On the 20th anniversary of the release of his debut album, Regulate…G Funk Era, Warren G spoke with XXLMag.com about his plans to celebrate the anniversary of the album this month. In addition to the Regulate…G Funk Era re-release, the Long Beach, California rapper plans on releasing three EDM remixes to his single, “Regulate.”
Warren G says the idea for the “Regulate” EDM remixes, which were created by Destructo & Wax Motif, Photek and Jauz, came about when a friend encouraged him to tap into “different” genres with his “Regulate” remixes.
“Well that was the idea of one of my friends, Keith, came up with,” Warren G said. “He said you should try something different and still keep it ‘Regulate,’ but try some of these different genres with remixes. So you can get to those genres, too. And I was like, that’s cool, that’s dope. But every genre, the way the music is, doing a ‘Regulate’ EDM mix is not bad, because it will still keep the original alive but it’s a great song all the way around. At the same time, it’s a great feeling for the album, Regulate… G Funk Era, ‘Regulate’ the single, just to be able to be in the game for 20 years and people still know who you are and you’re relevant, that’s a big thing. ‘Cause there’s a lot of artists that are in and out, one minute you could hear their record for a few months and then you don’t hear from them no more. So I’m just blessed to be one of the ones that’s able to have longevity, is still relevant and is still doing good music. And it ain’t gonna stop. This is what I do. This is what I love.”
Warren G later spoke on “Regulate” collaborator Nate Dogg when asked about the importance of the late musician during the period “Regulate” was released. He compared their relationship to that of Batman and Robin and revealed that if Nate Dogg was alive today, the duo would still be making hit records together.
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“He was very important. I mean, that was the backbone of what I do,” the rapper said. “Whenever I did records, we were like Batman and Robin. It’s like, he understands my perception, and I understand the way he writes and sings. So when the combination comes together, it’s perfect, and it always makes sense and it’s always a banger, a hit record. We wanted to make people feel good and understand at the same time what we talkin’ ’bout. When you make ’em understand and they know it and they feel it, they love it. And that’s what we do. To this day, when I’m at the studio sometimes when I’m producing, doing music and stuff like that, I’ll be like, ‘Man, Nate would’ve killed this.’ It makes me start reminiscing, you know, on our friendship and the shit we used to do. It hurt, you know what I’m saying, it hurt a lot because I don’t have my partner here with me to do music with me like we used to do. We’d make hit records, argue, we was brothers. All kinds of stuff, you know. But at the end of the day we just did it for the love of it, for the love of music and wanting people to know that we make good music, man, here on the West Coast.”
Lastly, Warren G offered his thoughts on the newer generation of artists. He revealed that Kendrick Lamar is an artist who brings him back to the old days, and later gave props to Rae Sremmurd, Drake, Rich Homie Quan, and a handful of other artists.
“Kendrick Lamar. I like the way he do his thang,” Warren G said. “I like the two youngsters, Rae Sremmurd, I like them, I like the way they get down. I like Rich Homie Quan and the way he get down. I like Drake, ’cause he got a story. Muthafuckas be like, ‘Hey just checkin’ into the women,’ but hey, them the muthafuckas that’s gonna buy your records. And you relatin’ to them, so ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. I like J. Cole. I like YG…And another guy I like, I like Nipsey Hu$$le. I like that one cat Bobby Shmurda, I like the direction he’s moving ’cause it’s like, he’s just beginning, he hasn’t let them know who he really is yet, but he just went in with his story from the beginning because that’s what it is and what it was at this time. That’s what he was going through, so boom. Once he learn, he’s gonna be the guy from New York who’s gonna take off in a minute, watch. I like A$AP Rocky, he a cool cat, he’s doing his thang.”
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