Warren G

Warren Griffin III (born November 10, 1970) is an American rapper, record producer, and DJ who helped popularize West Coast hip hop during the 1990s. A pioneer of G-funk, he attained mainstream success with his 1994 single "Regulate" (featuring Nate Dogg). He is credited with discovering Snoop Dogg, having introduced the then-unknown rapper to record producer Dr. Dre.

His debut studio album, Regulate... G Funk Era (1994), debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 176,000 in its first week. The album has since received triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), signifying sales of three million copies. "Regulate" spent 18 weeks within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, with three weeks at number two, while its follow-up, "This D.J.", peaked at number nine. At the 37th Annual Grammy Awards, both songs received nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Solo Performance, respectively.

Three songs from his second album, Take a Look Over Your Shoulder (1997), peaked within the top 40, as did his 1998 duet with Nate Dogg, "Nobody Does It Better". Both the album and its follow-up, I Want It All (1999), received gold certifications by the RIAA. His fourth album, The Return of the Regulator (2001), failed to yield 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; they released the album The Hard Way (2004) to mild success.

His next two albums, 2005's In the Mid-Nite Hour and then 2009's The G Files, were released independently and self-produced. In 2015, he released Regulate... G Funk Era, Part II, an extended play featuring archived recordings of Nate Dogg, who died in 2011. In 2017, "Regulate", certified platinum in 1994, went multi-platinum, propelled by digital downloads.

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.