Start with 213 (circa 1990) By 1990, as a record producer and rapper, Griffin formed a music trio with two of his longtime running mates,
Nate Dogg and
Snoop Dogg, in his hometown of Long Beach. In his 1994 single "
Do You See", Warren G reminisces on his background, while incidentally noting, twice, that 213 had originally been Warren G, Nate Dogg, and Snoop Rock, amid visuals that briefly show the V.I.P record shop [Warren G, a singerlike rapper. Before long, homemade copies of 213's songs spread in
Los Angeles county, particularly the cities
Compton and
Pomona, and Los Angeles city's sections
Watts and
South Central, but no label picked them up. In April 1992, Dr. Dre's debut solo single "
Deep Cover" introduced America to Snoop Doggy Dogg, the track's guest but instantly star rapper. Griffin helped Dre find sounds for Dre's debut solo album
The Chronic, further debuting Snoop, whereby superstardom chased Snoop into 1993 and, via Snoop's own debut solo album,
Doggystyle, captured him by 1994. By then, also solo, Nate, too, had joined Dre's label,
Death Row Records. Griffin, returning to Long Beach, aimed to find his own way. In 2004, a 213 album finally arrived:
The Hard Way.
Solo stardom (1993–1996) During 1993, at Dr. Dre's studio, Griffin met
John Singleton, director of
Boyz n the Hood, the seminal film named for
Eazy-E's debut single, produced by Dre. Singleton asked Griffin to produce a song for
the soundtrack of his forthcoming film
Poetic Justice. Griffin thus produced
Mista Grimm's song "
Indo Smoke", featuring Warren G and
Nate Dogg. On the
Above The Rim soundtrack, from
Death Row Records in April 1994, the single "
Regulate" was a duet cowritten and performed by Warren G and Nate Dogg. Spending 20 weeks on the popular songs chart, the
Billboard Hot 100, with 18 of them in the Top 40, including three weeks at No. 2 in May, it was the summer's top rap hit. In January 2017, via digital downloading, it was certified 2x multi-platinum. Performing in Japan, he would discover fans who apparently understood no English, but knew all the lyrics. Into the 21st century, it remained Def Jam's biggest hit single. Russell Simmons, a Def Jam founder, explains, "Warren's music was worldwide because the melody plays no matter what the language." Yet further, unlike other G-funk (short for
gangsta funk) artists, Warren G, even called "a romantic" at heart, voiced simpler concerns. And his modest rap styling maximized, by heeding, his modest lyricism. "Regulate" doubled as the lead single Warren G's debut album,
Regulate... G Funk Era, arriving in June 1994. Selling a million copies in three days, it debuted at No. 2 on the popular albums chart, the
Billboard 200. And in January, the album's other single, "
Do You See", had peaked at No. 42. In August, the album was certified 3x multi-platinum. and peaked in the U.S. at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. In July 1998, Warren G's sixth appearance in the Billboard Hot 100's upper tier Top 40 became Nate Dogg's single "
Nobody Does it Better" Warren's third album,
I Want It All, released in October 1999, has Griffin mainly producing—where, perhaps, his greater comparative strength among musical peers abides—while vocals go largely to guest artists, including Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg,
RBX,
Kurupt,
Eve,
Slick Rick, and
Jermaine Dupri. The album peaked at number 83 the
Billboard 200, and became his final album under a
major record label, here
Universal Music Group, before returned on an independent label.
Indie career (2005–present) In the Mid-Nite Hour, released in October 2005, Warren G's fifth album, his first without a major label involved, Heavily featuring his native, 213 groupmates Nate and Snoop, it is devotedly Warren's own project, homemade on a low budget. Disliking what he put as the rap standard of "some drums and one synth sound", he titled "The West is Back" for return to "that great soulful sound". Meanwhile, in a guest role, Griffin played OG Hemingway in the sitcom
Newsreaders on the
Cartoon Network's
Adult Swim programming. And in August 2014, on the
Mnet channel's reality series
American Hustle Life, he directed an alternate music video for "Boy In Luv", by South Korean boy band
BTS. Nostalgic fans would ask Griffin for more of classic
G-funk, and even ask for more from Nate Dogg, who had died in 2011. The single "
My House", leading Warren G's first
EP, arrived on July 13, 2015. With four songs, the EP, premised as a sequel to the 1994 original, is titled
Regulate... G Funk Era, Part II. Released on August 6, it features
E-40,
Too Short,
Jeezy,
Bun B, and, in all four songs, Nate Dogg. With his unique knack for intuiting Griffin's production cues, Nate leaves behind some of his 213 partner's favorite recordings. ==Other ventures==