One Song - Dr. Dre's "Nuthin' but A 'G' Thang"

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

One, two, three, and to the fo' -- Diallo & LUXXURY is at yo' do'...ready for another One Song episode! And on this episode, they break down Dr. Dre's hit that introduced the world to g-funk, tell the story of how Dre recruited Snoop to be a featured artist, and discuss why "'G' Thang" has become one of the most influential hip-hop tracks of all time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here we are. Sirius X-M. We're in the studio. I'm about to do a great episode for y'all. My man, Luxury. Should we stop this off? Let's do it like this. One, two, three,

into the boat. He's luxury, and my name is Diablo. Ready to start another one's an episode. And you know we're about to rock the coast. Yeah, it's like Dre, Snoop and that, Anna. It's like Shug Night and that. And we got the steps. You know it's like audio goals.

So just chill to this next episode. You got the feeling Rock and rock the other song You got the feeling Yeah, yeah, yeah Here we go Ready for one song I hope you are

Because we are Luxury, today's song is one of the biggest hip-hop songs of all time It's arguably one of the most influential hip-hop songs of all time It peaked at number one On Billboard's hot R&B hip-hop songs

And Billboard's Hot Rap Songs Whatever they were calling The Black Charts back then, it peaked at number one. And it peaked at number two on Billboard's Hot 100. It was kept out of the top spot. Of all songs. Snow's Informer.

When it peaked at number two, this was an unheard-of feat at a time when this song was considered hardcore gangster rap. If you were alive during the early 90s, listening to the radio, you almost certainly heard this song flowing out of car speakers, blasting of cookouts. Needless to say, this song took West Coast hip-hop to a new level. That's right. It's one song and that song is Nothing But a G Thing by Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Doggy Dog. I'm actor, writer, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. And I'm producer, DJ songwriter and musicologist Luxury, aka the guy who whispers at Tarmalation on the internet.

Welcome to one song. Today we're going to talk about nothing but a G thing. Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dog, it's an iconic song. It holds a revered place in the pantheon of music. and we're going to try and discuss that song, its creation, and its lasting impact on hip-hop culture. However, it is challenging to divorce the songs place in culture from the numerous references to gang violence and the incidents of violence against women that have followed Dr. Dre throughout his career, including those involving hip-hop journalist Dee Barnes and R&B singer Mishelay. While Dr. Dre has apologized for his past actions, we think it's essential to acknowledge these serious issues. and we want to be clear that we condemn violence in all its forms. We hope you enjoy the episode and take a moment to consider the women affected by Dr. Dre's actions and all victims of street violence.

And I want to dedicate this episode to a distant family member of mine, Robert Ballou, who is unfortunately one of the first people to lose their lives in the war between the bloods and the Crips. Rest in peace. All right, D'allel, so before we dive into breaking down, nothing about a G-thing, I wanted to ask, what is your first memory of hearing this song? You know, there are those songs that you remember the first time you heard them. This is one of them for me. I heard it.

I was driving down Martin Luther King Drive, which is already the blackest story I think I've ever told on the store. I was driving down the MLK in Atlanta. I was crossing the train tracks by my old house in Southwest Atlanta, right by the Adamsville projects. And I remember that the radio played it. And I immediately was like, oh, this is a hit. And I have a very fraught relationship with NWA because, you know, like my parents raised me with a great deal of black. consciousness. I didn't listen to NW.A. You know, I remember the first time I heard NWA. It was ironically the one white kid in our high school who played NWA for me one time on our way to a science fair.

Wow. You know? And I was like, John, why are you listening to this? Right. I mean, that's true because it was it was crossover appeal. Like in my white, mostly white high school, like that, you know, people were into NWA and these people were mostly white. Dude, I'm telling you, like, me and my little quicker friends, we did not listen to NWA. We listened to Public Enemy. And You know, sort of like NWA was, they seemed to be at odds with public enemy and jungle brothers and like this, this very sort of black conscious rap that we were listening to. So when I heard nothing but a G thing, I don't know if I knew that it was more pop friendly, but I immediately thought this is a hit. This is like, this is Dre creating the song that is clearly just going to break him out to a whole new group of people. In fact, I remember that night, the cheerleaders at my high school, like, they put in, U, T, like, each one had like a letter on the back of their, on the back of their uniforms, and it spelled out nothing but a G thing.

Like at the, at the football game that Friday. And that's an idiot response. Oh, dude, listen, in Georgia, football Fridays is such a big thing. So, like, for them to, like, endorse this West Coast rapper, like, that was insane. So I knew immediately it was a hit. It was a different sound. And I should say, like, when I graduated high school, and went to Harvard and was listening, you know, to continue to listen to rap music.

I'm listening to Nas. I'm listening to Mob Deep. Like, a certain part of me just was having a hard time accepting that the West Coast was becoming the dominant coast. And I think that that is, you know, look, we love the East Coast rappers of the 90s. But I think that as a casual listener, you couldn't help but feel like, man, the West Coast, they're really having a moment right now in like 1990. You were ambivalent or you were.

kind of like noticing that there was, you were changing your opinion of what West Coast Yeah, yeah, I mean like, and by the way, I'm going to say right from the beginning, when we say West Coast, often we're talking about Los Angeles because I find that like a lot of times when people talk about the West Coast, they inevitably

leave out the Bay Area. Yeah, they leave out the Bay Area. Like, you know, not hip-hop fans, obviously. We love E-40 and Mac Dre and all those artists. Three times crazy had some great hits back then. Like, you know, but I do feel like Souls and Mischief, obviously, I do feel like when we talk about West Coast, we are usually talking about a very L.A. centric scene. Well, there's also some ambivalence about the MC Hammer

phenomenon, too, right? Because he's rapping Oakland, and like he's a big pop star. Yeah, and by the way, so when Hammer came out in, I think it was, you know, when... Maybe 990 kind of... Yes, well, I mean, obviously Hammer had like songs before Can't Touch this, but once Can't Touch this took over the planet. The people who came at Hammer, by the way, tended to be from the East Coast. And I do feel like that engendered some resentment from the West Coast because the West Coast could easily be like, hey, y'all produce Kid and Play. Like, I don't remember y'all coming at Kid and Play as hard as y'all are coming at

ham. Right. You know, so there was a little bit of a back and forth. And obviously we're going to talk a little bit today about the East Coast, West Coast feud, but we're going to try and keep it centered on the West Coast because one reason I'm so excited about this episode is that it reminds me that at the end of the day, I was a huge fan of West Coast Records. Right now, the West Coast.

Coast is having a moment with Kendrick and the pop out and, you know, all these artists who are coming out of the West. We're going to talk about where that West Coast sound came from and who were the people who were who were vibing off of it and what they did when they had the spotlight on them. But I also want to talk about you because, you know, when we were prepared with this episode, you mentioned that this song wasn't entirely on your radar. Like, where are you when nothing but a G thing, drops? You know, it's so crazy because I am literally from California. I am from the Bay Area. And I was listening to De La when it came out. I bought the record on vinyl, like, maybe the first week or month. I'm listening to Tribe. I'm super indigible planets.

By the way, that's me too. Like, those were my loves. Those were my loves at the time. So it was really weird when I saw the West Coast like top and the charts and stuff. But I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, no, this is just a moment where my musical appetite starts to fragment a little bit because I'm starting to play instruments. I'm starting to like be kind of in moments where my headspace is exclusively like thinking about what I want to make and I stop absorbing influences but also there's just the luck of the draw that I happened to not be in California when the record came out. I was living in Paris. Oh, wow. So like I just was not exposed to very much hip-hop that year. In fact, the biggest hip-hop record of

1992, 93 for me was probably MC Solar, who's a French MC. I swear to God. Bien-Lamol. No, I know MC-Sol. One of my favorite records in that moment. With a guru of gangster. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Exactly right. So like ironically, that's the biggest hip-hop record of 92-93 for me. It's probably, who's Seme Levant, regote at the tempo. I mean, I love that. And by the way, I was listening to that. I was listening to Dela. I was listening to Tribe. And you know who else was listening to Tribe? Dr. Dr. Dre. Yes, he was. Dr. Dr. was listening to the low-in theory. And he loved how Q-Tip and Alicia Hi-Maha.

had mastered that album with those really low lows. And so when he's thinking about breaking loose from Ruthless and thinking about what his next sounds going to be like, and he's crafting this amazing album called The Chronic, he had the low-in theory running through his brain. He's listening to the same film. We were listening to it. And he was thinking, what's next?

What can I do this a little bit different? Of course, we're going to get into that a little bit later. We're going to get into it. So, D'all, I got a question for you. How much of an impact and influence did nothing but a G-thing have on the 90s hip-hop scene? And by the way, I am going to trip over my, how I say thing, this entire opposite. Because every time I say thank, I don't know. Every time I see the name W.B. Dubois, I'm always like, should I just say De Bois?

I don't know. But back to the question at hand. How much of an impact and influence of the song have on 90s hit. You know, like, sometimes I'm talking about a song that I was, you know, too young to be a part of, or maybe I'm nowadays, I'm like too old to be a part of. But I feel like the 90s hip-hop scene is something I understand intimately because I was like the right age to sort of pick up. up on everything. And I will say that the influence of this song and this album cannot be really overstated because it changed hip-hop, it did it. It did. I mean, like, it helped, first off, it introduces G-Funk, regardless of we'll get into like, who created G-Funk. It introduces

G-Funk to pretty much everybody. Like, there were plenty of groups, including EPMD, that sampled Parliament and Funkadelic. But like, this is the album where, like, it takes it to another level. and the way that was mastered so clean, all of a sudden, like, you really wanted to have that CD. You didn't want to have the hiss of the cassette tape. The Sonics are crazy good. Because you really wanted to hear that clean G-Fung sound. You know, it incorporates musical samples and melodies in ways

that are going to influence the rest of the decade. You know, also, The Chronic was the first major studio album released by Death Row Records. Whether you're talking about Dre, Snoop, Tupac, Shug Knight, like everybody knows the importance of Death Row to the scene. It launches the career of Snoop, Nate Dog, corrupt, Daaz, you know, so many, Lady of Rage, so many rappers. And this is important because I don't think this gets stated enough. Nowadays, we all hear music pretty much when we want to. Back then, you heard music on the radio.

And most places, with the exception of, you know, Hot 97 in New York and K-Mell in the Bay, there were no such things as all-day rap stations, K-Day here in L.A. An all-day rap station was like something you look forward to when you were. visit your family in these other cities. We didn't have it in Atlanta. We didn't have it most places. And another but a G-thew thinks starts to push that door open so that by, I always say, I think it's the summer of 95 when the one more chance Biggie remix comes out. That's when the floodgates open and people start figuring out, oh, people want to hear, as Chuck D would say, the jammy in the daytime. So that's when you start getting hip-hop at all. But before that,

radio stations, it was Anita Baker. Yeah. Black radio stations specifically, right? Black radio stations we had Keith Sweat and all the R&B all stars all day and then at night and on weekend nights you would get hip-hop but like that was not a thing that was played on the radio yeah radio formatting was even again even black stations were not we're afraid of hip-hop and came all in the bay area was one of the first ones to kind of break that and and go all day like you said and obviously there were underground stations I'm sure there were pirate stations. I don't know where they were. But to a mass audience.

It was hard to find. You had to go to the warehouse or tower records or whatever your records. In Atlanta, we had turtles. You had to go there, buy it and listen to yourself because it was not on the radio. I'm in the Bay Area. So it's a surprise for me to learn later on in life that like the hip-hop that I was just, that was just on the KMEL is a huge radio station. It's 106.

It's like you're always kind of in that zone in your dial. So it was definitely a surprise for me to learn later how unusual that was. across the country at the time they pioneered that and this was one of the records they were playing constantly so from creating a new hub for hip hop yeah on the west coast to helping to change radio formats uh to breaking just gangster rap to an even wider bigger audience than it's ever had uh this song is influential let's take our step back and talk not just about dray's origins but the origins of the G-Funk sound. What can you say about G-Funk and the people who created it? Absolutely. Well, let's, I'm going to step back from the stepping back even,

because there's a guy I want to introduce to a handful of people who may not know about them. A lot of the deeper heads may already know this name, but Colin Wolf is one of the unsung heroes. You know on the show, we always like to give flowers to some of the people that may have been part of the music-making process. They're not the producer and they're not the rapper and they're not the face, but they're in the studio. And sometimes we don't know exactly who did what on the song. So after a lot of deep research, Colin Wolf is a big part of the story of this record, but also of the song,

Nothing But a G thing. So let's talk a little bit about this gentleman who was raised, he's from L.A., black man who grew up and was a huge fan of a lot of white music. He's a Led Zeppelin fan. He talks about Jimmy Hendrix, though who one of his favorite bass players is Mark King from Level 42. So he's an instrumentalist. The guys who did something about you? That's the one.

One of my favorite songs of all time. Such a tune. I did not know that song. was going to come up on a West Coast rap episode. But please continue. No, this gentleman is a huge fan of these incredible bass players from these bands. And he's playing bass actually at the China Club when the ruthless posse walks in. It's Dre and EasyE and the crew.

Ruthless records. They see him playing bass. He's doing like a bass solo apparently and they're like, we need this guy in our posse. And they send him on tour with Michelle A. And he becomes their, Michelle A's touring bass player. And then he's just in the fold. and what happens for the next little while, and this includes the making of NWA's follow-up record,

these guys are the team. They are the unit that are making these records together. So it's Drey and Colin Wolf in the studio from nine to five, seven days a week, putting together the sounds that crafting basically the sound that turns into the chronic. Because what Drey's bringing, obviously, is the production skills, the beat making,

some of the big picture ideas. And what Colin's bringing is he plays instruments, which is a big part of the story of this song and the album The Cronic. They worked on NWA's 100 Miles and Run-in, so he's coming up with tracks for NWA, and again, they're collaborating where Dre builds a drum track, and then he adds his live bass playing or live synth playing on top of it, and they're crafting the sound, one of the first songs,

and I just have to play this one for you, and I'm curious if you've heard this one before. This is from 1991, and without any further ado, F-L-U-T-E, yeah. For those of you don't know, that is Jimmy Z featuring Dr. Dre Funky Flute from 1991. I'm so glad to bring up Colin Wolf then because the bass lines

on some of those Ruthless record songs is insane. It's insane. I remember the bass on No More Lives by Michel A. insane baseline. Check that out. Dude, I'm Tanya. And that's something we're talking about, because we're talking about the West Coast.

And people forget, like, before G-Fund The West Coast had so many different cool sounds. And one of those sounds that cannot be forgotten is sort of like the electro sound, like the electro, specifically electro funk sound. Yes. You know, people forget, like, Arabian Prince, Egyptian lover. These are guys who are down with the W.A. I just met Egyptian lover the other night because I ran out.

He's around. You know where I met Egyptian lover? Where did you meet the Egyptian lover? I had a craftwork show. Of course you. Which makes all the sense of the world. Of course you did. That's where you're going to meet an Egyptian lover.

World on Wheels. People who grew up here know World on Wheels was like this roller skating rink where they were playing, you know, craftwork and Africa Bumada. And they were hearing all these things. My God, I'm so pumped. That connection is one of my favorites. And there's, you're just making me excited because like I was recently listened to a Dre mixtape like from the Compton Swat meets, like that era when he was doing these, the tapes. And there's so much electro on it. And I was like, oh, damn, I didn't realize there was like. They were digesting electro and they were doing so much with electro. on the West Coast. Songs that you wouldn't even consider West Coast rap songs, but in the 80s, the ideas were flowing loose and free. This is a snippet of

I Need a Freak by Sexual Harassment. I love this song. I need a freak to treat me right. I need a freak every day and every night. You know, that's a classic. That's like a hybrid, too, because it's got that electro sound, but it's a little slower than most electrical.

It's a little slower, and he's not high in the fact. That's like that Shannon let the music play or whatever bass line or bass sound, I should say, the sparseness of it though, like that song is a, there's a timelessness to it. It's interesting. It's really cool. Yeah. By the way, for all of our younger listeners, no, that was not a black-eyed peas song that I just played. Wait, black-eyed peas. I mean, my humps interpolates. I'm sorry. Oh my gosh, she's so right. There's a major.

She's got me spend it. She's got me. Oh my gosh, you're totally right. Well, you know, they paid handsily. We like Will I Am here, but yeah, But they paid handsomely for that. They got sued and millions of dollars exchanged hands. And we'll talk a little bit about this more too, because when the chronic comes out, it makes GFunk so addictive and so charming that it actually in some ways chased out all of the electro and jazz and old, you know, it chased out a lot of different influences that West Coast Raff had been sampling.

And it sort of narrowed it through no fault of Drey and Snoops, but it narrowed it to sort of be more. one thing instead of all these other influences. Well, it's also, I mean, look, we're about to get into a little more about the G-funk factor of it all, but what's interesting thing about when you think about electro is how damn fast it is. These are high-ass, high-energy BPMs. So one of the choices that Drey and

Colin are obviously making together is what can we do that's different? What can we do that's like a different vibe, a different sound, evoking a different era? With Snoop's influence, maybe it's evoking the weed influence of it all? Well, that's a big thing, right? Because throwing it the hell down. Dre said, I don't smoke weed or cess because it gives a brother

brain damage, but then, yes, it's apparently Snoop. When Snoop comes in Snook and Snoop's proclivities, where, like, you know, not only does Dre get on board with marijuana, but he's like, I'm going to name my album after a particularly potent. Strain of weed. Strain of weed. Yes, he did. So this is a real partnership. You know, at this point, this is around 1991. Colin Wolf is in the studio pretty much every day with Dr. Dre, and they are crafting records and hits and singles, and they're figuring out their next sound. And specifically, this is for Dre, who's finally ready to come out with his solo record. He's going to make his big debut. So they're talking about what it should sound

like. And in Colin Wolfe's words, there's a great interview, a wax poetics, interview with him where he talks about how they wanted to make, quote, a real parliament funkadelic album. So they had redid, aka Interpolation. This was a big part of the strategy because we have a live bass player. And can I say it? We've said this on the show before. It's because of the West Coast that I'd learn the word interpolation. Oh, really? Like, DJ premier, a lot of people interpolation. They were sampling these. records, you know what I mean? But like, but it was the West Coast that was like really going out of their way to replay them. That's right. And when I was reading those like liner notes in the

CD and the cassette, like they would use that word like interpolation or interpolates, you know, interpolating. And I figured out just over the course. I was like, oh, that means they replay the music. They replayed the sample. They took the idea in the sample, the bass line, the melody, maybe both, as we will see soon. Right. And we had a musician perform them. And that's Colin Wolfe on this song. I mean, by the way, I think I read somewhere where it was Dre and probably Colin as well, who was like, I can't get the sound that I want by just running, you know, something like Leon Haywood through the sampler. He was like, I really wanted to feel, you know, thicker and more full, in part because he had listened to something like low-in theory, which is crazy.

Absolutely. A huge part of it is the Sonics. Another part is that if you aren't working exclusively off of a sample where you've got maybe a drum loop, some percussion and a baseline, and maybe other stuff baked in, you can't. separate those things to tune them, to tweak them, to dial them in perfectly, or even to modify them. But if you've got a baseline that is on the track that you're recording, separate from the other elements, you can do all kinds of things. You can retakes, you can perform it all the way through with little variations and then dial in the sonics, which of course Dr. Dre, that's one of the big contributions he's making to hip-hop. It's like really dialing in the sound. So that's another advantage of working with an instrument player. I think this is as good a place as any to mention that there was a what they called the Starship Enterprise mixing board, the SSL console, the SSL, and I think it's

solar records had it in their studio, and that became like where Dre lived. And that was one of the places where he started to really craft what we now associate as not just the G-Funk sound, but like the Dre sort of sound. Well, so what is the G-Funk sound? We've been teeing it up this whole time. We've already mentioned the two bands, Parliament Funkadelic, who are called P-Funk, and this is where we get the G-Funk. So it's gangster version of P-Funk. But P-Funk are kind of the same band with slightly different players. It's George Clinton from New Jersey, inventor of this sort of second wave of funk, I would say. I mean, if James Brown is inventing the funk from the 60s, well, in the early to the mid-70s, we have George Clinton really refining it and changing it up and

kind of slowing it down. Here are some of the characteristics of what made Parliament and Funkadelic records have a certain sound. Now, part of it is really slow beep PPMs, as we talked about, by contrast to the electro, which is in the 120s. And also, NWA straight out of Compton is still like sort of like in the 90s BPM. Chronic slows it even further down. That's right. That's right. So we've got the slower BPMs.

I don't think I found a single BPM on the chronic that's over 100 BPM. Yeah, that's right. It's pretty much all 75 to 96. 96 is fast. This song is fast. This is one of the faster ones on the record, D-thing. Deep, deep baselines, like really deep sonically, like, EQ like frequency range.

They still sound good in your car. Sound good in the car and they're so warm and they wash over you. It's like a massage. I always said that like in some ways the 808 is like it was like I used to call the black man's massage because like no matter how your day went, you could get into your car and that like rumble you'd be like, ah, you know like and by the way if your windows were up, it was like the conversation is complete. But if your windows are down, you're like, I'm broadcasting to everybody.

This is what I'm listening to. And by the way, we used to call the gangster setting on your EQ. back when your EQs were like little knobs that you could move on your on your car radio. Exactly what you were always like base all the way up. Mids all the way down. Don't nobody want Mids. And then treble all the way up. That's the valley that gives you that base.

I used to get shit from my friends in high school. Shout out to Scott Stafford. He used to come over to see my stereo. I had that scoop in the middle like that little like little you curve and the EQHB. He'd be like, he always had this you curve. I'm like, yes, I do. So the P-Funk thing, which becomes the G-Funk thing, includes the BPMs that are slower, the deeper basslines. it's also kind of interesting factor

is that it's really groove oriented where there are not that many chord changes now James Brown also is very groove oriented too but there's like also a little bit like less of emphasis on the one we talk about that on the show a lot like James Brown introduced this concept of like the doon, down the one

and then there's some syncopation a lot of the P-Funk and G-Funk is just like a lot of back beach and it's pretty even across the beat so it's a little bit like relaxing this the one theory you get a lot of handclaps one thing that's not on every P-Funk song, but it's like, you'll notice it next time

you listen to Parliament or Funkadelic. There's a crash on every two bars. They do that a lot. There's the crash symbol, and then two bars, and then another crash. So some things about P-Funk's influence on G-Funk. A lot of that stuff is the template for what becomes the chronic.

And then last but not least, we can't talk about P-Funk or G-Funk without talking about those Moog synths. To me, this is the defining quality of G-Funk. If you put a gun to my head, please don't. But if you did, and we're like, what is the defined equality? More than the funk, it is the synthesizer.

You're referring to that high melody line, which is what we have at the top of this song and goes throughout. And that's performed on a Moog, which is spelled M-O-O-G, but now you know it's pronounced Moog and not Moog. I was probably saying Moog. Most people do until they hear this. And then Bernie War Al is the synth player for both Parliament and Funkadelic. He just pioneered this both sounds actually.

He's playing bass. Bootsie, of course, is the bass player famously for Funkadelic and sometimes Parliament. But Bernie Wharrell is really the keyboard player who's on pretty much everything that George Clinton does. So when Bootsy's not playing bass, he's playing bass on the keys, and he's got that funky worm kind of sound on the top. And I think you wanted to say something about that. Well, listen, to me, again, G-Funk is the sound of that synth. There are things that sound like California to me. Yeah.

Okay, like the music of the doors, like when Rayman's, Zerick goes into like his solos, you know, that sounds like California to me. Yeah. When I hear the low-rider music champion by Art Lebo, shout out and RIP to Art Leboe, one of the champions of not just the oldies but goodies format, but also like the low-rider culture, which is featured so heavily in the nothing but a G-thang music video. Like that is, you know, a sound. Slow and low on the bottom, but on top, what do we got?

And it's a merger of Latin culture. And for the lack of a better term, the sound of Black L.A. at this time. I think about a Viva Torado by El Chicano, which has something of a, you know, it sounds like sort of a midway point between the doors and this funk that we're now talking about. But you mentioned Funky Worm. And I would say if there was a... Which is not P-Funk. If there was a low...

It was not P-Funk, ironically. But it, to me, is the song that powers so many of these 90s. West Coast songs, and it's a classic. I mean, like most people have heard it, but for those who haven't. By Ohio Players, 1973. You know, I still get chills when I hear that kind of stuff, because to me, that is the sound. It's so exciting sound. But technically, that's, by the way, not a Moog. That's an ARP synthesizer. Oh, no! It doesn't matter because... The worldview is shattered. All these synths are capable of playing similar sounds. It's

down to how they're dialed in. But the thing that makes it so specifically the same sound is that It's this portamento, which means it's one note that's kind of continuing from one, like, from one pitch to the next. Yeah. It's all connected. It's all connected. And it's poor to mental. And that's what makes you, you just can't control your neck sometimes. You're like, that's right.

Yes. That's right. Yes. By the way, I will also say that like. It's one continuous sound. Art definitely does affect people. It does. It does affect people.

But before we move, I'm like, so we just played Funky Worm. It reminds me of this song by Ice Cube, who by the way, when the chronic came out, he was still working with the bomb squad. out of New York. You know, they had worked with Public Enemy and they had crapped at their own sound. But after the chronic came out, everybody on the West Coast had to jump on board. So, you know, Cube went from doing the songs he had done

to a song that sounds like this. Why, yo, why, must just swoop through the hood like everybody from the hood. It's up to no good. You think all it goes around here, we're tricking a... I mean, so obviously that's the funky worm's sample. That's today's word. It's portamento.

Portamento. But you also hear. the helicopters, you know what I mean? Like, this is a time, and if you live in L.A. to this day, you hear helicopters, but I think they had more helicopters back then, because even when I first moved out to L.A. in the late 90s, like, I feel like you would hear helicopters overhead more often than you do now. I think they probably have other ways of tracking folks down. But, like, this sound, it came out of that low-rider culture, L.A.'s car culture, and it was just infestors. It just sounds so good coming out of a car, the simplicity of it, yeah.

Absolutely. And you mentioned the public enemy of it all. all like, I mean, it's just interesting you mentioned public enemy because there's some interesting modifications that that are happening in the chronic to the sound where it hasn't completely, we haven't completely left the world of sampling, but we're adding interpolation and the sonic separation of all these parts. The sonic separation, I'm so glad you bring this up. And last but not least, by the way, is the existence of base because we had Questlove on the show to talk about Public Enemy. If you haven't listened to that episode, go back and check it out. It's super good. But one thing about Public Enemy you will find is there aren't really baselines in it. And here,

these are all baseline. This is so base-driven. These are so base-driven. So base-driven. And also, when I went back and listened to The Chronic for this episode, man, I thought it was going to sound like night and day from public. I mean, obviously, the end result is so different, not just thematically, but musically. But it is not completely unrelated because, you know, if you just even go back to the intro

of the chronic, you will hear sample, interpolation, music sample. Like, there's still like an assault happening on your ears that does not, it doesn't It doesn't sound like the Neptunes. You know what I mean? Like it doesn't sound spatially separated the way music sounds spatially separated. Now, no, they're still bombarding you with this sound of like, oh, there's chaos

in the streets. There's chaos in the streets of L.A. And guess what? We're taking the throne in L.A. I think that's part of what makes the album so great is that you write. You do have a lot of songs like that. But we're about to get into G-thing,

like the stem, et cetera. This is a song that is a little bit of that interesting hybrid where there is a sample, but there is also a real minimalism. And it's not a bombardment. It's not a Bomb Squad-esque kind of thing. But you're right, on the record, there are definitely songs that are still doing that. And that's why this record, the chronic, as an experience, is so pleasurable

because you get such a diverse range of songs and sound. Obviously, Drey does not arrive at G-Funk just out of nowhere. Through his work with NWA, you can see him walking up to a sound that will eventually become the G-Funk sound. And I think on no song, is that more clear than the NWA classic always into something. in the morning, hopping to the B&Z, I got 44 ways to get pain, sitting in my lap as I roll up the come. You can hear it coming.

That song comes in so hard. I always thought it had one of the best openings of a rap song ever. 1990, motherfucking one, NWA back in this motherfucker yo. Like, that's just a hard opening. It's a hard opening. That's so sick, man. There's at least 11 interpolations across the chronic from Parliament Funkadelic. So, like, these guys love their P-Funk record collection, and they're a hard opening.

love to reinterpret them or interpolation them there are two P-Funk interpolations alone on fuck with Dre Day and let me just play a couple of them for you so that classic bass line comes from this me myself and I exactly same song Dre like that bass line so much he interpolated it again in this now they're obviously both slightly different, but Clinton gets writing credit on both of them. So they definitely acknowledged where they got it from. Those are both sample from, not just knee deep by Funkadelic. I mean, literally in the video for Fuckwood-Drey Day, he's wearing a Funkadelic shirt. So lots of

props are given, lots of publishing and royalties are paid. And if we're talking about Fuck With Dre, I just, I can't listen to the song and not crack up laughing at this part of the song since we've been talking about the Portamento. Listen to what's happening in the Portamento, So in the synth, in the Bernie Wharrel's synth right around here. It's around the 322 mark of Fuck with Dre. Got it mess. I pulls out my strap. Got my chrome to the side of his white socks.

You're trying to check my homie. Your best check yourself. Because when you disdrey, you dish yourself. Motherfucker. That's what jumps out to you. He's obviously just messing around and like soloing randomly and not knowing what note he's going to hit next. And they just left it in.

And there's some really silly notes in there. Like those are legit, that's a musical logical term. Silly notes. Silly notes. But I want to actually call something out, which is that in preparing this episode, I'm a big fan of Above the Law. Now, you know, they had a great album called Black Mafia Life. And according to some, they had, you know, some beats, for the lack of a better word, on their album that, you know, people are like, oh, Dre heard those. And then he put them on the chronic.

Now, I personally think everybody's like, you know, sampling from the same cultural stew, so to speak. But you just played F with Dre Day. I'm going to play a little snippet of a Above the Law song that was apparently crafted before that song called Never Missing a Beat. Because I'm not bragging, I'm just enough to lagging me. I'm not black and I'm just enough to lagging you know what I fuck with me. I think that instead of focusing on that, I think we should give our props to Hutch and the guys who are at above the law

because they are classic hip-hop creators too who don't always get the love. In fact, they are responsible for one of my favorite West Coast songs of all time, the amazing epic track, Black Superman. I mean, like, that song comes in so good. There's something about, like, when a West Coast song comes in, right? Like, that joint will hit so hard. And I think that that's one of the reasons why I was so excited to be doing this episode. Oh, my God.

But there's those slow BPMs with a big bass. Like, that formula just works so hard every time. And it's around this point where they're coming up with this sound that they do. One of the first tracks that actually was intended for and later dropped from the chronic. But it's for the soundtrack to the movie Deep Cover. It's originally called 187, but then they changed the title to Deep Cover. Here it is, Dre and Snoop. This is from April 1992.

Because it's 187 on the undercover car. Creep with me as I crawl through the hood. Maniac lunatic. Call it Snoop. Would kick in dust as I bus police By the way, what I just played is the radio edit, which was the first time I'd ever heard Snoop's voice. It's his debut on a record release.

This is the first time most of us would ever have the chance to hear Snoop, aka Calvin brought us rap on a song. And one thing I've always loved about the deep cover radio edit is that, I think I said this on previous episodes, you get more of a visual. Like when he says, I got a gauge and who's he and my nickel-plated, 22, you know, nickel-plated. Like, I can see, I can see, I have a better visual. And but of course, on the, on the other version, it's just, you know, motherfucking, you know, so like, I always like the

radio. It's a nice poetic replacement. So this is, Colin Wolf and Dr. Dre are, are getting their formula together. So there's, there's still a big kind of boom-bit sample there. And is Colin Wolf playing the bass on deep cover? Exactly right. So he's playing that baseline and he talks about how he was influenced by, by the tri-bound, by low-end theory. So, that's got kind of like a tritone, that's kind of a weird, like those notes are unusual. They're a little jazzy. Like, you know, they're not necessarily something you would hear. That's what gives it that eerie feel, by the airy flavor.

I mean, let's go back to the beginning of the song, because, like, that bass is absolutely the star of the song. That sounds like actually a stand-up, upright bass to me, like Ron Carter. Which makes sense because, like, the stand-up bass sound was very prominent in the early 90s. Everybody from DJ Mugs to Pete Rock. Everybody owes a little bit to low-in theory because, you know, we got the jazz. We got the jazz. There's always that stand-up bass sound. Yeah, I think he's technically, I believe, just playing a fretless regular bass, but that's

how you get that same sound. There's no frets on it. I love that. Drey has Colin there, and Drey has also, like, worked closely with the D.L.C. Like, he's another person who is ready to break free of ruthless. And the D.C, it's easy to forget. That dude had a huge record in hip-hop come out. Love the D-L-C. His song, Funky Enough was, like, ubiquitous. Like, that was just a dope, dope song. And I would be remiss if I didn't play just a little bit of my favorite D.O.C. song. This is a snippet of D.L.C. and the doctor. That was like an L.L. Cool J. Cadence at the end. It was. It also sounds a little bit like the Beastie Boys, who are ironically going to come up later in the episode. There's something about the slower tempos

as we're listening to all these slower tempos where like it gives you time literally to do more musically but also with your body because the slower the tempo the more inclined I am to just like do things that are awkward. Yeah. But like I can't help but do them because it just got so slow that I've got time to get from here to here and then back

again. Bear with me. I love that. Bear with me. You bring up L.L. Cool J and I think you're right because I feel like him and the BC Boys and a lot of those early Def Jam artists did this thing where there's no beat and it's just your voice that creates the rhythm. This is actually

the very beginning of that song. Because it rocks. The sales won't stop. Those of the doctor. Like that's always fun. I fucking nailed it. That's always fun. No, you totally did. You totally did. Deep cover being the title song for a soundtrack for a pretty underrated Lawrence Fishburn movie.

That video is a classic. And that's the first appearance of Snoop. Drey had met Snoop through his stepbrother, Warren G. Warren G was in a group called 213 with Snoop and Nate Dogg. And he was like, you got to check this dude out. And Snoop just, you know, he takes this opportunity and runs with it. He's like, every night people would leave and eat, but I was in the studio because I was like,

this is my one big chance. He was serious. He was on his grind. He's there. He's there. How is a man born, by the way, with this much charisma? One of the most charismatic people to walk the earth. So much charisma. The second he comes in, creep with me as I crawl through the hood. Like, I was like, instantly, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of love this guy, like right away. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He said planet Earth. He had that. He had the end factor. So, Dre is trying to take his friends and his family, including Colin Wolf, including DOC, and he's trying to move out of the ruthless umbrella. Jerry and Easy don't want him to leave. I will not waste too much of our time talking about this because everybody sort of knows this story. Shug using quite...

Tactics, shall we say? Shug being very persuasive. He uses certain tactics to get Dre out of his ruthless contract. I mean, like, as the story is told to us, and we don't know how much of this can be verified, but as the story is told, he goes to Easy. He says, I've got Jerry tied up in a van and I know where your mom lives. He's like, you need to sign this paperwork. And by the way, this paperwork, I don't know who drew it up.

Apparently it wasn't even like legally binding or whatever, but Jerry and Easy get the message. And they're like, let Dre go off and record this album. Death Row is a new company formed by Dre and Shug. They together meet up with Jimmy Iveen,

who's at Interscote. who gets introduced to the guys via a guy named John McLean. His name pops up in our wonderful Jimmy Jam episode. John McLean actually introduced Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to Janet. So John McLean is sort of like this. He's a connector. He's that guy who like you can find very little about on the internet, but he is there. Like for so many key moments.

He stays out of the limelight, but he's in a lot of these key stories connecting. John McLean introduced it. Interoscope Forges a relationship with Death Row and they get their, I believe it's through priority. they get their distribution and they start working on this album. And one of the first things that they want to do is make it very clear they don't like Jerry Hiller, they don't like Easy, they don't like Ruthless Records. And what's interesting to note is that because that contract was drawn up sort of hastily

that got them out of, so to speak, their ruthless contract, Jerry and Easy are making tons of money off of every copy sold of The Chronic. You know, I think to this day, Dr. Dre has like, you know, tried to win back some of the royalties for the chronic, but it's always been a litigious mess. But this album that he works on, both out of his Calabasas home, and I believe in Solar Records, which, you know, was told to me it was back then located across the street from the nightclub, the room, on Coahuanga. So if you know L.A., you know the room. This album goes triple platinum. It's a major hit. Doing no small part to its number one single, nothing but a G. Thanks. After the break, we dive into everything about

nothing but a G thing. I like it when you do that. Welcome back to one song. Luxury. Walk us through nothing but a G thing. Tell us what's the sample at the heart of this song. Okay, you're right. There is one sample that is very much the center of this song

because it's not just, just in quotes, just the beat, but it's also the baseline and the main melody. So without further ado, when you hear this song, if you hadn't already heard it, you'll be like, that sounds really familiar. This song is called, I want to do something freaky to you, and it's by Leon Haywood from 1975. So there's a couple of different stories about how this sample was chosen

to be the basis of the song. In Drey's words, quote, I just happened to be at my mom's house going through records. He found the song. Thought it would make a, quote, better foundation track. That's right. This was not the original sample in the song. And we've also got two other potential stories

of what that original one was. As we mentioned on the Hall of Notes episode, if you heard our, I can't go over that episode. Yeah. Go back and listen. It's one of our favorites. but on the episode we revealed that Anderson Pack was told that I can't go for that by John. Right.

Delano was the original track. Yeah, that he used to wrap these lyrics or another but a jeet thing over I can't go for that. Right. But Dre, there's a quote from Dre directly where he says the original was a Baez Skag sample. But he doesn't mention what song is. What song could it be? It has to be lowdown, right? It's got to be lowdown, yeah.

That's like the sickest. It has to be a slow down, lowdown. I'm a little faster than I remember, actually. One, two, three, two, that four. Two dogged, do not the Dre. Is that the dumb? I mean, I think they probably had to slow it down. I mean, they had to slow down to Leon Hayward a little bit, didn't they?

We don't know what the Boz Cag's track was. It might not have been that one. Listening back is a little too bumpy. If it was low down, I hope they slowed down. Slow down the lowdown. But the other thing is, so that's Dre's version of how the sample was chosen. But our good buddy Colin Wolf tells the story that he thinks Warren G brought the sample around. Oh, wow.

And so we're not sure how it got in the mix, but somehow the camp found the sample, used it as the basis for the song. And because Colin Wolf is there with instrumental skills, he's able to recreate the baseline, which is what this is, and I'll jump to the stems. This is Colin Wolf playing the bass. And it is an interpolation of that Leon Haywood original.

And what's interesting about that is that that's not coming from a sampler. That is him performing the entire song throughout the duration of the song. In other words, he didn't just find a good two-bar loop and loop it. He's just playing that entire thing for the four-minute duration of the song. So that's really cool right there. And by the way, just to be clear on a couple of things, going back to where this loop comes from, Leon Haywood,

is credited on this song. He gets a 40% song writing credit. That's nearly half the song. Yeah. Because he nearly half the song is that song. And then between Drew and Snoop, they got to split the 60. That's right. That's right.

Well, we'll get to that in a minute. It's interesting what the splits end up being. For people who don't know, Leon Haywood might be most famous on the outside world for having written this song. She's a bad mamma jammer. So satisfied. That's Carl Carlton. She's a bad mamma jama written by Leon Haywood. I remember being a little kid and thinking like, bad mamma jama is what old men say to old ladies.

Ooh, she a bad mamma jama. You know, that was what I thought uncle sounded like. So the entire drum track is that sample loop. And to be clear, here is what's looped. So that's going through the entire track, that two-bar loop. And it's a just a little bit of percussion is added to that. According to Mr. Wolf, Colin Wolf, that is. Drey added an 808 kick, which you can kind of hear ringing out.

So when you listen back to the original track, there's a little bit of a like, the kick has a little bit of a ringing out, a little bit of a tone to it. And there's some percussion to it. And that's part, that's sort of low-end theory, you know, that reflects that sort of need to, like, modernize it and really make you feel the base in a 1992 car. A hundred percent, right. And that is another distinction with Public Enemy, because, like, there really aren't those low-end refinements that are being made to the earlier hip-hop tracks. It's a new thing that's at Sonic Fidelity. Again, they're coming on the East Coast, so, like, their music is made for the headphones.

Yeah. You know, it's that boom-bap that sounds cool when you're on a Sony Walkman. But when you're out here and you can go to Alan Ed's Auto Sound. and get your car tricked out, you know, which, you know, it's funny to see those kind of businesses go away now. Like, sort of, I always say like today's cars, they all sound like the most tricked out sound system that you could ever hope to have. Yeah, it's just built in now. You don't need anything like tricked out. Yeah, you don't have to like now.

I don't know if there are many of those places left. But that's a hugely interesting point you're making. You're right. I mean, like, all of the like public enemy stuff is trouble music, it's headphone music. You don't have a car in New York just by definition. And on the West Coast, everybody has a car or your cousin has a car, whatever. but you're in your car listening, bumping the music. Those rap artists out of Houston and Memphis,

like I feel like they even doubled down more on the bass because they knew that, oh, these guys got the subwoofers in the back. You know, like, it was crazy. Yeah, so there's a little bit of percussion out of those 16th note tambourines, giving it a little bit more motion, and there's that vibrasslap sound that starts the song. That's a vibrass lap. What anyone who doesn't know?

Here's the sound of a vibrasslap. Oh, it sounds like a rattlesnake. Exactly, yeah, the very top of the song. So that wasn't on the original recording. It's not in the sample. That was added later. Oh, that's nice. Because you know what?

It actually increases the sort of like 70s vibe. Yeah, no, you're right. You know, it seems like something that should have been on the original. Yeah, it's very mid-70s, yeah, exactly. And so let's move on to the keys. And once again, it's Colin Wolfe. And once again, it's an interpolation from that same exactly on Haywood sample. So here is Colin Wolf on the high mog playing that melody,

legendary. And a little bit later it's doubled with kind of a flute or maybe flute and string patches. So we hear it together with them and that sounds like this. And I can just play that isolated in case you missed it in the mix. So here's the flute and string sounds. And then when it gets to hear it doubles that melody. So it adds a little bit of a lower. It's like one octave down from that highest eye of that high mog. Yeah. The funky worm sound with portamento. Everyone say it together. Portamento. Where do the day, we're du jour. And that is all that's going on in the track that isn't Snoop Dre or some handful of samples that I'll point out to you in a second. So we've gotten through the majority of the song's content pretty quickly and most of it coming from the deservedly 40% of the publishing

earning Leon Haywood sample from that song. I want to do something freaky to you, 1975. But let's get into that because one of the samples is important because I'm, I'll just cut to the chase on the songwriting splits for the song because they might be a little surprising. I'm so interested. Yeah, so 40% of this song's publishing goes to Leon Haywood for that sample and all of it, what it brought to the mix. 50% goes to Snoop, interestingly. Wow. And 10% is to Frederick Douglass Knight for his having written...

Wait a second. Wait a second. I'm sorry. Frederick Douglass Knight? It's not what you think. Oh, no? I mean, literally when I first saw that name on the question, I was like, is this another name for Shug Knight?

Is it Shook's cousin? He's Marion Knight or something like that's his first name. That's right. Marion Shug Knight. And I was wondering if it was another alias or something because that's a very specific name and spelling for this storyline. Oh yeah. And the mystery, because there is actually with the whole ruthless thing and the whole buyout and the death row, there is no reason to not believe that Shug Knight might have put his name in the publishing.

So in this case, that's not what happened. Frederick Douglass Knight is the songwriter who wrote the song. uphill piece of mind from which this sample derives. That's kid dynamite, right? That's Kid Dynamite, uphill piece of mind, 1976. That song has been, it's one of those super samples. It's one of the original breakbeat, like breakbeat, Lou, I know listens to the show. It's on those early beats and breaks records that were used by so many producers

before the days of Splice and Sample CDs. And here it is in the mix in case you missed it. This is where it is on Nothing But Did You Think? To the next episode. Right here. Yeah, I don't know if you caught it, but when we were doing our little parody, I was doing that part too.

No, no, I mean, that's an important part. People notice it. So Frederick Douglass Knight, who is the third person who gets paid off this song, so it's interesting, in a moment, we'll start talking about who's left off the song, is he was a Stax Records staff writer. So that's why it wasn't one of his own records,

although he did make his own records, but probably his biggest record after he left Stax, he is the sole songwriter of this songwriter of this song. famous disco anthem. That's right. That's Anita Awards 1979. Number one hit,

Ring my bell. And, yeah, Mr. Douglas Knight also wrote that one. But by the way, it's funny that he got 10%, but not Chuck D. who's also sampled on the song.

Rock the other side. You know, like, Rock to all the side. We look a lot. Yeah, you're right, because that's public enemy B-side wins again. Fear of the Black Planet,

1990. here it is in the mix on nothing but a G-thing. Yeah, it's always interesting in things like that. Look, this is an important thing. Why do some things cost money when they're used and other things don't? The answer is unclear, but certainly public enemy is not necessarily going to be, you know, taking that moral high ground with like clearing every sample. Listen, I always got the sense that like Chuck wanted to be almost like the uncle in the industry. You know what I mean?

Like I noticed like, you know, I've already talked a couple of times on this episode. like I felt uncomfortable with NWA. I was not immediately on board with even the chronic, but in every public enemy CD Chuck would put like a long list of everybody who he was basically like liking at that time.

And NWA and Ice Cube and Dre and Snoop. Those people always made his list. Like I think he saw them as the uncle who was just trying to meet his nephew where he was so to speak. You know what I mean? So he was never like on some like, you know like I reject that like Chuck

was almost on some, I want to make sure that these guys know I hear them, and I know where they're coming from. I mean, you've got to realize again, this is Los Angeles in the early 90s. You know, you've got a police chief who says crazy things. You know what I mean? Like, you know, Chief Darrell Gates, uh, still a polarizing figure. You know, he was the one who said that casual drug user should be shot. If you're a casual drug user, stop. Stop. It's all it takes just stop. and the addicts folks the addicts they've already shot themselves

they're living in their own special purgatory right now you don't have to shoot them and uh the lapd the lapd like you know the rodney king beating had just happened the l a riots had happened right before the chronic came out

I want to say it was just a few months before the chronic came out so you know I think chuck knew that like it doesn't do me any good to reject these guys outright all that I can hopefully do is make them a part of my community, my conversation, and maybe say, hey, let's decrease the violence, but like, let's also push back on some of the societal forces. We have the same problems that you guys got. That's, like, really interesting. And even just, like, within the realm of the art form of sampling,

like, obviously public enemy, a huge part of what they are doing politically in the use of samples is saying that collage and art that we see in visual media should also take place in music, because what you're hearing when these little pieces come together is so different and so transformed from the original sources, can we not just use samples as an art form? I think this is a bit of an homage to that. And frankly, within the context of the song, it's nowhere near what Leon Haywood's sample does, which musically is the basis of the song. A little moment like that to me feels like an homage.

It feels like Dre and Wolf, Colin Wolf. It seems like a choice to pay respects back to Public Enemy. To Chuck D. And by the way, Biggie did the same thing on Ready to Die. when he sampled Dre's voice from Little Ghetto Boy. So wait, just real quick. Leon Haywood gets 40, Snoop gets 50, Kid Dynamite gets 10.

That means that Dre gets nothing? Dre gets nothing. And going back just for a second to the Kid Dynamite, Mike, getting 10. You know, it is Leon Knight who gets the publishing credit, but it's interesting to me, and I can't help but wonder, one thing about Kid Dynamite, I don't know if you know this, but they are Steve Miller band's backing band. I think I knew that.

It's wild, though, yeah. Which is to say it's a bunch of white dudes, which is to say that maybe clearing the sample wasn't coming from a hip-hop-centric view of what the art form of sampling is, unlike Chuck D. There may be a distinction made because in the context of the song, those two parts are pretty dark equal. They're so equal. They come one after another.

They're just little punctuation marks. The one is meant to be a little reference, a little homage. And one of them costs 10%. One of them costs zero. Cost zero. Good for you, Chuck D. There's another really cool sample on that same section. And we're talking about that little break after the till the next.

next episode line. You got the public enemy, you got the Kid Dynamite, and you have this third sample, which I will now play for you, and then I'm going to explain to you what's interesting about it. So this is, Are You Looking by Congress Alley from 1973? So that long awe is the third thing you hear in that break. And the fun fact about this is that that's Questlove's parents. Congress Alley is a band that contain Lee Andrews Thompson and Jacqueline Thompson, aka Amir Thompson, Mama and Papa. And he broke the news. on his own podcast to Snoop recently. So really fun fact there.

That's pretty cool. I just want to point out that much like the SINC we were talking about earlier, it's just a thing that stays there. Right. You're right. You know, and I think that that's... Consistent high... Mm-hmm.

Exactly. Whether accomplished by Synth or Questlove's parents, it's always there. And it's always good. It's always good. All right, it's rap. Obviously, vocals are very important. What do you want to play for us first? Let's start at the top with that iconic intro.

One, two, three, and to... the foe snoop dogy dog and dr dr dr dr dr day is at the dough ready to make an entrance so back on up cause you know we're about to rip shit up by the way this side note but as part of my whole rabbit hole i'm preparing for this episode there's a completely different take of the entire song that's used for the clean version which is my preferred version and the explicit version and i was actually down to the wire that what i played for you just now was the explicit version but i was a being back and forth all night long trying to like decide which one yeah i mean so it's interesting that rather than just like replace one line with one word or whatever, they just

redid the entire thing. Yes, I'm actually aware of like the difference because I greatly prefer the editor. I, it's just, I've been that way since the beginning. I'm a weirdo. Like, I prefer to say, ain't no love good enough to get burnt while I pop in it as opposed to what he says on the unedited version. I mean, I had this esoteric moment last night where I was like, okay, well, which is the canonical version? Do you know what I mean? Like, which is the version of the song? You know, like, I heard somebody tell a story about like, like, You know, they begged and begged and begged their parents to please let me buy the chronic. And they were like, well, we're concerned because there might be some bad words on there.

And they were like, no, no, I've heard it on the radio. It's fine. So they buy the chronic. And then they immediately go over their grandparents' house thinking they're going to play the CD and hear the radio versions. And like, from the second the album starts. They're like, what are you listening to? A different album. But it is a different album.

It's interesting to think about it that way, like especially with a rap album or now I'm with any profanity where there are two versions, like they are different enough. And you've pointed out on the show, on this episode even, how like sometimes the replacement is superior. Sometimes it's better. Yeah. Brooklyn Zoo by Oldery Bastard. A better song just for all the sound effects.

And I would say even on this song, hey, play for me the beginning of the fourth verse where he says, It's where it takes place. City of Compton. It's where it takes place. So a national attention. Mobbing like a motherfucker, but I ain't limited. Dropping a fokey shit that's making a suck of niggas mumble When I'm on the mic is like a cookie, they all crumble

I'm still pretty sure Like, you know, every now and then I'll read Genius And I'm very upset with you, Jinzies and some of you younger millennials Because here's a thing, y'all will put the wrong lyrics on here And be so sure y'all are right But the fact is, like, you know, on some rap songs, Like maybe it's a reference to a 90s cartoon or like It's like a reference to Voltron or something.

the reference. That's all right. Yeah. It's just like, I'm still pretty sure he says, it's where it takes place so it nabs your attention. And y'all have put, is where it takes place so when asked your attention? That doesn't even make sense. What? You are a tension? According to genius, the line is, is where? First off, who says is where? I don't think anybody's ever said that. They have, is where it takes, is Dr. Dre France? Like, is where it takes place so no, so attention. Oh, no, it's where it takes place so it nabs your attention.

That's what I, 99% sure he says. So yeah, I just wanted to bring that up. I have an issue when you guys don't get the 90s reference or you're just like racing through so you can get some likes. What about that slip, slip, slip line that gets a lot of heat for being. Oh, never let me slip because if I slip, then I'm slipping. Yeah, that's like been called out as one of the 25 worst rap lines a whole time. Is it? I don't know.

Should I play it? I think it's about to come And your ass I get smacked My motherfucking homie doggy dog has got my back Never let me slip because if I slip then I'm slipping But if I got my nina then you know I'm straight stripping I don't have a really problem with that. People hate on that line

I think it's okay You know it reminds me it reminds me of She made us drinks to drink We drunk um got drunk That's terrible That is terrible. That is very logical So like you know like T-Pain That's very generous

We were talking earlier He's got some of my favorite you know, lyrics of all time, including, you know, I'll take it to a mansion way out in Wisconsin, you know, like, I love stuff like that. That's different though. Oh, well, I'm sorry, we made him drinks to drinks. To me, that's clever. He made us drinks to drink, we drunk, we got drunk. I think it's just logical. That's a dad joke, though. Can you deny what he said? It's factually accurate. It's factually accurate. Have I grown as a person after hearing it? I'm not sure that I have. Speaking of that part about slipping, there's a section right after that

that's really interesting me. Go a little forward in the song and play with that part, It starts off with, but I'm never off. But I'm never off. Always on to the break of don't see you when p. T.O.N. And the city they call Long Beach. Putting the shit together like my nigger, D.O.C. No one can do it better like this. Yeah, that part's really interesting to me.

I think it helps to have family in L.A. or know some of the context of what was going on in L.A. at that time. Compton and Long Beach together just by itself is basically a subtle way of Drey and Snoop saying, hey, Bleds and Crips getting along. Like, it's important to point out, like, you know, Snoop is a Crip, and most of the artists, a lot of the artists, I should say, on Death Row are Crips. And yet the management of Death Row is from Compton. It's Shug, and his whole click are Bloods. So, you know, to the rest of us, it's like, why they talk

about Compton and Long Beach together. So, you know, like, that's their way of saying, hey, Bloods and Crips coming together. And making this music happen. In fact, I watched an interview where Snoop was basically saying, like, you know, we knew that they were bloods and we were crips, but we all had gone through a lot of the same stuff. And we knew that if we didn't, you know, ruin this opportunity, we were all going to make a lot of money and make a lot of waves together. So I think that part's cool. The other thing in that section that I think is really cool, he says, I think I know the editor

version, like, my homie DOC, no one could do it better. No one could do it better. Once again, shouting out the album that was released by the DLC. No one could do it better. and sort of a tip of the hat to the fact that that famous chorus like this and like that and like this, Santa, that is actually written by the DOC, according to Snoop. So let's talk about that because there is some, right, I've seen the same stories perhaps that you have where that credit is being given. And there, I've also seen DOC talk about how he wrote it directly. So, yeah, no, that's what I'm saying.

The fact that he's not credited is interesting when you get to the actual notes. Now, on the internet, you will find incorrectly, because what I'm looking at to get these 40%, 50%, 10% figures is like the real thing. But that doesn't mean that maybe DOC wasn't paid like a lump sum or he wasn't on salary or paid it some other way or maybe given the cut of the masters. I'm just referring to the publishing,

literally the splits that are given to the songwriters as royalties on the songwriting side. I think it's more that like, look, I think the vast majority of this song is written by Snoop, but, you know, the DLC supplied them with a chorus that does, once you sort of know, oh, that's the DOC came up with that chorus. Like, it makes sense if you go back and you listen to his album. It sounds like a DLC chorus. And publishing is a very specific thing. Don't forget, this is an entire album. Don't forget there's also like master royalties. Colin Wolfe is not credited

on the song, which makes sense if you think about it because he didn't write anything technically. He performed the baseline. He performed the synth parts that were on the Leon Haywood sample. So he was given some kind of salary or maybe there's a maybe there's some sort of like lump some figure again these people are compensated and credited in in different ways across the board the publishing it's very interesting to see those royalties especially 10% for that little tiny sample moment that to me is the thing that jumps out as being like man this is definitely a case where some publisher was really aggressive and and you know maybe label was really aggressive about getting their sample money at the expense of a lot of other people who might have been might have made millions right for

more direct contributions to the overall song. There you go. But it's a great chorus. I think we can agree. Play us the chorus, if you will. Better like this, that and this and it's like that and like this and like that and like this. And who gives a fuck about those? So just chill to the next episode. By the way, funny story about that line. Snoop may have been joking when he said this, but he claims that he got the idea for

the hook when DOC was teaching him how to write. Quote, because DOC kept being like, it's like this and like that. like this and like that. I don't know if that's true, but I want to believe it. So he's just like, hey, that's a pretty good chorus. It's funny to hear it because in my head is still, and we ain't got no love for those. It's still weird a little bit to hear the unedited version. Yeah. You know. You're just used to the other version. That's what I'm saying. What's canonical? Is this the version or is the other one the version? At this point, this is probably the canonical, but if you were there, you probably heard the other version more often. Like we said,

This song introduced the world to the G-Funk sound. There are so many classics in this genre. I mean, like, we could play you, gin and juice by Snoop. We could play you, It Was a Good Day by Ice Cube. California Love by Tupac and Dre. So many, but I think if we can only play one,

I think we have to play a song. I think you might have heard it before. It's Regulate by Warren G featuring Nate Dog. 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. which of course is a sample of blue-eyed soul boy Michael McDonald.

I keep forgetting. I keep forgetting. And you know what? That might actually be an interpolation. D. Interpolations by the Warren G song. There you go. And Mr. Colin Wolfe. Okay, Dialla, as we wrap this episode up,

what do you believe is the legacy of nothing but a G-thang and Dr. Dre? It's such a big, big song. And as we were preparing this episode, there was so much more music that I wanted to play because I really do love West Coast music and I think that by bringing so much more attention and focus to the West Coast, Dre empowered a coast to really stake out an identity for itself.

At the same time, we would be remiss if we didn't say that because of the effectiveness and the charm of G. Funk, the West Coast was sort of stuck with G. Funk for the next 20 years. It was very hard for, for West Coast rappers to get signed unless... If they didn't sound like this? They didn't sound like this. Yeah.

And we were talking to a friend of the show, Dame Funk, and he was just like, yeah, in some ways, like, the chronic was so successful that it sort of left the West Coast pigeonhole. And it was because of artists like him. Well, he didn't say this, but I'm going to say this on his behalf. It's because of artists like him. And artists like Kendrick Lamar that eventually the West was able to get back to what it was originally doing, which was sampling everything, sounding. like so much. But the importance of the chronic can't be overstated. And I think it was an article

in pitchfork actually around like 2019 that said without the chronic and Dre, there is no game. There is no YG. There is no Kendrick Lamar. There's no Nipsey hustle. We haven't said a lot about Nipsey, but like this is the West Coast. And wonderfully now, it has gotten back to being a more diverse sound. And obviously if Dre hadn't been able to do that so successfully, maybe it would have been a lot harder for Atlanta to stake out its hip-hop dominance, you know, in the 2000s, you know, and now we have a hip-hop community that's geographically diverse. I was going to ask you about that. I think the chronic played a big part in that. Help break it away from just the hegemony of New York and the East Coast. Obviously, New York, we love you, but it was great to have so many

other voices. Nice to have the diversity like in the scene. New Orleans comes up with Atlanta. Like, you know, it's pretty cool. Texas. And now we're in 2024. when the West Coast is clearly having a moment. So many people come up to us and they're like, yo, y'all should do one song and talk about like what's happening in the West Coast. We thought this would be a great way to show how far the West Coast has come from its earliest days with iced tea and songs like Batteram through the chronic and right up to the current day with a song like, not like us.

Okay, luxury. It's time for one more song. This is a segment where we share a deep cut or a hidden gym with, you, the One Song Nation, and with each other. You go first. Well, listen, I just came from a wedding and I killed it. The bride at the end of my set. I was the after-party DJ, not the wedding, like, dance, you know, father dance DJ. But it was the after party. The brides were dancing all night long, and they came up to me afterwards and they said, you're the best decision we made. And I'm like, what about marrying each other? And they're like, no, no, no, hiring you. But here's the thing.

I am so critical of myself that all night long I got a single request. And I wasn't. ready and literally five people asked me for Charlie X-C-X. They asked me to play Brat. Brat has been on my mind for the past six weeks. I'm a huge fan. The remixes aren't out yet and I didn't have time to make one, but my one more song is my making up for my one wedding error. This is 360 by Charlie XX. All right, D'allel, what about you? You got a one more song for us? Yeah, man. My song is called Midnight by a group called uncut from 2003 for anybody who likes it and wants to find

it that's spelled UN dash cut and there are several versions of this song I like the one off of their 2003 album The Uncalculated Song There's also a great remix by Marcus Intellex the drum and bass producer

Marcus Intellects RIP Sometimes we'll pick songs for one more song and because of fair use of laws We can't play the whole song just know that the buildup to that moment is great, and what comes after the moment we just played is even better, but we can't play it here. Go find it and listen to it.

I think you'll like it. As always, if you have an idea for one more song, you can find us on TikTok or Instagram. You can find me on TikTok at Dialla Riddell or on Instagram at D-I-A-L-O. And you can find me on TikTok at Luxury-X-X-X-U-X-U-X-U-X-U-R-Y. And on Instagram at L-U-X-X-U-R-Y. You can also watch full episodes of one song on YouTube now.

just search one song podcast and we'd love it if you like and subscribe and if you made it this far i think that means you like the podcast so please don't forget to give us five stars leave a review share with someone you think might like the show because it really helps it going that's right luxury help me in this thing i'm producer dj songwriter and musicologist luxury and i'm actor writer-director and sometimes dj de all a riddle and this is one song we'll see you next time