in recorded history. That sounds like I'm trying to make a joke or damn him with faint praise or something, but I assure you that I am not Snoop Doggy Dog, best speller of words in recorded history. Snoop Doggy Dog is a tremendously striking physical presence.

He is six foot four, which is a huge relief to me. I'm six foot four, and I'm so glad he's not taller than me. I do not like it when people are taller than me. It's rude. I'd have gotten super pissed if it turned out Snoop was taller than me. I am not watching hockey. if anyone who even part owns a hockey team is taller than me. Snoop Doggy Dog writes, by his own estimation,

roughly 60% of the lyrics on the chronic, including many of Dr. Dre's lyrics. And Dr. Dre is a better rapper than he often gets credit for, but yeah, it's Snoop's voice you remember. Wow, wow, wippy, yo, yippy, A doggy dogs definitely in the hails. Bow, wow, wow, yip yo, yipa, death row's definitely in a hails. I want you to really think for a second about how unfathomably cool these words sound when Snoop Doggy Dog wraps them

versus how catastrophically fucking ridiculous those words would have sounded if anyone else on Earth had attempted to wrap them. Those words, I will not repeat those words because I will sound extra catastrophically fucking ridiculous. This song, of course, is called Dre Day when it's the radio edit. And that was indeed the radio edit. Did you catch that? Did you catch the word that gave it away? The radio edit word is definitely. That's hilarious.

Definitely is hilarious. Doggy dogs definitely in the house. So close. Bow, wow, wow. Yippie yo, yippy, a doggy dogs in the motherfucking house. Bow, wow, wow, yippio, yippie. Death Rose in the motherfucking house.

That's better. There's the original version. the dirty version, the definitely superior version, the version called Fuck With Dre Day, parentheses, and everybody's celebrating. Okay. Snoop is the best part of the chronic. This is not exactly an incendiary statement,

but it bears repeating. The chronic is one of the most sonically luxurious pieces of music created in the 20th century, but with all due respect to the live instrumentation and the samples and the Moog and the SSL console and so on, There is no individual sound on this record more luxurious than Snoop Doggy Dog's physical voice. half dead. Just to clarify, Snoop sounds like a rapper who knows another rapper named Lil Half Dead.

The little tornado worlds here are pretty much the coolest sounding thing in the world to me. And Snoop Doggy Dog's physical voice is somehow still cooler. And there's Dr. Dre. and Snoop Doggy Dog glowering from the cover of Rolling Stone in September 1993 with the headline One Nation under a G-thang.

This is the Rolling Stone cover story written by the great and sorely missed L.A. Music and Food Critic Jonathan Gold. This is the article with the absolutely fantastic Dr. Dre quote where Dre says, every person walking has some kind of talent that they

can get on tape. I can take anybody who reads this magazine and make a hit record on him. You don't have to rap. You can do anything. You can go into the studio and talk. I can take a fucking three-year-old and make a hit record on him. God has blessed me with this gift, end quote, but Dre knows what he has with Snoop. Dre knows that on the chronic at least he needed Snoop every bit as much as Snoop needed him. Dre also says, I tell Snoop all the time. He is going to be the biggest shit. Snoop is going to be the biggest thing to black people since the straightening comb. End quote, two months later. In November 93,

Snoop Doggy Doggy Dog's debut solo album comes out. It's produced by Dr. Dre. It's called Doggy Style. And it's a pretty big fucking deal to everybody. Radio edit. One word. That second, Smokin. Smokin. Smokin, Spokin. Spokin. Yeah, maybe they're smoking cigarettes. Maybe not. That's better. Laid back. Those are the two words that make the song gin and juice. The way Snoop Doggy Dog actually sounds laid back when he says laid back.

That in the way he carves up the line, may I kick a little something for the G's hand? Right here. But also the young lady going, yeah, yeah. In the background. May I kick a little something for the cheese and make a few wins as I breeze through. Two in the morning and the party still jumping because my mama ain't home. The part about his mom not being home is also important. It reminds you that this party is conditional, that this party is finite.

It also reminds you how young Snoop is. Some truly phenomenal radio edit action on doggy style, on Who Am I? what's my name? We get the ultra-rare yodeling radio edit. None of y'all can get with this. None of y'all can get with that head I just drop because you know it don't stop. Mr. One-eight-seven on the undercover copter. None of y'all can get with this. I don't think so. Let me also put in a quick plug for the doggy style song, G's Up, Hose Down, which has an Isaac Hayes sample so outlandishly beautiful that it flew too close to the song. sun and ran into clearance issues and got pulled off later versions of the album, including the current streaming version. You win this round, YouTube. stepbrother, the guy who hooked Snoop Doggy Dog up with Dr. Dre in the first place, actually, in 1990, when they were virtually unknown outside of Long Beach and not necessarily super well-known even in Long Beach,

Snoop Doggy Dogg, his cousin Nathan Hale, aka Nate Dog, and their friend Warren Griffin III, aka Warren G, started a trio called 213. That's the old Long Beach area code. Area codes used to matter way more than they do now. let's not get into it. 213. Join as well by the rapper Corrupt, Corrupt with a K. 2.13 have themselves an uncouth little tune called Ain't No Fun, which does indeed get the luxurious Dr. Dre treatment on doggy style.

And the song also gets the new, longer, even more uncouth title, Ain't No Fun, parentheses if the homies can't have none. You know what's also quite luxurious, Warren G's physical voice. One for the money, two for the bitches, three to get ready, and four to hit the switches in my sherry. Six-four red to be exact with bitches on my side and bitches on my back. But also this guy, the guy with a deeper voice, the legit singer, the guy who's legit singing voice sounds like an outlandishly beautiful Isaac Hay sample so outlandishly beautiful that it flies too close to the sun but doesn't burn. Nate Dog conveys tremendously uncouth ideas in a start. a resting and gorgeous voice that makes perfectly clear that really he is never not in freak mode.

Ain't No Fun is quite a rude song, and in general it can be quite challenging to navigate the rudeness, the outright misogyny of much of this music. But I do think there is a singular quality of maybe tenderness, but definitely pathos, innate dog's voice that often nicely undercuts. the rudeness. He's trying to be rude right here, and it's working. But unlike some of the other dudes on this song, Nate Dog's not only trying to be rude. Maybe you first heard Nate Dog's voice right here, but most likely you first heard Nate Dog's voice on Dr. Dre's The Chronic on the song called D's Nuts, three E's in D's, three U's in nuts. and most likely you heard Nate Dogg sing these mildly rude lines on the song called Dees Nuts and you thought to yourself, this guy can sing anything.

I'd listen to this guy sing anything. I'd like to listen to this guy sing the same thing 200,000 times. And in 1994, Nate Dog and Warren G teamed up and summoned all their greatness along with just a tiny bit of their pathos. and graciously obliged you. Mount up. It was a clear black night, a clear white moon, Warren G was on the streets,

trying to consume some skirts for the E so I could get some phones rolling in my ride, chilling all alone. My name is Rob Harvilla. This is the 98th episode of 60 songs that explain the 90s, and this week we are discussing Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg

from Warren G's 1994 album Regulate. Dot dot dot dot G funk era and also from the Blockbuster soundtrack to the 1994 basketball drama above the rim. I shouldn't have said mount up. I apologize. I sounded catastrophically fucking ridiculous, even saying mount up. Can we agree that it was a clear black night, a clear white moon is an uncommonly rad opening line for a rap song,

a pop song, a timeless hit song of any genre? It's pretty rad. Warren G sounds world-historic. laid back himself. Does he not? Fortunately for him, this guy is just a little less laid back. Just hit the east side of the LBC on a mission trying to find Mr. Warren G. seen a call full of girls. Ain't no need to tweak. All you search know what's up with two and three. I really dig Nate Dogg's consonants, his hard consonants, the tiny little delay to the hard K and ain't no need to tweak

there. That's the shit. G's album Regulate G-Funk Era debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard album chart, beaten out only by Purple by Stone Temple Pilots. That's funny. I think that's funny. I'm very concerned that the CD copy of Purple that I bought might have been the single copy of Purple that kept Warren G's album from debuting at number one. I feel bad about that. The Above the Rim soundtrack, also featuring SWV, Tupac, Lady of Rage, and the Dog Pound.

The above the rim soundtrack also peaked at number two on the Billboard album chart, beaten out only by the division bell by Pink Floyd. Slightly less funny, but still funny. I didn't buy a copy of the Division Bell.

That one's not my fault. Regulate the Warren G&A dog song peaked at, you guessed it, number two on the Billboard Hot 100, beaten out only by I swear by All for One. Huh. Wow. At least it wasn't Pink Floyd, I guess.

Or better or worse, till death do us part. I love you whenever. The I swear video is just the dudes and all for one running around for five minutes, trying to catch a lady before she gets on a bus. It looks exhausting. I think at high school I really wanted to slow dance to I swear with a young lady. Any young lady, really, but I never did. I had nothing to do with I swear keeping Regulate from going number one.

Yes, regulate as a hit song and a hit album seller achieved the ultra rare triple number two. There's your pathos. That's tough. That's cool, though. I imagine that hitting number two three times is harder than hitting number one anywhere once. Yes, regulate. The story of three great men brought together to achieve true greatness together. Yes, three men. Cards on the table. I am a 40-something white male who owns a lawnmower. And I am thus obligated by our personal code, by the podcaster's code, by the FCC. I am obligated

by the Constitution to speak to you now about a truly great man named Michael. McDonald. Yes, National Treasure and Voice of a Generation, Michael McDonald, regaling us here with his tasty 1982 hit song, I keep forgetting parentheses

every time you're near from his 1982 album. If that's what it takes, I go back and forth on yacht rock, right, as a genre, as an era, as an ethos. I love this sort of

extra luxurious sauce. rock, your steely dance, your Kenny Loggins's, maybe kind of your hall and oatses when this music proliferated, when it dominated from the mid-70s to the mid-80s, or at least it dominated my experience of the late 70s to mid-80s when I was literally a baby and then a slightly unruly child. And as an unruly young adult, I loved it in the early 2000s when this music was retroactively and lovingly, reclassified as a yacht rock via the yacht rock early web video series and via the perpetual the permanent steely Dan Renaissance right there's a great new book by Alex Papademus and Joan LeMay about Steely Dan of course I am not the sort of guy who is immune to the charms of say Weezer covering Africa by Toto

even if 2018 Weezer covering the also 1982 hit song Africa is an almost parodically weezer sort of thing to do. It's cool. It's lovely and it's loving. It's sincere. All this yacht rock talk and celebration. But there's still the slight inherent tension, right? When a musical genre only receives its canonical name,

its widely accepted cultural framework several decades later. Yacht Rock became an old, legit pop music sensation in a new hilarious internet meme, simultaneously. That's a little weird, but also quite wonderful. Same deal with Michael McDonald's physical voice. That part is not sampled on regulate, and Michael McDonald's physical singing voice does not appear unregulate, but that part of I keep forgetting still kicks ass. Does it not? Me and my boys, we went to see Michael McDonald play the Blue Note, the famous West Village Jazz Club in 2008. I feel like me and my boys is the exact right.

way to describe us in that circumstance. And it kicked ass. Michael played, I keep forgetting, of course. And his saxophone player who looks like Wilford Brimley, the sax player threw in a little of John Coltrane's, a love supreme, into the intro. I wrote up that show and described Michael McDonald

in print as the acon of the 80s. Ah, shut up, Rob. I'm tapping somebody else in. The great rock critic and author, Eric Harvey wrote a great appreciation of Michael McDonald for Deadspin in 2014 back when I worked there.

A deadspin classic. And Eric wrote, Michael McDonald's voice is so unique that for more than 30 years it has subsumed Michael McDonald, the man. He goes on, I have an impression of the dude in my own repertoire, and there's a good chance many of you do, too. It's not that hard.

Doing a Ray Charles and Al Green or even a Daryl Hall requires a good deal of vocal training and genetic luck. A Michael McDonald impression, on the other hand, is 95% timbre, the subjective color of a voice, which I know because I have zero singing talent and can nonetheless imitate I keep forgetting, with a high degree of vera's militude. I just find the spot in my throat or a sound that would otherwise signify soul, instead sounds like one of those uncannily human Japanese robots programmed to soul. Michael McDonald's voice and his whole sound is so distinct.

It's precisely at the level where nobody can duplicate it, but everyone can try to imitate it, that all the love for him feels ironic, even if it isn't. Loving Michael McDonald is a funny idea, but what's really funny is that all the people who love him are absolutely serious. last thing. And maybe you didn't expect this to happen, but trust me, you'll be mad at yourself after this happens that you didn't expect this to happen. I never watched Family Guy, the animated TV show Family Guy. I don't mean that in any sort of the leadest way. But I only

know one Family Guy joke, and it's when Peter, the family guy, he hires Michael McDonald to walk around with him and sing backing vocals for all his conversations. But then Michael McDonnell refuses to leave. I guess everything's back to normal. Oh man, not this guy again. Oh man, not this guy again.

Fuck! Oh, wow. Wow to all of that. Can I say that I did not expect that I would go that hard on Michael McDonald just now? Now I'm mad at myself

for not expecting me to go that hard. Michael McDonald Endures is my point. There's a viral TikTok going around right now where a pre-teen girl is extremely excited to go see Michael McDonald sing with his old band, the Doobie brothers.

The kids know why I just went that hard on Michael McDonald. Warren G. The rapper and DJ and producer we were previously discussing. Warren G knows why I went that hard talking to Billboard about Michael McDonald in 2014, Warren G says, I'm a fan. I'm still a fan. I really love his work, man. I think he's one of the greatest of all time. His voice is incredible. End quote. And then Warren retells the story of living

in the early 90s in the dingy Long Beach Boulevard apartment with dog poop all over the floor. And he goes and gets a bunch of vinyl records from a dealer near Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. and one of the records is if that's what it takes by Michael McDonald. And Warren G. hears, I keep forgetting, and he knows. He knows immediately. Warren says to Billboard, it was like, wow, this is an incredible record. Plus, it's a record my stepmom and my pops used to play. It brought back feelings for me of living with my parents when we lived in North Long Beach.

They used to jam with some good music, man. end quote. So Warren G samples the bejesus out of Michael McDonald. Next thing he does, he watches himself a movie. We work for Mr. Tunstall as regulators. We regulate any stealing of his property. We're damn good, too. Young Guns from 1988, starring Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and that guy. Casey Jemesco. Casey was also on Back to the Future.

He played 3D, the guy wearing 3rd. 3D glasses, who was one of Biff's henchman and Back to the Future, regulating any stealing of Biff's property. Casey, appearing in young guns in the role of the famous outlaw, Charlie Boudre. Casey most likely does not realize, as he's saying these words, that these will be the most famous words he ever says. But then again, the vigor with which Casey says this suggests that maybe he knows. Mr. Dunsell's got a soft spot for runaways.

There looks, vagrant types. But you can't be any geek off the street. Got to be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean, Ernie keep. That was a pig. So there you go. So Warren hooks up his VCR to his Akai MPC60 sequencer, and he samples that dialogue from a VHS tape of young guns.

I am delighted by that detail. The VCR plugged into the sequencer, which obviously, this is the early 90s. How else is Warren supposed to sample that? But a physical VHS tape pushed into a physical VCR, plugged into a physical sequencer with a chord, I'm into it. I'm into the tangible, the tactile,

the corporeal nature of this sample. Next thing Warren does, he decides this song ought to be a duet, a dialogue, like what Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog did with nothing but a G-thang. And furthermore, Warren G, graciously, I have to say, will play the guy in this duet who needs rescuing. So I hooks a left on 2.1 and Lewis.

Some brothers shooting dice. So I said, let's do this. I jumped out the rock and said, what's up? Some brothers put some meat. So I said I'm stuck. Wait, wait, wait. That's the radio edit. There's a word missing.

What's the missing word there? Sorry, what did they pull? I jumped out the rock and said, what's up? Some brothers put some gats, so I said I'm stuck. Oh, Gats. That's right. They pulled, okay, that makes sense. Warren G's voice, man, the silkiness, the butteriness, the genial libidinousness of Warren G's voice.

It's remarkably Snoop Doggy Dog-like, I have to say. Warren G sounds way more like Snoop Dogg than Nate. does. It's a fantastic voice. But I do find it tremendously gracious that on the song that will make him famous, Warren G. is willing to play the guy in the song who gets robbed in the song immediately. He's the guy who requires immediate rescue. He's the guy in distress. And he sounds in a silky, buttery, libidna sort of way like he's in great distress. believe they taken Warren's wealth they took my rings they took my Rolex I looked at the brother said damn what's next I can't believe they're taken Warren's wealth is such a rad way to phrase

what's happening to you as you're being mugged tremendous presence of mind by Warren G in this moment to poeticize his own armed robbery but fear not because Nate Dogg plays the hero up and they all around. Can't none of them I'm seeing if they're going straight down or pound. They want to come up real quick before they start the clown. I best pull out my and lay them busters down. The missing word there is strap. I best pull out my strap and lay them bust us down.

Don't overthink it. This is the only famous pop duet I'm aware of in which one vocalist saves the other vocalist from armed robbery by shooting all the robbers. That second line there is so melodically and rhythmically striking. and it goes by so fast that honestly I never fully registered that he says can't none of them see him if they go in straight

pound for pound, meaning that Warren G could beat up any one of these robbers individually. And I believe that. That's also a very nice face saving type thing for Nate to say about Warren at this precise moment in the song. You could take

him, bud. That's a good friend. These guys are good friends. Automelotic and rhythmic and a lyric level, you could just tell that these two guys are very good friends. Ooh, Warren just thought of another dazzling way to poeticize his own armed robbery. I don't want to my head. I think I'm going down. I can't believe it's happening in my own time.

If my head wings, I would fly, let me contemplate. I glance in the cut and I see my homie Nate. I don't want to belabor this, but this is a truly fantastic lesson in songwriting as storytelling and storytelling as hook writing. Regulate has no conventional hook, no chorus, no climactic refrain, unless the whistle counts.

I can't play the whistle because if I play you too much of this song, then Def Jam Records will regulate me. And yeah, the whistle's great, but the whistle don't count. The whistle is like the 50th most notable element of this song, the camaraderie between Nate Dogg and Warren G's,

voices. The way their voices are both radically different and unprecedentedly complementary is a giant perpetual hook. Every individual word out of both Warren G's mouth and Nate Dogg's mouth on regulate is a hook. The song appears to have no chorus because it's actually all chorus. When Warren G further poeticizes his own armed robbery and goes, if I had wings I would fly, that's a hook. Seven words. That's seven hooks in a row. I just wanted to sing that. I'm sorry. So when Nate Dogg sings this, it's a chorus. 16 in the and one in the whole Nate Dog is about to make somebody's turn. Part of the exhilarating rising action of this song is that the radio edit starts somewhat

arbitrarily bleeping out more of Nate Dog's words. A clip and cold in this case for your reference. I totally knew that already. If this song were 20 minutes, long, and I wish it were, actually, then eventually every individual word in Nate Dogg's final verse would be bleeped out in the radio edit. You'd have to just sit there and guess what terrible, awesome, obscene thing he just said and or did. When Nate Dog does the hard consonant thing again and hits that immaculate hard tea in the word let, it's a hook. She said my claws broke down and just sing real nice with you let me around. I will stop playing clips from this song eventually, but I should also admit to you that when I was 16, this was one of my all-time favorite rhymes in a pop song.

I got a call full of girls and it's going real swear. The next stop is the east side. I will also admit to you that that's still one of my all-time favorite rhymes in a pop song now. And finally, it would be rude. It would be obscene of me. Not to play you, Nate dogs and Warren G's single most glorious moment of camaraderie. Into a whole new era. Geefunk, step to this idea.

Funk on a whole new level. The rhythm is the bass of the bass and the bass is the treble. The combination of woo and the rhythm in the bass and the bass of the treble is the rattest thing, dude. Friends, they sound like such good friends. I wanted to both play that for you and then sing the parts individually. It's possible I do have a concussion. G-Funk was indeed a whole new era, but the question is where Regulate occurs along the timeline of that era.

Regulate is not the end of that era, but it's closer to the end of that era than anyone in that era would have preferred. Yeah? The 1994 Def Jam album Regulate G-Funk era on which the song Regulate appears is Warren G's album. And Warren G's got other legit hooks and choruses all to himself, and he has earned the right to have those other hooks aggressively radio edited. It's kind of easy when you listen to the jeep-up sound. Pioneer speakers bumpin as I speak on the pound. I got the sound for your whop, and it's easy to see that.

The bleeped words are smoke and ass, respectively. That song is called This DJ. There's a great line in this song. It's not Warren G's line originally, but it's enough that he read. recognizes that it's a great line. I don't like to dream about getting paid. That's a recim line from paid in full back in 87. That line reverberates, let's say, throughout the G-Funk era. That line shows up again in 95. It turns out Warren G's very good friend knows it's a great line too.

It will take Nate Dog a few years to finally get his own solo album, but in the meantime, he will build his reputation as the guy you call when you need a guy to sing the hell out of the chorus, which he does on the whole ass song called I Don't Like to Dream About Getting Paid from Dog Food, the 1995 debut album from The Dog Pound, the duo of our old friend Corrupt and Snoop Doggy Dog's cousin, Daz Dillinger. Dog food goes to number one on the Billboard album chart. Thank you very much. No Stone Temple Pilots album in 1995. It's good timing. See, Warren G's on Def Jam out in New York City. But label-wise, Nate Dogg sticks with the West Coast. He sticks with the famous and also infamous death row for both good and ill.

Death row is definitely in the house. Sometimes the good and ill of sticking with death row can be heard simultaneously. Tupac's All About You Every other city we go Every other baby It's all the last Tupac's All About You From All Eyes on Me in 1996

That is tremendously Rhythmically and Melodically pleasing And it's also rude as hell As we push into the late 90s In early 2000s Nate Dogg's reputation As an all-time hook man Only grows

Eminem, Drey again Ludicrous 50 cent Fabulous But meanwhile, death row collapses. Tupac dies in 1996. Dr. Dre leaves, Snoop Dog leaves. Label boss and supervillain Shug Knight goes to prison,

and Nate Dogg's solo album gets shelved for a year. Nate finally puts it out in 1998. It's called G-Funk Classics volumes 1 and 2, and it is indeed a double album, spanning a solid two hours and 15 minutes that's loaded up with guests and features and whatnot. but I cannot shake the feeling listening to this whole record that

Nate Dogg already sounds terrifically lonely. That's called These Days and I don't like the sound of I'm already knowing ain't nobody got my back at all. I am stalling. Listen, Warren G will continue on with his perfectly respectable

solo career even if he never reaches the heights of regulate again in any sense. And same deal with Nate Dogg. he'll always be best known, best loved, best remembered for his work with other people. Nate Dog died on March 15th, 2011 of complications from multiple strokes. He was 41. He was 41. Usually I try to mention a death like that right away.

I try to get it out of the way immediately, but for whatever reason I kept putting it off this time. It's not that I want to freeze time right at Regulate. both Warren G and Nate Dog are bound for other great things after Regulate. But there's no shame in the fact that regulate is the greatest thing either of them will ever do. And maybe, if you're looking to get rowdy, it's the single greatest song of the G-Funk era itself, better than any one song on the chronic, say, or doggy style. Maybe if you're looking to get rowdy. No, I'd rather freeze time on a song from Nate Dogg's G-Funk.

funk classics volumes one and two from volume two, I suppose, a song that features both Warren G and Snoop Dog. Warren G produced it actually. It's a song called Friends. Warren G and Snoop Dog both rap about how it's hard to have friends, to keep friends, to prevent your friends from taking advantage of you, especially when you're a famous rapper. It is a dark and even lonely song overall, but I don't think those guys will mind if I give Nate the last word. Because that's what good friends do. Hanging out with my own ass. And I'm feeling just fine.

He was a great friend, Nate Dogg. His greatest song was about how great a friend he was. About how he do anything to get a friend out of a jam. On record, at least, he had wings and he flew. We are thrilled to be joined today once again by Logan Murdoch, ringer staff writer and co-host of the Real Ones podcast. It's great to see you again, man. Welcome. It's great to see you too, bud. It's an honor, man. I know I've done this before, done this, this pod before, but to be able to do it twice is like really dope. And also congrats

on the book. So, you know, I'm a long time fan of you and the pod. And I've already bought the book. I appreciate that. Thank you for pre-ordering. It means a lot. You are the second time that the two-guests appearance club is esteemed. Yeah, that's very important. It's a Hall of Fame, and you've earned it. It's great to see you. I asked you if you wanted to talk about Regulate, and you said, and talk about how a West Coast artist saved Def Jam?

Yes, with like seven question marks. You seem very excited about this. Logan, tell me about how Regulate is the story of how a West Coast artist saved Def Jam records. I'm sure you have gone over this on your very eloquent first part of the episode, but I'll make a long story short. Basically, Def Jam was in debt, and it sold half of its stock to a bigger record company, and they needed artists. And so a guy by the name of Kevin Louse flies out to the West Coast sees this guy, Warren G, and says, oh, he's really good. He has the look. He has the vibe.

And also, he's connected to Snoop. That's an easy call. Flies Warren G. All the way back to New York, Warren G on a private jet with the twins, I might add. Oh. And wooze them all around New York. Then Warren G signs with Def Jam.

Then he puts out a record that is three times platinum and not only takes Deft. Jeff Jam out of debt puts them 33 million in the in the black. You know that you know the figure. You know 33 million is the exact figure. I googled the story just because at first it was just hearsay and when I told you, I was like, yeah, man, you know how West Coast is just like, yeah, we did that. So I had to do my Googles and I got the story yesterday. You did your Googles. That's, excellent. I did my Googles. Yeah. So that's what happened. What do you think Warren G's look and sound was? Was it a proximity to Snoop or like what were what was an A&R guy?

in New York City looking for in a West Coast rapper in the early 90s. Something smooth. You know, I think the West Coast has a big car culture. And I don't know how you guys listen to stuff in Ohio on the East Coast, but on the West Coast, when you're trying to just drive around Lake Merritt, or you're trying to drive past Echo Park, or you're in Lamert Park, you want to have something smooth to play, right? So at that point, it was, you know, you wanted to listen to some ice. to you. You wanted to listen to some Snoop Doggy Dog with just some vibey driving music.

Or if you're in the Bay, three times crazy, who was just a great thing to draw, great soundtrack to drive to when it's 2 a.m. in East Oakland. You're fine. That's your past if you do that. You don't get pulled over. Okay. That's good enough. By anyone. By anyone. Law enforcement or not. And so the thing about the West Coast artist in Warren G in particular is it just has a smoothness to it. And a real, And also another thing about West Coast music, and I don't really want to debate because I really don't give a fuck what you have to say about this,

but West Coast has the best sounding music. And what I mean by that, the sounds and the lusciousness of a DJ quick master track is always there. A Dr. Dre beat is very distinct because it is clear and mix and mastered. And that's one of the things that you get from a West Coast artist.

You get the smoothness with a little bit of an edge as we're going to talk about or regulate. But you also get the mixed and the mastering and just great music from our influences. I am not going to argue with you about that, Logan. And it's a really, I'm so relieved that I actually agree with you. You know, I didn't want us to fight here. In Ohio, I listened to regulate yesterday while I drove my many van to Target at like 645 in the evening. Just that's how we do it in Ohio, just for your reference.

Yeah. You seem you're just speechless with how impressed you are by that. And that's, yeah, that's fine. I understand that. You know what the last time I listened to Regulate, I was on the way to Trader Joe's and then had to make a dry clean run. So there we go. The perfect soundtrack to errands. Yes.

You're in Oakland guy, of course, a Bay Area guy. I figure I would establish the relationship between Bay Area rap and GFunk. Like too short is sort of. an ambassador, a conduit, he shows up a lot on snoop records, et cetera. But when you hear the chronic or doggy style or regulate, do you hear those guys as West Coast artists? Do you hear the whole West Coast? Like between L.A. Rap and Oakland rap, like how much spiritual crossover is there in this era, really? First of all, there's a lot of spiritual crossover, just because the intermingling of both artists. Like, I know we act like Northern California and Southern California are two worlds,

which they are, they're only divided by, or they're only, there's 300 miles in between us. Right. So, like, it's, it's a long drive, but it's a drive nonetheless that both that us state, uh, brethren's make. So, uh, there is a symmetry there. But also, you got to think about the radio stations. Like, I grew up with KMEO, which if you know, it is, it is the premier, uh, West Coast radio station out there.

and is also one of the best supporters of California and by extension Bay Area of music. So when I'm growing up, E40, Drew Down will be played today. If I put it on cameo right now, Drew Down is getting played. People of the year still get slaps. But I remember I always think about my morning drive, and I remember getting emailed these questions. I remember my morning drive every morning.

I'm from Lake Mary, but I would have to drive to East Oakland for school. and I grew up listening to Chewy Gomez in the morning. And Chewy is playing all West Coast stuff. He's playing Warren G. He's playing Snoop. He's playing Ice Cube. He's playing all of these things. Sugar-free gets love on Chewy Gomez, right?

But you start hearing, that's all you hear. And you might get a sprinkle of East Coast music, but by and large, you're hearing West Coast. So I probably knew regulate word for word before I. I even knew who Warren G was because that's what, that's the kind of culture that was being built while I was, while I was growing up. And then you have the summer jams where, uh, um, that started, I think in, at Concord Pavilion, but my version of the summer jam is at the Oakland Coliseum where you see the first, like one of the first times I seen Snoop, you know, or going to the shoreline

amphitheater in Mountain View, which was the second time that I saw Snoop Dog and, and, and then Warren G. And you see all this symmetry. It's a really, big family. Like we sometimes try to act like we fragmented, but it's just a distant cousin down the way. And specifically like with Long Beach, because I don't want to get it misconstrued. Long Beach is not Los Angeles. And they will tell you that to your face when you try to, when you mess it up.

And there's a symmetry between Oakland and Long Beach because of all of all of those artists. And just honestly, just the commonality that Long Beach and Oakland have in the East Bay, the feel of being an underdog in close proximity to a major metropolitan area, excuse me. You kind of get that symmetry, but Warren G, Snoop, corrupt, dog pound, the east side is.

All of them was in my rolodex when I was growing up because of Chewy Gomez and KMEL. That's basically where my West Coast life goes through and listening to the Warren G's and innate dogs and it regulates. I was honestly going to ask you, if Long Beach was the Oakland,

you know, Long Beach was to L.A. as Oakland was to San Francisco. That makes perfect sense to me. I got a comment a lot. So when I was in my early beat writing days, I covered a guy by the name of Jordan Bell, who is a Long Beach legend now.

And just he hit me to so much game about Long Beach. And, you know, Jordan did. My dog, Doc, who coached Long Beach, Polly, and Mike G. who is 562.org, they were the guys that kind of showed me the commonality between Long Beach and Oakland and just how it is, right? Because if you drive down, if you drive down to five, going from Oakland to L.A. or down to San Diego, you fully miss Long Beach so it can be forgotten, right? You have to actually drive to Long Beach when you're in SoCal. And so there is a bit of

a forgotten element. You think you see the signs of Long Beach. And you're like, like, oh, it's there, but I got to drive this way. And that starts to build a little bit of resentment. I don't want to speak too much on Long Beach because I'm not from there. But that was the education that I got about Long Beach from others. Well, when they tell you about Long Beach, what's specific to Long Beach? What's different about it from Los Angeles? What is the culture there that produced Warren G? One, Long Beach Polly, which is a great school, which is like the premier at a time was the premier athletic school in not only the state of California but the the the country at large talking about guys like willie

McGinnis playing for their football team right and you have Snoop Dogg also Cameron Diaz went there there's a lot of a lot of that right there's a there's that commonality just a love for sports but also you know it's a it's a town that's right near the water you know and you have that and you have a lot of that symmetry but also, like, these guys are, it's just a musical type thing. And I remember Snoop talking about one time when, um, when L.L. Cool J came through and, uh, came, I believe it was Long Beach. It could be Los Angeles, but Long Beach, but how he comes through and there was just an appreciation for him. Um, and, but there's an appreciation for music

in Long Beach. And I, again, I don't want to speak too much on Long Beach. Sure, sure, sure. Because I'm not from there, but you can see that there, there's a lot of musicality out of it, that comes out of that region. Because, I mean, I think about Warren G. And I also think about Nate Dog. Because Nate Dog, I don't think we realize, and I think we're going to get this in a second,

you don't really realize just how much of a music person he is and how great and dense his musicality was, this dude was somebody that's sung in a choir, who already knew how to construct a song from a young age, right? And now he has this beautiful voice. and he is a legend. But I think in another way, he could have probably been like

the Barry White of our generation if some things come through, right? And that's the type of talent that comes out of a city like Long Beach. And even like Snoop and Warren G, there's a musicality to their records because they are real music people. And that goes to my thing about West Coast

having the best sounding music because it had the best sounding musicians. Voices. Yeah. So it was, it's, you know, Long Beach is a great musical town. Yeah. Okay. So with Regulate, what is it about Warren G and Nate Dogg's chemistry that's so perfect?

Like, what quality do they share or what qualities do they not share? Like, what is the deal here with how perfect they are together? I mean, everything that I've seen and all the interviews that I've seen, they were best buds, right? Like, they were actual friends and grew up together, right? Like, people forget how they were all Nate Dog, Warren G and Snoop are all from the same neighborhood within blocks from each other, right? So, like, that friendship and also, you know, he, people forget, it was a group initially that got Snoop on was 213. 213, Warren G, Nate Dog, and Snoop.

And that group is, like, kind of never disbanded until Nate's death. But, like, the fact that they're friends, I really think resonates on this record, right? Like, even when Warren says, I glanced in a cut and I see my homie Nate. Like it's really like somebody familiar. It's not like just a regular feature. This is just something like they really just talked about their friendship and maybe a fictionalized way in the recording booth. So they were just talking about themselves,

which is the easiest thing to do, right? Like as a writer, it's the easiest thing to write about yourself. The hard thing is about writing about other people. And I think the thing what they were is it was just so easy because they were already had that built-in chemistry just from childhood. That was an excellent Warren G, by the way. I have to say, have you done this song like karaoke or in any sort of public forum? Because you really...

Well, I want to get back. We're going to talk about this part in the second, but I was watching a lot, the 94 Billboard Awards with Warren G and the Tim Brown and the Tim Brown jersey. And that's how he said it to Nate as Nate was on stage and it was like a tear because like I want to talk about the circumstances that went in there later in this episode. but it was like, you know, it's us against the world and he says, I glanced in the cut and I see my homie Nate. Just like the song, it was art intimidate.

It was life imitating art. Like, it was exactly what was happening in that moment and time. But that's why, like, that's my favorite part of it because it's like, man, right as I'm about to get my shit beat up or I might die, I glanced in the cut and I see my homie Nate. I'm good now.

Yeah. I hate asking any version of this question, but what is it about Regulate that made it unrepeatable, right? Like Warren and Nate both went on to great careers. They were on other hit songs, but like nothing at the scale of regulate. What is it about this song where it could only happen once? Well, that's how great it is, right? Like, you can't, you know, like, we're, me and you, we're writers.

We're vibes, you know, and we try to write the most perfect story every single time. How many, I know we got, me and you both got hits for show. But how many misses that do we have that people really just don't know about, right? And that comes- They know about them, but yeah. In my case, they know about it. I get, yeah. But when that happens, this is hard to recreate a hit and hard to recreate the first time.

And like, Nate and Warren have definitely collaborated since then and have tried at some points to do sequels to regulate. But you can't recreate something. You can't recreate perfection. You can't do it. When you get it the first time, that was what. it was and that's what it should be. And, you know, I think that's the big reason why. Now, there are some label shit that I'm sure we'll get into at some point, then just the fact that

they weren't able to have the promise, live up to the promise that they had just from factors outside of their talents. But for the most part, you can't really recreate perfection. And that's why regulate can't be recreated. Yeah. Because I agree with you completely that Nate Dogg could have been, should have been, you know, the Barry White of his generation. you know, the fill in the blank, you know, all time great of his generation. And he was, but he didn't get, you know, the platform that he should have. And that's because, you know, death, death row collapsed around him before he could put out his solo album. Like, was, was there any way for him to regain the momentum at that point? Or was he just sort of permanently, you know,

wrong footed by circumstances totally outside of his control? So I've been thinking about this for like the last night or so. I just want to paint the picture for why this didn't happen. So think about it. The reason why, even the reason why Warren G has this record on Def Jam in the first place. The reason why it's on Def Jam is because when Snoop was popping after the chronic and Warren G and all of them and Nate all helped out with the chronic,

Def Roe gave them contracts and Warren G was like, bro, shouldn't we have a lawyer to check this out? Shouldn't we look over these things? He was the only one not to sign and he got banished because of that, right? And so he then Def Jam has to pick him up. And this goes back to the 94 Billboard Awards where Nate Dogg who is, I'm not sure, I don't know his contract situation in Def Row at that point, but he is definitely a Def Roe affiliate at that point. And he's doing a record with a Def Jam artist, which is basically like a West Coast guy going with an East Coast artist. And that's where you get the trouble that goes on in a 94 Billboard Awards.

And then after that, like you said, death row collapses. So at that point, Nate Dogg, instead of being able to get a full-length project, he has to do features with Snoop, right? Has to do features with West Side Connection and 2001. He has to basically go into a support role because he doesn't really have a home. And as that goes on, he's never able to kind of have his artist any passes away, right? Like he never really gets to have his full artistic expression. And that's really sad, right? And same with Warren G.

If death row does right by everyone and is able to have their business in order, they might be able to, there would have been a Warren G album. It probably would have been a DJ Quick Death Row album, along with the Tupac album, and along with Dogfather, which already did come out. And maybe, you know,

a lot of circumstances would have happened. But like Pock's death really fucked up a lot of things. and, you know, that means Shug as a parole violation, and then all of these things kind of cascade down. And but, but that's, that's the, that's the tragedy in all of this, because Warren

should have been bigger. And I think, you know, Nate Dog had the chance to be a voice of his generation, to be honest with you. I really think that, you know, and I, it's, it's a tough pill to swallow when you think about it in that way. Because there are, I listen

to Nate Dogg's solo record, and like I miss the other people, right? And I wonder if he was an all-time great artist, but like his chemistry with other people is crucial to that. Like are there all-time great rappers and singers who just need that interaction? They need somebody to play off of. Yeah, but hey, the hardest man in town is a great record.

It is. It's a great record. The first song on that record, like two hours plus, but that's the first song and it's great. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think though, but like, on one hand, I do think that, like, he would be great with some support role. Like, definitely if you just, if Dr. Drake could have produced him, a whole fooling project would have been great.

Oh, God. Yeah. But also, like, I would, I think part of me is, thinks about it, like, maybe we're talking about this because all we've had to do was see him in a support role because of circumstances that we just laid out, right? Like, I would have loved to see an Nate dog full artistic expression. I know he had an album, but like just a really great produced album and like have that Teddy Pendergrass moment, you know? And have those types of hits. And yeah, and like, you know,

it's just a tough pill to swallow. And I think like, I think the biggest, the biggest representation, and I've been alluding to this this whole episode, they think the best representation of just what, what was fucked up about everything on the West Coast and how stagging it was, was that 94 Billboard Awards.

And the reason why, I'm sure you've gone over this, but in the 94 Billboard Awards, Warren G and Nate Dogger are performing regulate, and Shug is in the audience. If you look as they're, I think Warren G talks about what happened in the pre-show before that,

like Def Roe was like doing some Def Roe shit and just knocking heads and trying to get to Warragie or whatever, right? But right after that, there's a lot of cameos. Michael Clark Duncan is a security guard walking Warren G to the, stage, which is great. But there's this visual. It's a good security guard.

Yeah. Great security guard. But so he, so you see Nate Dog walking up and then you see Shug like prime Shug. 94 Shug is an underrated Shug. We always talk about like 95 and 96, but like pre-Pock Shug was not one to be fucked with. He was not one to be fucked with. So he's there and he has, and he looks, he looks Nate Dogg in the eye. And I don't see what's going on, but it looks like a menacing look from behind.

But that's the type of tension that was always around during that time, especially like Nate Dogg defy, Def Roder, go do a song with Warren G who was in his neighborhood. Like, can you fathom what the emotions are doing? And that's why I go back to my favorite line on that song is I glanced in the cut and I seen my homie Nate. Because when you see that 94 Billboard Awards, they walk in from, I think, the concourse or something like that. and they wrap the whole verse first verse. Nate Dog and Warren G are on two separate rows, and they each wrap the verse with like a throng of security guards around him. And it's like it looks like they're going into the Thunderdome.

Right, right, yeah. And then they get out and it's like, yo, we here. And it's, we're going to rock this motherfucker. It might not be the safest environment. We're going to rock this and we are in it together. I love that. I love watching that. That's beautiful.

Yeah. A lot of Warren G's early music and Nate Dog's early music is about G-Funk. It's about defining it and deciding who's really G-Funk versus who's just jumping on the bandwagon. Like, what's your personal definition of G-Funk and like how big a tent is it really? Like, how broadly or narrowly do you define it and who's a part of it? Well, it's the closest descended to P-Funk, which honestly brings us together, Mr. Ohio. Mr. Ohio player. It does.

But it's the direct descendant of P-Funk. I mean, you think about Let Me Ride, which is probably the standard of this, right? I agree. Where it's a sample of George Clinton and Funkadelic, and the video is literally Dr. Dre and his partners driving to Hollywood to see a Funkadelic show. That is G-Funk. That's what it is. And I remember like it's also, especially being on the West Coast, it's so prevalent. Like my first concert was, was Parliament Funkadelic at Shoreline Amphitheater and Mountain View.

Jesus Christ. That's right. In 1997, my mama took him. And Erica Badu was opening. And it was lit. It was fucking lit. And, but that's what's ingrained in us in the West Coast at an early age, right? is that is is is a flash like you know i got a parliament shirt in my room right now like it's it's

it's so ingrained into the fabric of the west coast just because of the great migration of the 40s and just and even in the 60s and go on and go on you always got a cousin from either ohio you got a cousin from louisiana who who came up and was a pfunk fan you know and it's just it's all a derivative of you know coltrane and the jazz right like it's just it's all those things in james brown um But you hear all of that. We hear Bootsie Collins. We hear, you know, Dr. Funkinstein.

You know, we locked in, man. We locked in on the West Coast. But P. Funk and the West Coast just has such a dynamic relationship. And it's not just SoCal. It's all in California and the West Coast. There's so much soul here because of the migration. And also just the proximity to Los Angeles, right? Because a lot of people, you know, Ohio, you're going to come to L.A.,

especially of a certain time if you're in the 70s, you're going to come to L.A. to try to get on. So what do you do? You bring your culture, you bring your music, and we fuck with that. If you go down to Lederah is popping. You listen to P-Funk. If you go down to Lake Mary where I'm at, Juneteenth, P-Funk. You go to the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival, P-Funk. We got to pop it, man. But yeah, there's just a symmetry there. Yeah, but it seems like they're very Warren G and Snoop, and Nate Dogg, sorry, they're really protective of it. After Regulate blows up, they seem to see a lot of people like trying to say that their G-phone, trying to jump on the bandwagon. It seems very important to them to protect, like, who really is about this and who isn't. Did you see a lot of

that? I mean, I can't really speak because I'm not from Los Angeles. I can only speak with my own experience from being from the Bay and having a similar experience to that. And what you go through from that is it's not necessarily the people trying to dig your style. It's them making money off of the style that they didn't create for a monetary value when you did it. for free because that was the talent in your soul. And so for those reasons, of course somebody will be pissed off that somebody, because I mean, if you really with the culture and you really are P-Funk, you don't really got to have no questions being asked about you.

But when you're doing it, you know, it births such a movement where people want to now monetize it like any record label, we know this, right? Anytime somebody, something gets popping, you just want to continue to replicate it and replicated or replicated until it's into the ground. And I just see that it's like Snoop and Warren G and all those people not wanting that to happen. And, you know, it's going to happen regardless because that's life, but it's still not cool. Logan, what is the best Nate Dogg hook? Setting regulate aside. Like, when you want to hear Nate Dog, where do you go? Can I say ain't no fun? Sure you can. Okay, Nate no fun. Is this the, I mean, it's just very like, it's problem.

But it's so catchy. Like, it's just like, I know. You ever just, hey, Rob, you ever just think about like, damn, I just was on the fly on the wall? Because we all've been to studio sessions where like, it's just so boring and monotonous and stuff. But with something just, with something catches, it's just like, oh, I wonder how it just got like, oh, and their wild ass by was like, just singing that in the studio. And they're like, hold on. And it's like, no, go in the studio and do it. And lay that right now.

But it's, it's awesome. You know it's another great underrated Nate Dog verse? It's, I think it's the last meal from Snoop. And it's a record called Don't Tell. I love that one. It's a great record. But it's basically, it didn't get marketed as such, but it's basically the sequel to Ain't No Fun.

Right. And Nate Dog has like the best verse on that. And it's a great record, but you're kind of just waiting for the Nate Dog verse. those are my two ain't no fun is the best hook I think my favorite verse from Nate though is don't tell because that's

late in Snoop's No Limit era right like that's right at the end though That's when he told when he told Master Pete Hey bro I need Dr. Fuck whatever y'all are doing I need Dr. Javier executive produce my shit again Right yes Good decision

The overbroad way to describe The difference between rap music and 1994 and rap music now is like now someone like Drake can be both Warren G and Nate Dogg at the same time, right? Like, he's found a way to somehow combine, you know, the singing with the rapping, like the two styles. Like, when you hear Regulate now, does it sound like the past to you, or does it sound

like the future or sound like the present? Definitely, I mean, it sounds like the future for a certain time based on what you just laid out, right? That, like, the biggest artist in the world is now a, you know, the algorithmic version of these two types of things, right? But I think the best thing to describe it as is timeless, right? It's not too far in the past. It's not futuristic.

It's present at all times, which is the euphoric state you always want to be in. And I think that that's something that I was listening to it on the way to the crib right now from right, man. It was just like, it's sunny out here in the bay. You remember them old sunny days right there. There's not a cloud in the sky. I was just driving through, man, just had to put the windows down, and I glanced in the cut. And I see my homie, Nate. We got to end it there.

Logan, this has been wonderful. It's always great to talk to you. Thank you so much, man. Thanks, bud. I love you, man. Keep killing it. Thanks very much to our guest this week, Logan Murdoch. Thanks, as always, to our producers, Jonathan Kerma and Justin Sales.

Thanks to Chloe Clark for additional production help. And thanks very much to you. for listening. And now I really must insist that you go listen to Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg. We'll see you next week.