(Today’s
Reader Review comes from BrianL, who returns to the Warren G well to write
about the G-Child’s fourth album, The Return of the Regulator, on which our
host himself seems to return to a similar well. Leave your thoughts for BrianL
below.)
It’s well-known that we currently live in some sort of zombie age for movies, as old
blockbusters and franchises keep getting remade and rebooted in order to draw
in the nostalgic customers as well as the sheeple that go to see just about any
new film that comes out of Hollywood. This is apparently a winning formula and
seems applicable to every genre, with films that reheat old music being a good
example, even if that means you’ll forever associate songs from the 1960’s with
Sheeran Baggins from now on. Harking back to what was considered “good” before is
safe, profitable and popular. Traveling down memory lane is often a pleasant
experience when it comes to things we used to like back in the day, unless, of
course, you find out that what you used to love sucked and you’d have been better
off leaving it buried instead of trying to hug a corpse that was never in a
better state than rotten anyway. But I digress.
Warren G,
fresh out of real career chances by 2001, must have been reflecting of his own past
successes quite a bit, I would assume. Ever since releasing Regulate... G-Funk
Era in 1994, his star had been in decline, and by the turn of the century he wasn’t
popular at all, paralleling the fortunes of his beloved West Coast G-Funk in
general. Even though his third project, I Want It All, was released a month
prior to his big (half-) brother Dr. Dre’s comeback album 2001, Warren failed
to capitalize on the minor resurgence the West Coast saw as a result, his
inadvertent modus operandi whenever he had any real opportunities after the
lucky break that was his first album (you can check the previous reviews of his
albums on this site, both Max’s and my own, for more on that story). Perhaps
Warren saw the writing on the wall, because in 2001 he decided to remind anyone
who saw his fourth album, The Return of the Regulator, on store shelves of his
greatest success, hoping to draw in nostalgic buyers, but also proving to younger
customers that he was a man with a past, and his work, therefore, was old
people music. I guess you can’t have it all (pun intended). The title of this
album, The Return of the Regulator, doesn’t even make all that much sense when
you realize that the actual “regulator” on Warren’s biggest hit, “Regulate”,
was actually the guest star, Nate Dogg. Embarrassing, since we’re not looking
at a Nate Dogg album here.
Nevertheless,
a title is just a title, and we shall see how successful Warren was
artistically, to make up for the fact that this was a failure commercially. A
brief look at the tracklisting will show you that Warren keeps it all but
firmly West Coast this time around: there are no collaborations with the likes
of the Ruff Ryders, Jermaine Dupri or Slick Rick to be found. The cavorting is
limited to other West Coast artists, a few no-names, and El DeBarge and George
Clinton as the both literal and figurative odd man out. You’ll notice
that, despite wanting to remind the listener of our host’s debut album, Warren
G’s only collaborator from that project to return here is Nate Dogg, The Twinz,
Tha 5 Footaz, The Dove Shack, and Mr. Malik having all fallen by the wayside in
the intervening years. The only other person from that moment in his career to
show up here is rapper Mista Grimm, and he wasn’t even invited to appear on
Regulate… G-Funk Era. Production-wise, Warren sticks to the formula of handling
the boards himself for the most part, with Soopafly allowed to contribute a
best and, for the very first (and so far final) time, Dr. Dre giving Warren a
prescription.
Let’s see
what that all resulted in.
1. INTRO (FEAT.
DAMONE)
Intros are
usually nothing interesting, but this one is. We get one of Warren’s most laidback
and effective beats ever, which will put anyone in a good mood. Warren himself
doesn’t bother doing much more than talk nonsense while an uncredited female
singer croons in the background until guest rapper Damone shows up. Now this
no-name went nowhere before or since this album, but he does enhance the
listening experience with an energetic performance, even if the man himself is
nothing special. He sounds as if he’s trying to force Warren’s comeback (and
his own very limited chance at a career in rap) through sheer force of will.
2. LOOKIN’
AT YOU (FEAT. LATOIYA WILLIAMS)
Dr. Dre finally
decided to give his half-brother Warren a hand on one of his albums, and I
think the track works pretty well. That this was chosen to be the lead single should
not be surprising to anyone. Warren, apparently feeling he had something to
prove, stepped up his game, both vocally and lyrically, since I Want It All, as
he sounds much more confident. It’s a good look for him: he even pulls off sounding
like a convincing foul-mouthed lady killer here. I’d have preferred if he had
shown more respect for LaToiya Williams, who also sounded pretty great here.
Make no mistake, this is Warren’s take on the “thug in love” genre that was
popular back in 2001, but I thought it was pretty good regardless.
Dre’s beat
is what you’re interested in though, right? It’s not one of his best, but it matches
Warren’s usual style well enough, sounding like a somewhat harder version of our
host’s work. That must have been by pure coincidence, though, as this was
actually a hand-me-down: during the very brief interval when Onyx’s Sticky
Fingaz rolled with Aftermath Records, Dre produced a song called “Feel It” for
him that used this very same instrumental for a very different-sounding track.
(You can easily find it on YouTube. It’s okay.) Rumors persist that Dre
originally spit on “Lookin’ At You” originally, but removed his verses for one
reason or another. I have difficulty seeing where and how he’d fit in here
myself. Anyone out there know any more about that?
3. HERE
COMES ANOTHER HIT (FEAT. MISTA GRIMM & NATE DOGG)
“The perfect
combination, Nate and Warren G,” Nate Dogg croons on this song, and while that
might be hyperbole, the two certainly sound good together. That being said, this
just wasn’t that interesting overall: Warren’s beat is dull and includes a
whistle that gets boring fast, and his rapping, though he, again, sounds
confident enough, is inconsequential. The most interesting thing here might be
the reemergence of West Coast rapper Mista Grimm, who, contrary to what Max has
said elsewhere on this blog, did more than just the song “Indo Smoke”. He
didn’t do nothing: he did next to nothing, dammit! While he flows as smoothly here
as he did in way back in 1994, Grimm certainly doesn’t make this song a hit
either. A bit of trivia here: Mista Grimm and Warren G had a falling out in the
mid-1990’s because Grimm thought it would be a good idea to not pay Nate Dogg
for his contribution to “Indo Smoke”. I assume he had an interesting talk with
Nathaniel before this song was recorded. (Jumping in to add: always pay artists
for their work. Always. Quit fucking around and pay them. Any field, any genre.
Pay them.)
4. SOMETHIN’
TO BOUNCE TO (FEAT. SOOPAFLY)
Unlike Dr.
Dre, I have no doubt Soopafly, the only other outside producer on The Return of the Regulator, did his best to come up with an instrumental that Warren G would
find aesthetically pleasing. What we hear is decidedly smoother and breezier
than his other work from the era, which leaned more toward experimental and
harder-hitting. Whether this means Warren could just as well have produced this
fucker himself is an entertaining philosophical question. “Somethin’ To Bounce
To” is pleasant enough to listen to and, back then, some people might have been
excited to hear Warren formally announce the 213 album (alongside Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg) that would finally see
the light of day in 2004. But it is also pretty forgettable. Continuing with
all-too-confident boasts about his hitmaking skills from the previous song, our
host found it necessary to address haters who felt he had fallen off with the
bar, “How is that, when I put the Beach and Snoop on the map?” Whether he was
instrumental in doing just that (he wasn’t) is a very dubious claim to start
with, and if your best argument for you not having fallen off is something you
supposedly accomplished nearly a decade ago and before you actually found
success yourself…perhaps you did fall off?
5. THIS
GANGSTA SHIT IS TOO MUCH (FEAT. BUTCH CASSIDY)
You said it,
Warren. I think that after, say, 1994, rappers should have stopped using the word
“gangsta” in their song titles, but here we are. This track is boring and I
found Butch Cassidy’s chorus annoying. Even if you just have this album on as
background music, I’d skip this one, even despite the playful beat. If you’d
like to have a tragicomic experience, though, listen for our host repeating the
phrase, “…and big hits is what I’m all about”, even when it isn’t remotely
true.
6. PUMP UP
(SKIT)
…
7. YOUNG
LOCS SLOW DOWN (FEAT. WC AND BUTCH CASSIDY)
Butch
Cassidy is hit or miss, in my experience, mostly because he isn’t a good singer
and doesn’t have the good voice and charisma as his late cousin, Nate Dogg.
However, he manages to hit the mark occasionally, and this happened to be one
of those cases. Warren himself also shines, discussing the horrors and misery
that can easily befall a young gang member, his lyrics descriptive and to the
point. I think our host’s voice, sincere and relatable as he sounds, works very
well for songs about the risks and pain you can experience in life. One easily
believes that he himself was a naive youth that learned his lesson the hard
way. WC is the polar opposite and is, of course, the superior rapper, but then
again, the man can rap over just about anything. Pretty great track.
8. SPEED
DREAMIN’ (FEAT. GEORGE CLINTON & MISTA GRIMM)
Mista Grimm brings
the best line here: “I got the chronic, it’s ferocious / You can feel it in
your bones like osteoporosis”. Beyond that, he uses this fast and very bouncy beat
to flow effortlessly while Warren G does his best to keep up, never quite
managing. That at least makes it easier to differentiate between the two as,
with the passage of time, their voices have ended up sounding very alike
indeed. George Clinton does the chorus and outro, bringing his funk to what was
already a pretty funky affair to start with. Your mileage may vary here: the
average rap listener won’t like this song much, I feel, us West Coast G-Funk
fans are more tolerant to weirdness than most. I could have personally done
without the G-Child stuff, though, and this song really is too long.
9. YO SASSY
WAYS (FEAT. SNOOP DOGG & NATE DOGG)
It was
inevitable that a 213 track would appear on The Return of the Regulator, so
here we are. “Yo Sassy Ways” works exactly as you’d expect: Nate sings a smooth
verse, Snoop raps one in a laidback fashion, and our host provides a summer-y
beat and a verse that is worse than those of his groupmates. In fact, something
in his intonation makes it appear as though he started a new verse right in the
middle of the one he was already performing. Huh? Notice I spoke of Nate Dogg
doing just a verse? There’s no hook to be found here, unless saying “oooh” counts
as such, but I am a bit more demanding than that. This track is altogether a
lot better than the 213 song “Game Don’t Wait” from I Want It All.
10. DEEEZ
NUTS PART II (SKIT)
Doing a
useless skit sequel to a great track by someone else? That just makes no sense,
even if you did appear during the intro to said great track by someone else.
11. IT AIN’T
NUTHING WRUNG WITH YOU (FEAT. MISTA GRIMM, CPO & DAMONE)
In which we
receive a posse cut of sorts. The four participants disrespect women during
short verses before pairing up (Warren/Grimm and CPO/Damone) to repeat that
trick, one that could better be described as “instinctual” at this point. That
being said, there are a few funny lines to be found here (“Baby girl said ‘damn
you fat!’ / But I still fucked that ass / Man, how you do that?!!” - CPO), and
the vocal contrast between the styles and voices of the four men involved makes
the song a bit more interesting than it could have been otherwise. I also liked
how the chorus, partially sung by an uncredited woman, grows a bit more intense
every time we hear it. The beat does its thing, but is pretty nondescript for
the most part. By the way, the official tracklist credits CPO under his alias
Boss Hog, but I’m not having that in this review.
12. GHETTO VILLAGE
I said
before that Warren is at his best when he sounds sincere, rapping about everyday
stuff, and “Ghetto Village” is no exception. Our host talks about about what
life was like when he was a mere tyke and what his block was like. The chorus
glues the verses together extremely well, making it forgivable that Warren
completely jacked Stevie Wonder’s first lines of his 1976 song “Village Ghetto
Land” in his sampling as well as tweaking that song’s beat (superbly, I might
add). A pretty good Warren G track altogether.
13. THEY
LOVIN’ ME NOW (FEAT. CPO & BUTCH CASSIDY)
This
faster-paced song didn’t do it for me. Warren really shouldn’t rap about how
much everybody loves him, because honestly, he hardly ever gets invited to
feature on projects from his own alleged friends. As for CPO, well, I like him,
but he has even less reason to talk about people catching the vapors than our
host does. Nor did we need an endless Butch Cassidy outro or to hear someone
coughing halfway through the first verse. Misfire.
14. STREETS
OF LBC (FEAT. LADY MO)
Sincere
Warren is back, so this is a good song. The beat is slightly menacing without
losing touch with our host’s strengths, making it a standout on this album. Perhaps
this would have worked even better had it appeared earlier on in the sequence.
The subject matter, crime in the LBC, is horribly played out, but our host
makes it work by sounding completely believable relaying his own experiences.
Talking about his connection to Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, and even 2Pac
sounds a bit superfluous and random, but it’s forgivable, as those were true
boasts only he could pull off. Lady Mo, whoever she is, sounded great doing the
chorus and lifts the entire track to another level. I think even Nate couldn’t
have done a better job.
15. G-FUNK
IS HERE TO STAY (FEAT. MISTA GRIMM & KOKANE)
Stop
laughing at the claim made during the chorus and read on. If you don’t like
Kokane, then this one won’t be for you as we probably achieve peak Kokane on
here. It was a bit too much for me, too, and I tend to appreciate the guy.
Warren and Grimm trade bars through this track before, ugh, the G-Child and
Kokane join in the outro, and that is too much in the way of random weird
vocals and nonsense for anyone to ever truly enjoy. This track seems to be going
in all directions and nowhere at the same time.
16. KEEPIN’
IT STRONG (FEAT. EL DEBARGE)
This sincere
track didn’t work that well because the beat is far too saccharine and repetitive.
Perhaps it’s fitting for a song about missing your mother, but that does not automatically
make it work. El DeBarge seems to want to give it its best, but I just couldn’t.
Some
versions of The Return of the Regulator also include a Mista Grimm-featured
track called “Get Away”. I’ll make things easy for both you and myself by
noting that it’s average and can easily be found online if you still want to
hear it. There’s also a few leftover tracks for this album: from that field I’d recommend listening to “My
Boo” (featuring Knoc-turn’al) and “Real In The Field” (featuring Tha Eastsidaz),
as I found both of those to be enjoyable.
FINAL
THOUGHTS: Notice there wasn’t anything related to “regulating” in the style of
the old song on here? That seems a bit of an odd omission for an album with the
title The Return of the Regulator. Musically, this was perfectly serviceable:
while some songs don’t really work, there isn’t anything horrible on here
either, and the stand-outs are pretty good. The album as a whole is a decent
soundtrack for when you’re just relaxing or need some fine background music,
which also describes Warren G’s first and third albums as well. The Return of the Regulator makes for a less diverse, but more cohesive, listen than the projects
that came before, as our host sticks to a particular production style (you’ll
notice when listening to this album). True, The Return of the Regulator wasn’t
a success for Warren G. Yet, like just
about every West Coast rapper who once was something but is now a bit out of
touch, he’s still hanging around in the present day, having released several
more projects since. He even tried this same trick again (with a bit more
desperation) when he released Regulate…G-Funk Era, Part II EP in 2015.
BUY OR BURN?
I’d recommend burning this (if I hadn’t actually bought it long ago), but it’s
not a bad album to pay a modest price for, should that become necessary.
BEST TRACKS:
“Lookin’ At You”; “Young Locs Slow Down”; “Yo Sassy Ways”; “Ghetto Village”; “Streets
Of LBC”
- BrianL
(Questions?
Comments? Complaints? Leave your thoughts and/or suggestions below.)
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