Music for The People

When Warren G first hit the scene in 1993, rap fans were initially exposed to the smooved-out rhymer and producer through "Indo Smoke," a track with fellow rapper Mista Grimm on the soundtrack for the Janet Jackson / Tupac Shakur film, Poetic Justice. But it was "Regulate," this Long Beach native's first solo hit - with rap music's hardest crooner Nate Dogg - that established Warren G as a platinum-selling artist. His following debut album, Regulate…G-Funk Era, sold well over four million copies, and fans couldn't get enough of Warren's style.
Warren, along with long-time friends Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, and his stepbrother, the infamous NWA mastermind Dr. Dre - all of whom were in a group called 213 together - established the West Coast's signature and world famous G-Funk sound. Big, deep beats that pound the bottom end while the thickest and juiciest funk licks permeate the entire mix; it's heavy on funky keys, laced together with a addictive bass line, and all comes down hard on the one-count. The music best accommodates the smooth vocal stylings of guys like Snoop and Warren, and when G-Funk broke out, it broke out big.
After Regulate…G-Funk Era, Warren released two more multi-platinum selling albums - '97's Take a Look Over Your Shoulder and '99's I Want it All - and sat in the production chair for acts like Eastsidaz, Redman and Tupac. Warren's smooth-moving, hard-hitting sound became a signature for the young producer / rapper, but fans haven't heard anything new from the bringer of G-Funk for a couple of years…until now. Warren is about to jump back into the game with his fourth release, The Return of The Reglator, a collection of G-funk-style tunes that recall the original vibe of the master himself. However, for a man who's poised to take back the West Coast spotlight, Warren is a surprisingly mellow guy.
"I've just been chillin'," says Warren about the last couple of years. He's sitting in the Universal Records office in Beverly Hills, enjoying the plush accommodations as he spends the day on the phone handling his business. "Man, I've been working on getting this record done and getting my whole career back in order, because I just went through a few legal situations, so I've just been spending my time trying to get my shit back in order, trying to get my life moving again."
Part of getting moving again for Warren was getting back to the music full-time, and though he is up with the times, his own G-Funk-based sound is so ingrained in his style that fans will find a familiar tone in the new material. Of course, that doesn't mean that Warren's stuck in a rut.
"Lyrically, I'm more advanced, and my music is harder, but it still has that smooth gangsta lean, you know?" describes Warren, who reached out to old friends and long time influences to put together The Return of the Regulator. "I got everybody on there that I love to work with: Nate, Snoop, Supafly, George Clinton, Mista Grimm, Butch Cassidy."
In fact, the guest list on Warren's latest release reads like a who's who of West Coast hip-hop and funk elite. Warren and his crew helped pioneer a vibe in the early 1990s that defined the West Coast sound for a time, and though the Dirty South, the Midwest and a new breed of East Coast ballers are stepping up to grab their share of the glory, Warren says the West Coast still fits in nicely wit the rest of the nation's exploding regional hip-hop scenes.
"The West Coast fits in, man, it's right there. It ain't gonna go nowhere, it ain't gonna go down, it's gonna stay right there as a part of this music, period," he asserts, adding that, even though he might have helped establish a powerful regional sound, that's not what it's all about for him. "I do music for everybody, dog. When I do a song, I do it for you, I do it for me, I do it for Puff Daddy, I do it for DMX, Lyor Cohen - I do it for everybody 'cause that's just how I am. I can't just be one-sided because I'll never get nowhere being one-sided. I got big love for New York, I got love for down South, I even got love for Paris, France, and I'm down for Italy. I got love for all those places 'cause they've showed Warren the utmost love, and I can't do nuthin' but give it back."

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