Warren G

Warren Griffin III (born November 10, 1970) is an American rapper, DJ, and producer known for his role in West Coast rap's 1990s ascent.

Warren Griffin III was born on November 10, 1970, and grew up in Long Beach, California.

He had three sisters and was the only son of Warren Griffin Jr., an airplane mechanic, and Ola, a dietician.

They divorced when Warren was 4 and he lived with his mother and three sisters in East Long Beach until he was just about to start middle school.

In 1982, Warren went to live with his father in North Long Beach.

His new wife, Verna, had three children from a prior marriage, one of whom was Andre Young, the soon-to-become Dr. Dre who in 1984 joined a leading DJ crew, the World Class Wreckin' Cru, which by 1985 doubled as an electro rap group, which in 1987 put out the Los Angeles area's first rap recording under a major label.

By then, a Jordan High School student, Warren was playing football and running with friends.

In 1988, age 17, Warren was jailed for gun possession.

While incarcerated, he took the nickname Warren G. By this time Dr. Dre was already beginning to experience success as the writer and record producer for Ruthless Records, as well as being a member of N.W.A with Ruthless Records founder Eazy-E and Ice Cube.

N.W.A’s landmark album, Straight Outta Compton, was driving the Los Angeles area's rap scene to swiftly drop electro for gangsta.

Once out of jail, Warren worked at the Long Beach shipyards and began focusing on music after Dr. Dre taught him how to use a drum machine.

By 1990, Warren G had formed the trio 213 with two longtime running mates, Nathaniel "Nate Dogg" Hale and Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus.

213 was a contributor to the G-funk sound soon to emerge in rap.

The trio dissolved after Warren G connected them to Dr. Dre.

At that point, two solo careers were launched: Dr. Dre's and Snoop Dogg's, upon G-funk.

Nate, too, signed to Dr. Dre's Death Row Records.

Warren G initially helped there, but not desiring a career in his mentor and stepbrother's shadow, signed to Def Jam Recordings in New York City.

By 1990, in his hometown Long Beach, as record producer and rapper, Warren formed a music trio with two of his longtime running mates, Nathaniel "Nate Dogg" Hale, a rapperlike singer, and Calvin "Snoop Dogg” Broadus, a singerlike rapper. The Long Beach trio, fond of Oakland rap group 415, named for the Bay area's area code, took the name 213, the Los Angeles area's. Practicing and recording in the modest studio in Long Beach record store V.I.P., they cut a demo tape. Dr. Dre, already a celebrity, rebuffed his younger stepbrother Warren's requests for him to listen.

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.

One day, Warren phoned Dre to catch up, and found him at a bachelor party—thrown for Dre's friend Andre "LA Dre" Bolton, another record producer—whereupon Warren found himself invited to join it.

There, once the songs began to repeat, Warren offered LA Dre the 213 tape.

Liking it, he summoned Dr. Dre, who, hearing the Snoop rap "Super Duper Snooper", immediately welcomed the trio.

Days later, 213 moved into Dre's lavish troubadour-style house in Calabasas, home to both his wife and his recording studio.

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.

Warren 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.

Warren, returning to Long Beach, aimed to find his own way.

A pioneer of G-funk, he attained mainstream success with the 1994 single "Regulate", a duet with Nate Dogg.

He significantly helped Snoop Dogg's career during the latter's beginnings, also introducing him to Dr. Dre, who later signed Snoop Dogg.

His debut album, Regulate... G Funk Era, debuted at #2 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 176,000 in its opening week.

The album later went on to sell over 3 million copies in the US and was certified 3x multi-platinum.

The single "Regulate" spent 18 weeks in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, with three weeks at No. 2, while "This D.J." reached No. 9. Both songs earned Grammy nominations.

Three songs from his second album, Take a Look Over Your Shoulder, reached the Top 40, as did his 1998 duet with Nate Dogg, "Nobody Does It Better".

Both Take a Look Over Your Shoulder and his next album, I Want It All, were certified gold, the last of his albums to attain certification.

His 2001 comeback attempt, The Return of the Regulator, failed to reach his earlier commercial heights.

Along with longtime collaborators Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, he formed the hip-hop trio 213, named for Long Beach's area code, releasing in 2004 an album titled The Hard Way.

His next two albums, 2005's In the Mid-Nite Hour and then 2009's The G Files, released independently, were self-produced.

In the 2010s, he experienced a resurgence in popularity amid the digital age.

In 2015, he released Regulate... G Funk Era, Part II, an EP featuring archived recordings of Nate Dogg, who died in 2011.

In 2017, "Regulate", certified platinum in 1994, went multi-platinum, propelled by digital downloads.