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Born Warren Griffin III, Warren G. exploded out of the burgeoning Long Beach rap scene in 1994 with the smash single "Regulate," a duet with longtime friend Nate Dogg, and its accompanying album, Regulate...G Funk Era. G. grew up in Long Beach listening to his parents' extensive collection of jazz, soul, and funk records, also frequently hanging out at the local V.I.P. record store. As a teenager, he and his friends Nate Dogg and future superstar
Snoop Dogg formed a rap group called 213, after their area code. Unfortunately, all three had
brushes with the law and spent time in jail, which motivated them to get jobs, also working on
their music as a side note. Eventually, the V.I.P. record store allowed the trio to practice and
record in a back room.
He honed his musical skills while producing such artists as MC Breed and 2Pac. A break came
when his vocal collaboration with Mista Grimm, "Indo Smoke," appeared on the Poetic
Justice soundtrack. Soon after that, G. recorded his debut single for Death Row. "Regulate"
appeared on the Above the Rim soundtrack and was released as a single. It quickly became a massive hit, peaking at #2 on the Billboard charts and pushing the album up to the same position.
(Props to Steve Huey and AMG for this)
In 1994 after "Regulate" became a huge hit, Warren G quickly signed to RAL and released "Regulate... G Funk Era". In 1995 Warren G helped produce the Twinz and Dove Shack albums which were released on the same day. After touring in Europe and the U.S., Warren came home to start work on "Take A Look Over Your Shoulder (Reality)". It took him 4 months to finish it. Warren G's G-Funk label was then dropped from Def Jam and he quickly moved it over to Restless Records renaming it "G-Funk 2000: The New Millenium. The first release was from Reel Tight who dropped in May 99 after waiting over 6 months for their release date. Then in October, the much anticipated new album from Warren G hit the streets. It was a project which spanned almost a year of work.
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