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Home - Music
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'Regulators, Mount Up!'
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Warren G opens the G-Files
by Kyle Eustice
Long Beach native Warren G has the skills to deliver hard-hitting hip-hop. Anyone into rap in the early ’90s undoubtedly memorized every word to 1994’s Grammy Award-nominated single, “Regulate,” featuring Nate Dogg. The track remains a much-loved jam, and many can still rap right along to every word.
With prolific producer/rapper Dr. Dre as an older brother, Warren G had little choice but to get involved in music. His father was heavily into jazz and trained the young G child to have an ear for soul. While Warren G could have gone the gang route that so many impressionable kids took in those days, he chose a productive path.
“I really liked what Dre was doing so he taught me how to DJ. He was my mentor,” he says. “I just wanted to be a DJ and follow in his footsteps. I could have turned to gangbanging, but I chose to play sports and do music instead.”
With influences like Run DMC, LA Dream Team and Kurtis Blow, the determined 18-year-old began making beats and writing rhymes. He formed the short-lived 213 in 1990 with Snoop and Nate Dogg, but once everybody signed with Death Row, he split.
“I didn’t want to be on that label. Everybody started doing their own thing and I felt left out,” he confessed. “So I did my own thing and signed with Def Jam.”
Death Row and Def Jam were highly reputable labels at the time but there was never serious competition between them because the types of artists on their rosters were so different. Death Row had NWA, Eazy E and Snoop Dogg while Def Jam had The Beastie Boys and LL Cool J. Even though Warren G never signed with Death Row, some of his earliest contributions were to Dr. Dre’s 1992 masterpiece The Chronic. In 1993 there were guest spots on Snoop’s debut album, Doggystyle, while 1994 delivered Warren G’s debut, Regulate … G Funk Era. Certified triple platinum in the United States, sales hit 4.5 million copies worldwide. After selling that many copies and with “Regulate” being so successful, Warren G had a lot to live up to. But he never saw it that way.
“I never felt like we lost momentum after ‘Regulate’ because ‘This DJ’ was just as big. It had success,” he says. “I wasn’t going to try to outdo it. I just kept doing good music. I think that’s the key to longevity.”
Take A Look Over Your Shoulder in 1997, although not as well known as his first album, was a commercial success that included a popular remake of “I Shot the Sheriff.” The 1999 I Want It All and 2001’s Return of the Regulator kept Warren G in the limelight; then he suddenly disappeared. The regulator would not return until 2005 with In the Mid-Nite Hour, which yielded little, if any, critical acclaim.
Fast-forward to 2009 and Warren G is still kicking it in Cali. After 10 million records sold, his tenacity remains intact. His current tour in support of his sixth studio album, The G-Files, kicked off Oct. 27, and hits Omaha this Monday. The new record includes megastars like Ice Cube, Nate Dogg, Paul Wall, Travis Barker of Blink 182 and Snoop. The material retains his melodic, funk-infused style but takes on more of a commercial rap form. This is not necessarily a negative thing — it’s what sells records. But for old-school Warren G fans it might take getting used to. While his mellow lyrical execution (especially on classic tracks like “Do You See?” or “What’s Next?”) would appear to make for a lackluster show, Warren G promises an energetic performance.
“It may be snowing, huh?” he joked. “I’m just gonna give Omaha a great show. I’m gonna do classics and stuff off the new record, play with crowd, you know — the whole nine.”
Warren G performs at Horseshoe Casino’s Whiskey Roadhouse w/ U.N.I. and Kidz in the Hall, Monday, Nov. 13, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $23.50. Visit horseshoecouncilbluffs.com.
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