Warren Griffin III (born November 10, 1970[1]) is an American rapper, record producer, and DJ who helped popularize West Coast hip hop during the 1990s.[2] A pioneer of G-funk, he attained mainstream success with his 1994 single "Regulate" (featuring Nate Dogg). He is credited with discovering Snoop Dogg, having introduced the then-unknown rapper to record producer Dr. Dre.
Three songs from his second album, Take a Look Over Your Shoulder (1997), peaked within the top 40,[3] as did his 1998 duet with Nate Dogg, "Nobody Does It Better". Both the album and its follow-up, I Want It All (1999), received gold certifications by the RIAA. His fourth album, The Return of the Regulator (2001), failed to yield his earlier commercial heights. Along with longtime collaborators Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, he formed the hip-hop trio 213, named for Long Beach's area code; they released the album The Hard Way (2004) to mild success.
His next two albums, 2005's In the Mid-Nite Hour and then 2009's The G Files, were released independently and self-produced. In 2015, he released Regulate... G Funk Era, Part II, an extended play featuring archived recordings of Nate Dogg, who died in 2011. In 2017, "Regulate", certified platinum in 1994, went multi-platinum, propelled by digital downloads.
Early life
Warren Griffin III was born on November 10, 1970, and grew up in Long Beach, California.[1] He had three sisters and was the only son of Warren Griffin Jr., an airplane mechanic, and Ola, a dietician.[1] They divorced when Warren was 4 and he lived with his mother and three sisters in East Long Beach until he was just about to start middle school.[1]
In 1982, Warren went to live with his father in North Long Beach.[1] His new wife, Verna, had three children from a prior marriage,[1] one of whom was Andre Young, the soon-to-become Dr. Dre who in 1984 joined a leading DJ crew, the World Class Wreckin' Cru, which by 1985 doubled as an electro rap group, which in 1987 put out the Los Angeles area's first rap recording under a major label.[4][5] By then, a Jordan High School student, Warren was playing football and running with friends.[1]
In 1988, age 17, Warren was jailed for gun possession.[1] While incarcerated, he took the nickname Warren G.[1] By this time, Dr. Dre was already beginning to experience success as the writer and record producer for Ruthless Records, as well as being a member of N.W.A with Ruthless Records founder Eazy-E and Ice Cube. N.W.A’s landmark album, Straight Outta Compton, was driving the Los Angeles area's rap scene to swiftly drop electro for gangsta.[5] Once out of jail, Warren worked at the Long Beach shipyards[1]and began focusing on music after Dr. Dre taught him how to use a drum machine.[1]
By 1990, Warren G had formed the trio 213[6] with two longtime running mates, Nathaniel "Nate Dogg" Hale and Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus. 213 was a contributor to the G-funk sound soon to emerge in rap.[7] The trio dissolved after Warren G connected them to Dr. Dre.[6] At that point, two solo careers were launched: Dr. Dre's and Snoop Dogg's, upon G-funk.[8][9] Nate, too, signed to Dr. Dre's Death Row Records.[8] Warren G initially helped there,[6] but not desiring a career in his mentor and stepbrother's shadow, signed to Def Jam Recordings in New York City.[1][10]
Career
Start with 213 (circa 1990)
By 1990, in his hometown Long Beach, as record producer and rapper, Warren formed a music trio with two of his longtime running mates, Nathaniel "Nate Dogg" Hale, a rapperlike singer, and Calvin "Snoop Dogg” Broadus,[11] a singerlike rapper.[8] The Long Beach trio, fond of Oakland rap group 415, named for the Bay area's area code, took the name 213, the Los Angeles area's.[6] Practicing and recording in the modest studio in Long Beach record store V.I.P.,[11] they cut a demo tape.[6]Dr. Dre, already a celebrity, rebuffed his younger stepbrother Warren's requests for him to listen.[12]
Before long, homemade copies of 213's songs spread in Los Angeles county, particularly the cities Compton and Pomona, and Los Angeles city's sections Watts and South Central, but no label picked them up.[6] One day, Warren phoned Dre to catch up, and found him at a bachelor party—thrown for Dre's friend Andre "LA Dre" Bolton, another record producer—whereupon Warren found himself invited to join it.[6] There, once the songs began to repeat, Warren offered LA Dre the 213 tape.[6] Liking it, he summoned Dr. Dre, who, hearing the Snoop rap "Super Duper Snooper", immediately welcomed the trio.[1] Days later, 213 moved into Dre's lavish troubadour-style house in Calabasas, home to both his wife and his recording studio.[8][12][13]
In April 1992, Dr. Dre's debut solo single "Deep Cover" introduced America to Snoop Doggy Dogg, the track's guest but instantly star rapper.[8][14] Warren helped Dre find sounds for Dre's debut solo album The Chronic,[7][6] further debuting Snoop, whereby superstardom chased Snoop into 1993 and, via Snoop's own debut solo album, Doggystyle, captured him by 1994.[8][15] By then, also solo, Nate, too, had joined Dre's label, Death Row Records.[8][16] Warren, returning to Long Beach, aimed to find his own way.[1][17] In 2004, a 213 album finally arrived: The Hard Way.[14][18]
On the Above The Rim soundtrack, from Death Row Records in April 1994, the single "Regulate" was a duet cowritten and performed by Warren G and Nate Dogg. Spending 20 weeks on the popular songs chart, the Billboard Hot 100, with 18 of them in the Top 40, including three weeks at No. 2 in May,[22] it was the summer's top rap hit.[6] Certified gold, half a million copies sold, since June, it attained platinum, a million copies, in August.[23] In January 2017, via digital downloading, it was certified 2x multi-platinum.[23] Back in the American summer of 1994, it stood at No. 1 on the MTV charts.[24] Performing in Japan, he would discover fans who apparently understood no English, but knew all the lyrics. Into the 21st century, it remained Def Jam's biggest hit single.[25] Russell Simmons, a Def Jam founder, explains, "Warren's music was worldwide because the melody plays no matter what the language."[10]
Yet further, unlike other G-funk (short for gangsta funk) artists, Warren G, even called "a romantic" at heart,[26] voiced simpler concerns.[27] And his modest rap styling maximized, by heeding, his modest lyricism.[28] "Regulate" doubled as the lead single Warren G's debut album, Regulate... G Funk Era, arriving in June 1994. Selling a million copies in three days, it debuted at No. 2 on the popular albums chart, the Billboard 200.[1] In August, it was certified 2x multi-platinum, two million copies sold.[23] Its second single, "This D.J.", went gold, half a million copies, in September,[23] while peaking in July at No. 9.[22] At the 1995 Grammy Awards, in March, both singles were nominated.[29] And in January, the album's other single, "Do You See", had peaked at No. 42.[30] In August, the album was certified 3x multi-platinum.[23] That month also brought some Warren G collaborations on two albums from his Long Beach associates, Twinz only album Conversation (album) and The Dove Shack trio's This Is the Shack. And 1996 saw Warren G on the "Groupie" track of Snoop's second album, Tha Doggfather.
In July 1998, Warren G's sixth appearance in the Billboard Hot 100's upper tier Top 40 became Nate Dogg's single "Nobody Does it Better"[22]—on Nate's repeatedly delayed debut album—featuring Warren G, in another duet, which peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.[30] Here, incidentally, Warren raps a bar indicating his transition to family life.[33] Warren's third album, I Want It All, released in October 1999, has Warren mainly producing—where, perhaps, his greater comparative strength among musical peers abides—while vocals go largely to guest artists, including Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg, RBX, Kurupt, Eve, Slick Rick, and Jermaine Dupri.[32] Certified gold in November 1999,[23] it bears the single "I Want It All", featuring Mack 10, which, becoming Warren's most recent Top 40 appearance, peaked on the Hot 100 at No. 23.[22]
Over 20 years later, his 1997 and 1999 albums remain at gold certification, which none of his subsequent albums have achieved.[23] Released in December 2001, Warren's fourth album, The Return of the Regulator, with a litany of collaborators, including the P-Funk father and G-funk godfather George Clinton and, elsewhere, Dr. Dre producing a track, is allegedly overdone, a comeback undone by Warren's reaching beyond his strengths and being outdone by his guests.[34][35] He "wastes a hot, Dre-produced beat", in the single "Lookin' at You", alleges a Vibe writer, who finds G-funk on its deathbed and Warren G "administering the fatal shot".[35] The album peaked at number 83 the Billboard 200, and became his final album under a major record label, here Universal Music Group, before returned on an independent label.[36]
Indie career (2005–present)
In the Mid-Nite Hour, released in October 2005, Warren G's fifth album, his first without a major label involved,[36] was on Hawino Records.[37] Heavily featuring his native, 213 groupmates Nate and Snoop, it is devotedly Warren's own project, homemade on a low budget.[36] Music critics assess it to better carry Warren G's own virtues as G-funk's everyman.[36][37] Yet by that very virtue, as expected, it saw scarce exposure beyond Warren G's fans.[36][37]
His sixth album, in September 2009, The G Files, "still the same basic G-funk sound", adds to "that classic soul vibe", Warren explains, "a taste of that modern electro sound".[38] Disliking what he put as the rap standard of "some drums and one synth sound", he titled "The West is Back" for return to "that great soulful sound".[38] "100 Miles and Running" features Nate Dogg—recorded before Nate's strokes in 2007 and 2008—and the Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon.[38]
From June to September 2013, Warren toured in the West Coast Fest, "an OG affair" with DJ Quik, Mack 10, the Dogg Pound, Bone Thugs N Harmony, and others.[39] Meanwhile, in a guest role, Warren played OG Hemingway in the sitcom Newsreaders on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming.[40] And in August 2014, on the Mnet channel's reality series American Hustle Life, he directed an alternate music video for "Boy In Luv", by South Korean boy band BTS.
Nostalgic fans would ask Warren for more of classic G-funk, and even ask for more from Nate Dogg, who had died in 2011.[41][42] The single "My House", leading Warren G's first EP, arrived on July 13, 2015. With four songs, the EP, premised as a sequel to the 1994 original, is titled Regulate... G Funk Era, Part II. Released on August 6, it features E-40, Too Short, Jeezy, Bun B, and, in all four songs, Nate Dogg. With his unique knack for intuiting Warren's production cues, Nate leaves behind some of his 213 partner's favorite recordings.[41]
Personal life
Warren has six children with his wife, Tennile Griffin. Getting older, increasingly identifying with his father, fond of cooking and storytelling, Warren G embraces "his morals and good family fun".[43]
His oldest son, Olaijah, played college football for the USC Trojans at the cornerback position from 2018 to 2020 and was recognized with all-conference honors in 2019 and 2020.[44][45] In April 2021, Olaijah was signed by the NFL's Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent.
In 2019, Warren G launched a line of barbecue sauces and rubs, Sniffin Griffin's BBQ, for retail and restaurant supply. This was inspired by his father, a cook in the U.S. Navy and avid barbecue chef.[43][46]
G-funk, short for gangsta funk, is a sub-genre of gangsta rap that emerged from the West Coast scene in the early 1990s. The genre is heavily influenced by the synthesizer-heavy 1970s funk sound of Parliament-Funkadelic, often incorporated through samples or re-recordings. It is represented by commercially successful albums such as Dr. Dre's The Chronic (1992) and Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle (1993).
The Chronic is the debut studio album by American record producer and rapper Dr. Dre. It was released on December 15, 1992, by his record label Death Row Records along with Interscope Records and distributed by Priority Records. The recording sessions took place at Death Row Studios in Los Angeles and at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood.
Doggystyle is the debut studio album by American rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg. It was released on November 23, 1993, by Death Row and Interscope Records. The album was recorded and produced following Snoop Doggy Dogg's appearances on Dr. Dre's debut solo album The Chronic (1992), to which Snoop contributed significantly. The West Coast style in hip-hop that he developed from Dre's first album continued on Doggystyle. Critics have praised Snoop Dogg for the lyrical "realism" that he delivers on the album and for his distinctive vocal flow.
Delmar Drew Arnaud, known professionally as Daz Dillinger or simply Daz, is an American rapper and record producer. As a member of Death Row Records in the early 1990s, he is credited with the label in pioneering West Coast hip hop and gangsta rap for mainstream audiences. Alongside Kurupt, he formed the hip hop duo tha Dogg Pound in 1992, with whom he has released eight albums.
Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, known professionally as Nate Dogg, was an American singer and rapper. He gained recognition for providing guest vocals for a multitude of hit rap songs between 1992 and 2007, earning the nickname "King of Hooks".
213 was an American hip hop group from Long Beach, California composed of Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg. The name derives from Los Angeles' original telephone area code 213, which served the city of Long Beach at the time of the group's formation.
"Gin and Juice" is a song by American rapper Snoop Dogg. It was released on January 18, 1994, as the second single from his debut album, Doggystyle (1993). The song was produced by Dr. Dre and contains an interpolation from Slave's "Watching You" in its chorus and a sample from George McCrae. Tony Green created its bassline; additional vocalists on the song include Dat Nigga Daz, Jewell, Heney Loc, and Sean "Barney" Thomas. "Gin and Juice" peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. It earned a gold certification from the RIAA and sold 700,000 copies.
The Hard Way is the only album from American hip hop trio 213, which consisted of Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg. It was released on August 17, 2004, under Doggystyle Records, G-Funk Entertainment, Dogg Foundation, TVT Records.
"Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" is a song by American rapper Dr. Dre, featuring fellow American rapper Snoop Dogg, on Dre's debut solo album, The Chronic (1992). As the album's first single it reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 20, 1993, behind "Informer" by Snow, outperforming The Chronic's other singles, "Fuck wit Dre Day ", which peaked at number 8, and "Let Me Ride", which peaked at number 34. The single also reached number 1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, and was a number 31 hit in the UK. Its music video was directed by Dr. Dre himself.
Tha Blue Carpet Treatment is the eighth studio album by West Coast hip hop recording artist Snoop Dogg. It was released on November 21, 2006, by Doggystyle Records and Geffen Records. Recording sessions took place from November 2005 to September 2006 in several recording studios and artists such as Dr. Dre, The Neptunes, DJ Battlecat, DJ Pooh, Timbaland, Danja, Mark Batson, Terrace Martin, and Mr. Porter appear on the album, among others.
"Fuck wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')", or as a single titled "Dre Day", is a song by American rapper and record producer Dr. Dre featuring fellow American rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg and uncredited vocals from Jewell released in May 1993 as the second single from Dre's debut solo album, The Chronic (1992). "Dre Day" was a diss track targeting mainly Dre's former groupmate Eazy-E, who led their onetime rap group N.W.A and who, along with N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller, owned N.W.A's record label, Ruthless Records. In "Dre Day" and in its music video, which accuse Eazy of cheating N.W.A's artists, Dre and Snoop degrade and menace him. Also included are disses retorting earlier disses on songs by Miami rapper Luke Campbell, by New York rapper Tim Dog, and by onetime N.W.A. member Ice Cube, although Dre, while still an N.W.A member, had helped diss Cube first. After "Dre Day," a number of further diss records were exchanged.
"Let Me Ride" is a song by American rapper and producer Dr. Dre, released in September 1993 by Death Row, Interscope and Priority as the third and final single from his debut studio album, The Chronic (1992). It experienced moderate success on the charts, until it became a massive hit when Dre won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance for the song during the Grammy Awards of 1994. The song features singers Ruben and Jewell, and uncredited vocals by fellow rapper Snoop Dogg
"The Next Episode" is a single by American rapper-producer Dr. Dre, released in 2000 as the third single from his second studio album, 2001 (1999). The track features Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, and Nate Dogg, but only Snoop Dogg is credited. It is a sequel to Dre and Snoop's famous single "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" from the former's debut album, The Chronic.
Regulate... G Funk Era is the debut studio album by American rapper Warren G. It was released on June 7, 1994, by Violator and distributed by Rush Associated Labels, a division of Def Jam Recordings. The album's biggest hit was the eponymous single "Regulate", a gritty depiction of West Coast gang life which samples singer Michael McDonald's hit "I Keep Forgettin' " and featured Nate Dogg. The album also contained the top ten hit "This D.J." The song "Regulate" was also featured on the Above the Rim soundtrack, which was released on March 22, 1994. An altered version of the song "So Many Ways" appeared in the 1995 film Bad Boys.
"Regulate" is a song performed by American rapper Warren G featuring American singer Nate Dogg. It was released in the spring of 1994 as the first single on the soundtrack to the film Above the Rim and later Warren G's debut album, Regulate... G Funk Era (1994). It became an MTV staple and the song reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 8 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart. "Regulate" was number 98 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop and number 108 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 200 Tracks of the 90s".
Above the Rim – The Soundtrack is the official soundtrack to the 1994 film of the same name. The soundtrack, released by Death Row and Interscope Records on March 22, 1994, was executive produced by Suge Knight. Dr. Dre acted as supervising producer on the project.
The discography of American recording artist Nate Dogg consists of three studio albums, one compilation album, one collaboration album, 5 singles as the main artist, and 37 singles as a featured artist.
This discography of American rapper Warren G consists of 6 studio albums, 1 EP, 17 singles, 1 soundtrack album, and 19 music videos.
"Let's Play House" is a song by hip hop duo Tha Dogg Pound featuring Michel'le. The song is the second single released from their debut album Dogg Food. Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Michel'le make appearances in both the song and the video. The song begins with a spoken intro from Dr. Dre.
1 2 David Diallo, "Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg", in Mickey Hess, ed., Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2007), pp 319–322.
1 2 In his 1994 single "Do You See", Warren G reminisces on his background, while incidentally noting, twice, that 213 had originally been Warren G, Nate Dogg, and Snoop Rock, amid visuals that briefly show the V.I.P record shop [Warren G, "Do You See", Warren G @ YouTube, October 6, 2009].
↑ In Calabasas, on the hills west of the San Fernando Valley, Dre had bought, in perhaps 1989, "a lavish troubadour-style home", and put a recording studio in an upstairs bedroom [Gerrick D. Kennedy, Parental Discretion Is Advised: The Rise of N.W.A and the Dawn of Gangsta Rap (New York: Atria Books, 2017), pp 123 & 132.
1 2 David Diallo, "Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg", in Mickey Hess, ed., Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 1 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007), pp 326–327.
↑ By the July 1998 release of Nate Dogg's repeatedly delayed solo album, the curtain was already closing on G-funk's popular run [Thomas Erlewine, "Nate Dogg: G Funk Classics, Vols. 1 & 2", AllMusic.com, Netaktion LLC, visited April 24, 2020].
↑ About tracks on Dr. Dre's album 2001, Soren Baker writes, "If fact, even songs that did not receive accompanying videos became huge underground hits, as had been the case with The Chronic's 'Bitches Ain't Shit' and Doggystyle's 'Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)" [S Baker, The History of Gangster Rap (New York: Abrams Image, 2018)].
1 2 3 4 5 6 For all of Warren G's Billboard Hot 100 appearances, see "Chart history: Warren G—Hot 100", Billboard.com, Prometheus Global Media, LLC, visited May 10, 2020. Yet at May 2020, the only song this adds to the Hot 100's Top 40 is "Do You See", #42 in January 1995. Incidentally, the Billboard.com webpage apparently dates by latest peak position, with "Regulate", for instance, at #2 in July 1994. Apparently dating instead by earliest peak position, with "Regulate" at #2 in May 1994, is Joel Whitburn, "Warren G", The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (New York: Billboard Books, 2010), p 696: in chronological order, "Regulate", with Nate Dogg (#2 in May 1994 and three weeks); "This D.J." (#9 in July 1994); "What's Love Got to Do with It," featuring Adina Howard (#32 in September 1996); "I Shot the Sheriff" (#20 in March 1997); "Smokin' Me Out", featuring Ronald Isley (#35 in June 1997); Nate Dogg's single "Nobody Does It Better", featuring Warren G (#18 in July 1998); "I Want It All", featuring Mack 10 (#23 in October 1999).
↑ Within USC's conference, the Pac-12, Griffin drew honorable mention for the official all-conference team, and made the Phil Steele All-Pac-12 third team ["Football: Olaijah Griffin", USCTrojans.com, USC Athletics, visited August 11, 2020].
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