Warren G has seen his fair share of beef. Reared in the wild, West Coast, the G-Funk originator bore firsthand witness to the dramatic conflicts during the mid-nineties (Dr. Dre is is brother and Snoop is a rap partner). But, Warren G is considered one of the greatest products of the Left Coast for many reasons, none of which include static. One is his ability to see the positive in all situations. Warren reveals how he linked up with KRS-One on the new QDIII-produced “Beef” documentary and soundtrack. Furthermore, he talks about the highly anticipated, much-delayed 213 album with Nate Dogg and Snoop Dogg. Beef hasn’t paid for Mr. G, its always been his penchant for the funk and rhymes. Seeing the positives in any situations, past and present, has fortified Warren’s attitude and his ability to create new business opportunities for himself. The Regulator is a busy man who will put his mark down when it is his time to write his name in the history books.
AllHipHop.com:
Talk about the new music on the Beef soundtrack?
Warren G:
I went and got involved in the movie and QD3 hollered at me. My uncle called and he was like well Warren they doing a soundtrack. You want to get involved and I said yah I’m down to do that. He said I think it’d be a good idea to do a record with KRS ONE. And we got down and KRS ONE was with it. Then lets do it. He came in and he explained to me how he had this hip hop declaration of peace going on, and I told him that I was with that one hundred percent. He came and spit his verse out in New York and I spit my verse out here in LA and the Little AI spit on the Japanese movement. Its just a big peace movement all the way from here to here to Japan. Showing people that in hip hop people can definitely get along and we can have our beef on wax and not on the streets. And its not an East Coast West Coast thing, its different.
AllHipHop:
Can you talk about what it was like to spit alongside another legend in the game like KRS ONE?
Warren G:
Oh my goodness. I mean I’m a big fan and at first I wasn’t tripping, but then I thought about and it was like G####### I’m in here doing a song with KRS ONE. And that really ya know let me know that I am on my way to being a super duper legend. And I really respected him and what he did when he was coming up so it really felt great.
AllHipHop:
Now do any of the parts in the film have you in it or does it discuss you directly or indirectly?
Warren G:
The way it is and the way its broken down as far as New York and how it is out in LA style and it don’t really take one individual and say whoopty whoop this that and this that. They had me when I was first starting out and when I was producing when I was with Tupac. Its mainly clips and different people narrating, like KRS ONE. A lot of different cats from out here narrating and doing their thing on it.
AllHipHop:
Now in Beef what do you think the goal of this type of documentary is, to education and explain different conflicts in hip hop or what?
Warren G:
Just to let people see and tell people how different individuals were really having their battles. It really lets you see how the Beef is. It shows you how back in the day instead of doing the fighting and shooting it shows you how these guys used to battle. And you look at that and say, Damn that’s how we should be doing it instead of violence. We gotta keep it like MC Shan and KRS ONE used to have it. And like how NWA and Ice Cube used to have it, they didn’t go shooting nobody, they handled it on record. Its showing you how bad things were at different points. Its basic goal is showing you that we ain’t gotta shoot each other we can handle things on wax.
AllHipHop:
Theres been a lot of buzz lately about you coming back together with Nate Dogg and Snoop Dogg and coming with a 213 project? Talk about that and your focus for this project.
Warren G:
Ya know we been doing work together, we just getting the business and everything straight. You can expect the 213 record coming soon. It feels real good being back with my two guys, I love them dudes. It makes me feel so good to work together. Us together is like the feature man, it’s the feature. We not gonna get a gang of artists together to do what we doing, were the feature right there, we don’t need others really. All we doing is getting with different producers like Dr. Dre, Battlecat, myself, Hi Tek, DJ Quik, its gonna be real nice. Just producers we like and love and its gonna be nice. And I got my solo coming because its time for that too. Its been a long time and we need something different out here to listen to and I’mma break it down how I do it and did it back in the day. I’m right there with these young dudes too is what I’m gonna show them.
AllHipHop:
Is the 2003 version of 213 going to sound similar to the group from back in the early 1990’s or explain your new sound?
Warren G:
Its incredibly. This piece. I can’t even explain it, its just us man. Its got a little bit of that old feel in it, its just us and how we work together, its really magic. I can’t even explain. All of us been together in Pop Warner football eating free lunches in the park.
AllHipHop:
You mentioned that you’re trying to keep the guest appearances on the record very low, explain the reason for this?
Warren G:
That’s what people want to hear, they want to hear 213, they don’t want to hear a hundred thousand different artists.
AllHipHop:
Back when you were with Death Row Records (now Tha Row), was one of the reasons you left so early was it because they were seemingly using you and Nate Dogg and making Snoop the focus of their efforts instead of the group?
Warren G:
Well I won’t say they were manipulating and all of that. It just wasn’t working out man. We was a group and we wanted to come out as a group, but it didn’t happen that way.
AllHipHop:
Did you see their eventual downfall from number one status back in the days when you were with the group?
Warren G:
Ah, I just kept on forward, I wasn’t even trippin. I ain’t got nothing against Suge Knight, he ain’t saying anything against me in a magazine. I just do me. I’m just mashing with who I am one hundred percent. I am all about positive energy and I keep it real.
AllHipHop:
Do you see yourself working with any of the artists on Tha Row at all in the future?
Warren G:
I don’t know about that one right there.
AllHipHop:
You signed a deal with audio equipment maker JVC and have your own line of equipment, talk about that and how you got down with them initially.
Warren G:
I got my own line of speakers and amps. Basically I got my own tens and twelves, I got a boom box, its history man. Its really history. I am one of the first to deal with a Fortune 500 company. JVC was trying to break into hip hop and I have a pretty clean record of not being one of those dudes that carry another hundred dudes with him or get caught with guns or this that and this. So they wanted to deal with somebody like this. They got at me and I was with it.
AllHipHop:
Anything else you want to talk about that is going on a business level or a personal one?
Warren G:
I been involved with my kids and teaching them how to play football. I ain’t coaching but I been involved in it, going to the games and stuff. Just trying to spend some good time with my kids.