By Odeisel
When you think of Def Jam, you think of LL, Russell, Rick, Kevin, Lyor. You may think of Jigga, DMX, and Ja. But there is one artist without whom the legacy of Def Jam would not have been entirely possible. An artist consequently without whom the Death Row empire as we know it would not have been entirely achievable. One name stands amid both legendary movements as savior of the former and unsung architect of the latter. That artist is Warren G.
His album single-handedly saved Def Jam from the brink of fiscal meltdown in the years before Irv Gotti brought the hard knock life wave, and his contribution to the game changing The Chronic is worthy of its own merit. Let Warren G tell it.
Planet Ill: You came on the scene with 213. Many people don’t give you the proper credit for being one of the real architects of the G-Funk sound, you and Big Hutch. Tell us about your contributions to that sound.
Warren G: I’m the one that set it off. My version of G-Funk was me and Nate Dogg, that’s what we started, where I would come with a track produced with a live guitar, bass; a very soulful feel. With him [Nate] singing some gangsta shit over it. That’s my G-Funk. To this day it’s doing that. A lot of people rode off of that and still riding off of it, and they still want it. That’s my version of the G-Funk. I am G-Funk. [Above The Law’s]Hutch, I know he got his version and I got my version of it, that’s my guy and then Dr. Dre, he has his version of G-Funk. But I took it worldwide. I took it to Brussels, Belguim. Versailles, France. San Remo, Italy. I took it that far. It’s certified.
Planet Ill: Were you involved in the creation of The Chronic? If so, how far did your contributions go?
Warren G: First of all, we was a family. We still are a family. I’m not trying to take the whole credit for the whole record but I was the guy that would go buy a lot of the records that we used on The Chronic. And I would listen to them, and I would put together the beat and say, “Dre, how do you like this?” He’d be like, “that’s dope,” but then he’d add the extra touches to it and build it up. I also put Dre on to Kevin Doner, who I was introduced to by one of my buddies named Money B, who owned a store with records from the floor up to the ceiling, As The Record Turns. We got a lot of records out of there that we also used for The Chronic.
I would produce the light weight layout and then Dre would come and take it to the next level. We was a family so it was all love. “Nothing But A G’ Thang,” “Let Me Ride,” “Lil’ Ghetto Boy,” “Deez Nuts,” you know, the skits. I contributed to all of that.
Planet Ill: What is the difference between a beat maker and a producer?
Warren G: A beat maker can just get on a drum machine and do anything. A producer is a guy that can do the programming and also be able to tell a musician what to play and how to play it. Orchestrate a beat from top to bottom and then also tell the hook people how to do the hook and where it should be and what bars should go where.
You have to have the ear. There’s a gang of producers everywhere but if they ear ain’t right, it ain’t gon’ happen. You gotta really have a good ear for music. My ear was trained by my pops. He raised me on Jazz music. I was raised on jazz and all the R&B soul. And then Dre showed me a lot of stuff as far as Hip-Hop and DJing. He actually showed me how to start programming. He showed me a few other things and then I just started picking it up on my own and it tripped him out. Like he said in The Show, “If I’d have known he would sell 2 million records I would have been down in the studio with him more.” He knew I was gone sell millions of records cause shit I was with them on The Chronic.
Everybody was doing it. You got Quik rapping and producing, you got Dre rapping and producing, why shouldn’t I do it?
Planet Ill: You mentioned your father. Do you think having a father in your life affected the music you made? Most rappers walk around with their chests puffed out, but on “Regulate” you got jacked on your own song. Do you think that maturity and vulnerability was possible because you had a man in your life?
Warren G: Nah that didn’t really have nothing to do with it, but my father was in my life. I used to go to my father’s house every other weekend, and then when I got to be 13, 14 I was getting into all kinds of stuff in the neighborhood so my mom was like, “You got to move with your daddy.”
My daddy stayed in Compton, which was even worse, it was just like Long Beach. So I get to Compton, I start beating everybody up. Dre would take me to the park, Kelly Park. They used to call me Kibbles & Bits. They bring me to the park and say, “Get ‘em Kibbles!”
But my father was in my life he would take me and turn me on to Jazz. We’d just sit there for hours and listen to soul, Hip-Hop and R&B. I’d be like damn I want to be like my daddy. As far as the music, he’d let me listen to stuff constantly. And then Dre came and he showed me how to DJ. Then my other brother Tyree, we was into football; he used to teach me a lot about foot ball and basketball.
Planet Ill: Why DefJam, not Death Row?
Warren G: I didn’t sign with Death Row because there was a long list of artists that was putting it down and I would have had to wait. Just like Rage, it took a long time for Rage to come out and when she did come out, it wasn’t put down like it was supposed to.
Another thing was I felt left out, I felt hurt when it was a meeting that we had one time and everybody got a Death Row jacket and I didn’t get one. I went to Dre and I was like, “Damn, what’s up? How come I didn’t get a jacket?” I was really pissed off. He was like, “Warren, this is what I want you to do. I want you to be your own man and handle your business. I don’t really want you to be involved in this.”
Planet Ill: Do you think he was giving you a hint not to get involved?
Warren G: He basically was like do your own thing, man. Don’t get caught up in what’s going on. I was hurt. I was crushed. Another thing that had me kinda sad and hurt about that, everybody was going on tour when they had they first tour. We got the airport and everybody had a plane ticket except for me. Damn. Everybody had a ticket except for me.
That made go work and do something. I was like, “What am I going to do now?” All my guys is leaving me, I didn’t know what to do. So I went back to Long Beach and slept on my sister’s apartment floor and I took my drum machine, which Dre gave me, MPC-60, which I still got to this day. I just laid on the floor with my two turntables and my drum machine and just put beats together. Next thing I know I got a call from Tupac and boom, I did “Definition of a Thug Nigga.” Paul Stewart hit me and boom, I did “Indo Smoke.” It kept rolling after that and Lyor Cohen and Russell came in. That was why I didn’t sign with Death Row.
The reason why I signed with Def Jam was cause of the history. Krush Groove. Slick Rick. Public Enemy. LL Cool J. The Beastie Boys. Russell was still associated with the Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, Run DMC. That’s history there, that’s Hip-Hop. All these other companies out there I looked at their history like, “this…or that?” I just stayed at that.
I signed at Def Jam and they showed me some of the best times I ever had in my life. They really supported me. They were going through some things at the time and my album ended up selling 10 million records worldwide which helped them get out of the red and back into the clear, and enabled them to provide an opening for Jay-z, DMX, Methodman & Redman, Onyx. That record opened those doors.
Planet Ill: Was there anyone you wish you could work with but couldn’t due to label politics?
Warren G: I wanted to work more with Snoop, that’s my homeboy. But I was on Def jam and he was on Death Row and that was like a politic thing. I wouldn’t mind working with Jay-Z now. It’s all about if a person really likes you now. Oh Lauryn Hill. I would have loved to work with her. She’s incredible. I know my music would have fit incredible with her. Other than that I did a lot of work with a lot of people. Tupac, Slick Rick, Breed. Michael Jackson, Isley Brothers. Methodman, Redman all of these cats. I’ve worked with a lot of people.
Planet Ill: What made you return to the marketplace?
Warren G: I ain’t never left the market, I been here, I just been in the cut.
Planet Ill: Does being in a different place as an artist change the kind of songs you make?
Warren G: It don’t change me. I still do what I do, I make hit records. Period. I know that I’m not with a major, I’m doing independent records but it’s still the same thing. It’s a little harder for me to get the right people to work the record, even though a lot of people I helped put them in the game. It’s kinda hard sometimes when you’re hands on. You gotta talk to the radio people. You gotta talk to the company, the manufacturers and all that, so that’s hard.
Planet Ill: What made you decide to come back with this album?
Warren G: I love doing music. I know I’m established already and by me doing this record, the peope that’s been wanting to hear some Warren G shit will go get it. I figured I’d go independent with it and still reach out to all the fans I have. It’s reaching them viral now, the game has changed as far as that and all the fans are getting it with Twitter and MySpace and Facebook.
Planet Ill: Any final thoughts?
Warren G: For the people out there, whatever you want to do, keep your head up, keep working hard, try not to stress out because music will stress you out. Just keep your faith in God and keep pushing to the top.
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