When I look back at my childhood, I would say it was the age of 9 or 10 when I realized that I was a G. Or at least in my head I was and how could I not be? Gangsta rap had emerged and I was all in. The late 80’s brought us albums from NWA and Eazy E that were absolute smashes. And you know what? They both still play from beginning to end without maybe a skip or two on your stream. How many albums nowadays play from front to back in the rap world? I’ll help you with that… barely any. Followed by NWA’s blowing up and Ice Cube breaking off on his solo career, you had DJ Quik coming through with some bangers and a new spin on what was becoming West Coast Rap. Before Quik signed his record deal with Profile Records, he was on a record label in 1988 called Funky Enough Records. The owner of that label was a man by the name of Suge Knight. In 1991, Suge started a new record label with the man behind the boards for NWA, Dr. Dre. The record label was known as, Death Row Records. Dre gave birth to the G-Funk sound with his smooth production style that sampled many of the popular hits from the Parliament Funkadelic (P-Funk) discography from the 70’s and 80’s. Dre dropped The Chronic in 1992. I was in 6th grade and before The Chronic album, if you were a white kid who liked rap, this wasn’t really accepted at this time. But when The Chronic dropped? Game over. EVERYBODY was into rap. Dre was rolling with this teenager named Snoop Doggy Dogg who was the perfect compliment to the G-Funk beats he was knockin’ out.
1992’s The Chronic also introduced the world to other new rappers like Daz, Kurupt, RBX, The Lady of Rage and a young crooner by the name of Nate Dogg. All of those rappers showed out on The Chronic with their songs and verses. That RBX song “High Powered” is just filthy. That song would bang so hard in my 1991 Red Volkswagon Fox in high school! I think it may be a Top 3 rap song for my homie George and that is seriously saying something. The Chronic put West Coast Rap on the map. I’m assuming we all know The Chronic album, or at least the big singles. But one song in particular let me know that Dre was on a whole ‘notha level. Below is a video taking you through who all Dre was sampling over the years.
Snoop became a household name on The Chronic. The buzz around a Snoop album on Death Row in 1993 was MAJOR. Everybody on the West Coast was waiting for that album. It dropped in 1993 and I remember running to Wherehouse Records to buy it on CD. I didn’t even buy it but one of my homie’s older brothers was buying it so we all rolled together to the record store. When we got back to my homie’s house, they all smoked J’s and I got high off of the liner notes since I didn’t smoke. THE SNOOP ALBUM? Man…. Doggystyle was soooooooo hard! Snoop was so confident on the mic. The beats were from Dre and the features were from Tha Dogg Pound (Daz & Kurupt), The Lady of Rage, and Warren G. There are so many standout tracks on Doggystyle but there is one specifically that I stop what I’m doing to rap no matter where I am. “Gz and Hustlas” is a top 5 song for me of all time.
I love West Coast Rap Music. It puts me in a good mood and during these tough times I need to be positive. I need to have that swagger when I rap in front of the mirror as a 40 year old with my wife watching NCIS in the other room. I breathe West Coast Rap Music. This is my West Coast Rap Playlist for you guys to hit shuffle on Spotify and to listen to in your headphones while you work remotely from home. Keep your head up y’all!
And oh yeah…. One quick throwback story for you before I fade out. It involves my boy Tony and if you know Tony, you know this will be funny because that’s just how Tony rolls. He was out in Vegas at a club with some of our crew. It was way crowded in the club and you really couldn’t hear anything. When he looked up, he noticed that he was right in front of the one and only Suge Knight from Death Row Records. Tony hit Suge in the chest and said, “what up Suge!” while face to face with him. Suge quickly looked at this white dude he didn’t know and said, “what’s up???” With no idea what to say next, Tony awkwardly came with the first thing that came to his mind and said, “DEATH ROW DOGG” to big Suge. After that exchange, Tony and Suge went their separate ways. CLASSIC TONY! CLASSIC WEST COAST SH*T!