Backstabbing, Moogs and the funky worm: how G-funk was born

[The Predator]

How one of music’s most controversial genres began and who truly invented it


Compton outfit, N.W.A.

NWA’s first EP was called Panic Zone. Released in 1987, it features Dope Man, a song written by a teenage Ice Cube that foreshadowed the group’s sound and image to come. It alternately glamorizes and condemns the drug pusher and his lifestyle, ending with a stern warning voiced by Mexican-American rapper Krazy Dee: “You sold crack to my sister and now she’s sick / But if she happens to die because of your drug / I’m putting in your culo a .38 slug.”

For Dr Dre, the group’s main producer, it was his first use of the “funky worm”, the high-pitched, irresistible Moog synthesizer sound whose name was coined from a song by the 70s funk group Ohio Players.


Funky Worm vinyl

The sound was next heard on NWA’s second full-length album, 1991’s Efil4zaggin (Niggaz 4 Life spelled backward), the first gangsta rap album to hit No1. Efil4zaggin marks a great leap forward in Dr Dre’s production skills. Whereas their previous album Straight Outta Compton was all over the place sonically, Efil is mostly unified in its doomsday grooves. Always into Something is a slow-building sonic masterpiece, kicking off with a spoken word MC Ren introduction and a quick Dre verse before unveiling the alien-sounding, high-pitched synthesizer sound, similar to the “funky worm”.


N.W.A. 'Alwayz into Something' single vinyl back cover

In the studio, Dre was hoping to capture the magic of Parliament-Funkadelic member Bernie Worrell’s eerie, melodic keyboard sounds, and so he had engineer Colin Wolfe go out and buy a Moog.


Bernie Worrel on the Moog

Following the album Dre left NWA and its label Ruthless Records, owing to a money dispute with Eazy-E, who owned the label, and NWA’s manager, Jerry Heller. Dre recorded the first half of his solo debut The Chronic (which came out near the end of 1992) at his Calabasas house, in a bedroom he’d converted into a studio. After a fire there, the rest was made at Solar’s Galaxy studios, where he made use of a state-of-the-art SSL console, a huge, futuristic mixing board with pre-programmable “flying faders” capable of automatically adjusting itself to your preferred settings. “It was like the Starship Enterprise,” producer Rhythm D, who worked with Death Row for a time, told me.


Dr Dre's Death-Row era SSL mixing board
(This SSL console, once owned by noted mixing engineer Chris Lord-Alge and used at LA’s Can-Am Studios. Along with being used to mix and record the likes of Pink Floyd, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam, the board was also the main console for Dr. Dre during the Death Row era — a period that saw the release of classics like The Chronic, Doggystyle and All Eyez On Me.)

Yet it was still the pre-digital era, and so they edited on analog tapes, literally cutting them by hand. “You would mark the tape with a grease pencil and then use a razor blade,” remembered Chris “The Glove” Taylor, an engineer and musician on the album.

More than ever, Dre was finding inspiration in Parliament-Funkadelic. He again used the Moog to create both a chunky bass effect using different settings and the “funky worm” squeal. It’s that enchanting, high-pitched whine that is the signature sound of The Chronic. It’s melodic, it’s somewhat terrifying, it instantly makes your ears prick up.


Artists of 'The Chronic' Snoop Doggy Dogg, The D.O.C and Dr Dre

It was also the perfect, terrifying sound for Chronic diss track Fuck wit Dre Day (And Everybody’s Celebratin’).


Celebratin Dre Day cassette tape cover

The song’s venom was directed at Eazy‑E, starting with a skit preceding the video, in which Eazy is portrayed by comedian AJ Johnson as a locs-clad, Jheri-curled Uncle Tom being sold a load of BS from Heller, played by portly Interscope executive Steve Berman. Over the bass-rattling, slow funk track, Dre took direct aim at Eazy: “Used to be my homie, used to be my ace / Now I want to slap the taste out your mouth / Make you bow down to the Row / Fuckin’ me, now I’m fuckin’ you, little ho. Eazy was no longer respected by his own people, he went on, and should watch his back because he might get smoked.”


'Sleazy E', Dre Day video

Backed by emerging rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, the album featured Dre sampling or interpolating a half dozen songs from either Parliament or Funkadelic, sister groups that were both led by George Clinton. Dre’s genius was realizing how well they’d combine with rap lyrics. Part of the connection was emotional. P-Funk’s psychedelic rock was cutting edge, but to those who grew up in the 70s it was also warm and nostalgic, the soundtrack to back-yard parties and civil rights rallies. Combining it with the rough-and-tumble lyrics of gangsta rap merged the hard and the soft, the light and the dark. The sound was called G-funk – gangsta funk – and it would come to dominate hip-hop for years.



What made G-funk so effective? An LA musician named Dâm-Funk – a keytar-toting funk revivalist who collaborated with Snoop on the 2013 album 7 Days of Funk – put it well. He told me that, for many who grew up on Parliament-Funkadelic, the sound came to symbolize a halcyon time before crack cocaine came along in the early 80s and decimated the inner city. Dâm-Funk cites Funkadelic’s 1979 song Not Just (Knee Deep), which Dre would later sample for a Tupac track, as “almost like the end credits rolling on a certain era.


Funkadelic, 1970s P-funk band

“Because, before that, there wasn’t crack,” he went on. “And then that era came, and a lot of people got lost after that. You can almost feel it in the music that something was on the horizon ... It symbolizes happiness and sadness. That’s what the funk is.”

Dr. Dre is surely the undisputed godfather of west coast hip-hop and gave meaning to the phrase “music for the streets”. From NWA to his solo records, Dre sought to shock his audience and be the life of the party. His seamless and undeniably funky production gave life to the most controversial music of its time, with NWA’s Straight Outta Compton and his first solo album, The Chronic.


Platinum producer Dr Dre

The Chronic best achieved his mission and exposed the rap genre to its widest audience so far, selling over two million copies within the first year and six million copies to date. The album’s smooth and bass-heavy production rattled boomboxes and car stereos nationwide and modernized west coast hip-hop with g-funk. After 25 years, it still sounds innovative and powerful, especially through a hi-fi audio system.

Niggaz4Life fashioned Dr. Dre’s first experiments with g-funk, and the album brought the group’s lyrical shock value to staggering heights. This success couldn’t convince Dre to remain an active member and sparked the interest to start his own label, where he could recruit new talent and rake in the majority of the earnings from his production contributions.

The Chronic hoped to redefine gangsta rap. While NWA used the genre to say what other Compton rappers wouldn’t, Dre wanted his music to be more accessible and to make more money. That’s why he called it The Chronic—he wanted his record to be the new, premium dope that everyone needed: to get his audience higher than ever. He found his solution in g-funk, a style of hip-hop first employed on NWA’s Niggaz4Life to smooth out the group’s aggressive demeanour. The style utilised funk and soul samples, most prominently from George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic – high-pitched synthesizers, deep bass grooves, and a chilled-out vibe. The characters of The Chronic claim this method is perfect for joy-riding down LA streets or lighting up a joint.


'The Chronic' commercial 1992

Dre is notoriously secretive about his production process, but it’s obvious that he’s a perfectionist, fine-tuning every sound until it’s to his exact liking. While samples are frequently used in g-funk, they’re only utilized for specific instrumental features – a drum beat or bass melody. Dre, however, completes his mixes with live instrumentation, including flute, guitar, and bass. Multi-instrumentalist Colin Wolfe frequented the studio to help conceptualize songs and lay down additional guitar and bass tracks. Dre’s contributions were driven by an 808 drum machine and Moog synthesizer, the latter an integral element to g-funk that appears throughout The Chronic. The so-called “funky worm” helped craft some of the album’s most memorable melodies, while its low-end ensured a reliably rumbling bass.

While he probably discovered records by Sly Stone, Bill Withers, James Brown, and Leon Haywood in his mother’s record collection, Dre also consulted his local record stores for un-mined musical gold. Keven Donan, owner of As the Record Turns, claimed Dre visited his shop often, and he played records for him over the phone to see what piqued Dre’s interests. Still, George Clinton is the most dominant sampling influence— the producer adopted about a half-dozen of his tracks on the album; “The Roach” recycles Parliament’s “P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)” for a humorous weed-themed interlude; and Snoop’s “Bow-wow-wow” rap call is taken from “Atomic Dog”.


G-Thang duo, Dr Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg

While Dr. Dre is an extremely talented beat maker, he has never claimed to be a lyrical mastermind. Many of his lyrics on The Chronic were composed by previous Ruthless signee the D.O.C. His underrated debut, No One Can Do It Better, was produced by Dre, but two weeks after its release he was in a nearly-fatal car crash that crushed his larynx, altering his speaking voice and ending his rap career. Dre still saw value in his lyric writing and considered him as an essential member of the team.


The D.O.C. live

Another pivotal collaborator on The Chronic was Snoop Doggy Dogg, then fresh on the hip-hop scene. Dre discovered this “unpolished diamond” after his step-brother, Warren G, showed him a demo tape he and Snoop made together. Soon, Snoop would be an essential piece of Dre’s work as a solo artist, giving birth to his first single “Deep Cover” (also Snoop’s first released recording) and the foundation of The Chronic. While writing the album, The D.O.C. coached Snoop to better his vocal style, and the pair worked on Dre’s lyrics together.


Snoop Doggy Dogg, Long Beach City Rapper

Their rhymes on The Chronic are fuelled by gangsterism— the impression of a tough character from the streets who shouldn’t be messed with. They direct this front at Eazy-E, Jerry Heller, and Tim Dog (who previously dissed Snoop on his songs) in album opener “Dre Day”. Both rappers were sick of the perpetual drama and used their rhymes as ammunition to humiliate their opponents. Dre’s authoritative rapping makes these threats feel realistic and almost unquestionable. This aspect caused a stir between Death Row and local gangs, who were offended that Dre and Snoop were capitalising on gang activity without being a part of it. But the rappers spoke on what they saw and experienced from the outside.

The nation gained a glimpse of LA’s simmering tensions during the case of Rodney King and the 1992 riots. Rodney King was a black man who was viciously and unfairly beaten by several LAPD officers in early 1992, and after the court found the participating men not guilty of police brutality, fires and looting broke out all over Los Angeles. The Chronic reference these incidents on “The Day The Niggaz Took Over” and “Lil Ghetto Boy”, and mentions the sadness they felt when the verdict was released, stealing from shops during riots, and a new violent change in their environment, where gangbangers were pulling triggers faster than ever. Both tracks feature audio samples from documentary filmmaker Matthew McDaniel, who captured the riots on film. 

On the album’s second half Dre takes a step back to let his Death Row roster shine in the spotlight. After discovering Snoop, Dre also signed The Lady of Rage, Kurupt, RBX, Dat Nigga Daz, and Nate Dogg to the label. Their contributions feels like a wild cypher, with each rapper bringing as much heat as possible. Their success proved Dre’s ability to discover new talent for the first time, leading him to sponsor Eminem, 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, and Anderson Paak after his days at Death Row.


Dogg Pound, Death-Row inmates

The Chronic marked a triumphant beginning to Dr. Dre’s path as a musical entrepreneur. It proved he could sustain his musical expertise outside of N.W.A. and set a new standard for how seamless and epic a rap album could sound. Many hip-hop albums of the time were produced with a string of samples randomly tied together— Dre’s curatorial expertise and use of live instrumentation put that method to shame and made listeners’ speakers boom like never before. While many understandably rejected the album’s violent lyrics, its funky sound kept listeners engaged, ultimately forcing listeners to respect his vision. The Chronic encouraged the world to think differently about hip-hop, ultimately paving the way for its dominant position in today’s society.

Who invented G-funk? Though Dr Dre is its most famous purveyor, the question is controversial.

G funk is often considered to be the brainchild of Dr. Dre. From there, you might hear the names of other trailblazers: DJ Quik, Warren G, and Daz Dillinger. However, about 30 miles east from the well-known Los Angeles communities of Compton, Watts, South Central, and Long Beach, the inland town of Pomona is where some argue g funk actually began. There, a group called Above the Law — headlined by producer Big Hutch, the nephew of Motown legend Willie Hutch — pioneered gangsta funk, with their sophomore album Black Mafia Life (released in February 1993) being the first to explicitly call g funk by its name.


Pomona rap group ATL and Eazy E, New York

"2Pac'll pack a person, pump the trunk, I'm bumpin' g funk, but you can call it what you want," Tupac Shakur booms on the first verse of “Call It What U Want,” Above the Law’s P-funk- infused track that features a young Shakur and Money-B (both representing Digital Underground).

The song and music video of “Call It What U Want” includes many other fallen legends like Eazy-E and Shock G. But why has this pioneering song flown under the radar? How did Pac become involved with the song? And, most importantly, why do Above the Law believe they created g funk?

How the 909 Became a Part of West Coast Rap

There are many famous area codes in Southern California. The 909, home of the Inland Empire, isn’t exactly one of them. Pomona, California, home to the largest automotive swap meet on the West Coast, is a majority-minority community, which was about 50 percent Latino and 14 percent Black in 1990. This is where Gregory Hutchinson, first known as Cold 187um and now known as Big Hutch, calls home.

“The thing about the city we came up in is that we were still influenced by South Central music, by Compton music and all that,” the now 55-year-old Hutch said. “And then we got to incorporate that into what we were doing. When you look at Pomona, it’s like a smaller version of all that.”

Hutch grew up in a musical family. His father was Richard Hutch, a Motown writer. His uncle, Willie Hutch, was a legendary Motown singer and songwriter, whose work includes penning Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” and recording the soundtrack for blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown.

But while Hutch had these figures in his life, there were also the temptations of the streets. He started hustling in the ‘80s with his childhood friends from high school, who soon also became his musical collaborators.

“We were all kind of digging on music. We were like juniors and seniors in high school and started developing an Above the Law sound, reflecting what we were doing in the streets,” Hutch said.

By 1989, Hutch brought together friends Kevin Michael Gulley (KMG the Illustrator), Arthur Lee Goodman (Go Mack), and Anthony Stewart (DJ Total K-Oss) to officially form Above the Law.

But it was an early meeting with Larry “LayLaw” Goodman, a producer and Eazy-E’s business partner, who really changed the burgeoning group’s fate. LayLaw introduced the group to Eazy-E and Dr. Dre, who were looking to build out the Ruthless Records roster beyond early N.W.A. acts like The D.O.C. and J.J Fad.

In 1990, Above the Law released their debut album, Livin Like Hustlers, on Ruthless Records. Rather than the fully-baked g funk sound that would emerge later, Hutch called their first album more of a boom bap record, consistent with the sound of the time.

“It was sample-heavy but still funky. N.W.A.’s sound was really big, but all my samples were really slow. Really slower grooves compared to Straight Outta Compton,” Hutch said. “Dre would always say, “Y’all are like us, but your shit is funky.’”

Speaking of Dr. Dre, Hutch explains that their deal with Sony required that Dre get a producing credit on all projects, a precedent which would have consequences later on.

“Let’s Give the Rookie a Shot”: 2Pac Enters the Booth


2pac, star of 'Juice'

Livin Like Hustlers singles “Murder Rap” and “Untouchables” both went No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart. But for their follow-up, Hutch wanted to lean fully into what he called his “Motown DNA.”

“I started incorporating the stuff I learned from my pops and my uncle. Things started getting really dark and funky. Isaac Hayes. Parliament-Funkadelic. All that bluesy stuff,” Hutch said. “I’m from a jazz-blues family. That’s what they did. So, everything I did had undertones of that.”

G funk is a sound of contrasts, as the realities of the street collide with California palm trees and endless sunshine. Even when the lyrics get as gnarly as “Ain’t No Fun,” the beat and musicality make you bob your head. But Hutch is clear that he wanted g funk to come out of the gates with a real edge.

“When I was developing the g funk sound, I felt it had to have a slap that was hardcore. It couldn’t just be smooth and bluesy,” he said. “So, that’s how it ended up becoming more gangsta than just melodic.”

“Call It What U Want,” Black Mafia Life’s sixth track, brings together Southern and Northern California over a Funkadelic-sampling (“Freak of the Week”) beat. Up in the Bay Area, Digital Underground members Money-B and Tupac Shakur flew down to Los Angeles for a day-long recording session with Above the Law. When precisely this was is unclear; according to Hutch, Digital Underground’s “Same Song” had just come out, which means that the session would’ve taken place around January 1991. Money-B however, said he thinks he and 2Pac flew down to Los Angeles in 1991 or 1992.


Above The Law single cover

What is known is that 2Pac, still a relatively unknown artist at the time, was not immediately embraced in the studio. Ruthless Records wanted Digital Underground and that meant its wunderkind producer Shock G, not Pac. But Shock was stuck in New York City with another project. Money-B had already gotten to know Above the Law and other Ruthless figures over the past few years through Digital Underground’s manager Atron Gregory, the head of TNT Recordings who got his start working for Ruthless under Jerry Heller.


Jerry Heller, former manager of N.W.A.

“They didn’t really know Pac like that. Atron had told me that Shock probably wasn’t going to make it. But he didn’t want me to tell them. They were holding out as long as they could,” Money-B said.

But Shock never walked through the door, and it was clear they needed a fourth voice for “Call It What U Want,” leading to Pac’s appearance on the track.

“It’s set up for four verses. So it was like, ‘Shit, let’s give the rookie a shot,’” Hutch said.

Corporate Powers — And Not Dr. Dre — Complicate a Signature Sound’s Origin

Pac wrote his verse for “Call It What U Want” on the spot that day. He stepped to the microphone with a simple yet game-changing question: “what do y’all call this sound?” When Hutch replied, he remembers Pac saying: “That’s hard. I’mma put that in a rhyme.”

According to Hutch, the words “g funk” and “gangsta funk” had been thrown around the studio during their Black Mafia Life sessions. But they never seriously thought about what their signature new sound would be called.

“It was just a phrase we were popping around with our homies. It was just a vibe. But it turned into this big thing,” Hutch said. “Pac is the one who made it official on the record.”

“Call It What U Want” is also the story of two funky groups — Above the Law and Digital Underground — coming together to create a bridge record. This is meaningful not just for g funk but hip-hop overall, with the track joining a lineage of other notable cipher records like A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario” or Big Daddy Kane’s “Show & Prove.”

“Back then, cipher records had no hook. That’s the whole concept of it. Whatever you’re speaking on, you can call it what you want. That’s the vibe,” Hutch said. “Cipher records always come to a scenario. We’re just gonna let the people cipher out what we’re talking about.”

For those wondering how “Call It What U Want” could predate tracks like “Nuthin But a ‘G’ Thang” on 1992’s The Chronic, remember what Hutch said about Sony requiring Dre to receive a producer credit. When Dre left Ruthless in 1991 to form Death Row Records, the shake up also created a logjam for the release of Above the Law’s Black Mafia Life.

“Black Mafia Life was originally supposed to come out on Sony, but when Dre left it killed the deal,” Hutch said, adding that by the time Black Mafia Life found a new home at Giant Records (Warner), many months had passed.

“I know we recorded it, then forgot about it, and then it came out,” Money-B added.

But it’s hard not to hear similar elements between Black Mafia Life and The Chronic, with songs like “Pimp Clinic” and “And Never Missin’ a Beat” bringing to mind “Let Me Ride” and “Dre Day,” respectively. At times, the battle for g funk supremacy even resulted in diss tracks. This was the case with 1994’s “Don’t Bite The Phunk,” a heavy Dre and Snoop diss track by Pomona-hookman Kokane that featured this notable funk callout from Hutch (then known as Cold 187um): “I'm talkin to you Dre, don't bite my shit. Don't bite the funk that feeds you. Cause I sure the hell don't need ya.”

Then there’s the case of Tha Dogg Pound’s 1995 track “Respect,” with a short intro by Dre which echoes Above the Law’s “Call It What U Want”: “Beatin' up on your ear drums with some of that g funk. Some of that gangsta funk. Some of that ghetto funk. Call it what you want, just don't forget the G.”


Dogg Pound vinyl single 'Respect'

These days, however, Hutch claims he holds no ill-will toward Dr. Dre, who he calls a brother. If anything, he seems to level his critiques at corporate powers that be.

“If they couldn’t market a marquee name back then, no one else was going to be heard. Look at how Death Row was done, Pac got really upset about that,” Hutch said. “Well, Daz is doing stuff. Kurt Cobain was doing stuff. Why everything got Dre name on it? That’s no kick on Dre.”

Money-B added that in those early Ruthless days, Warren G and Snoop Dogg used to roll with Hutch too, before Dre took them all the way in. This is corroborated by a 2013 interview where Warren G shouts out the Pomona pioneers Above the Law: “They were the ones who put me on, made me part of g funk.”

“I think Hutch is absolutely the first and Above the Law is the first group to use it [g funk]. But it’s always going to be whoever popularizes it. That’s just the way it is. I’m not mad at anyone. But the truth is the truth,” Money-B said.

Looking Back and Looking Forward on G Funk

The music video for “Call It What U Want” is as star-studded as any, with Eazy-E, MC Ren, 2Pac, Money-B, Kokane, KMG, Stretch, Treach, and even Mopreme all making an appearance. Although many of these figures are no longer with us, that doesn’t stop Hutch from warmly reminiscing on how so many legends ended up in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse to shoot the video.

“What was dope about that era is that we all needed each other to make hip-hop be a big industry. So whenever we did something, there was going to be people coming out to support,” he said. “The beef that people started having, the media turned into some other shit. But it was great to have that camaraderie back then.”

Still active in the industry today, Big Hutch and Money-B went on to release several more albums through their respective collectives and as solo acts. Hutch even once served as head of production at Death Row Records. The two are excited about the next generation of West Coast rappers, with Hutch noting how artists like YG, Kendrick Lamar, and Glasses Malone incorporate elements of g funk into their music without being stuck in the halcyon period where synths and deep, funky basslines ruled.

“It’s their sound. It’s part of their bloodline, their musical DNA, and they shouldn’t run from it,” Hutch said.


Compton rappers, DJ Quik and Eazy E

DJ Quik, who emerged in the early 90s, has long been injecting serious funk into his hip-hop, and was undoubtedly influential on Dre’s sound. But it was the Ruthless gangsta rap group Above the Law that would directly claim credit for the G-funk sound, offering as evidence their early 1993 sophomore album Black Mafia Life.

That work wasn’t a massive hit like The Chronic, but the albums bear some clear similarities: Nuthin’ But a G Thang echoes Above the Law’s Never Missin’ a Beat, for example, while their Pimp Clinic and Dre’s Let Me Ride both borrow from Parliament-Funkadelic’s take on the spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Swing down, sweet chariot, stop, and, let me ride.

Black Mafia Life was released in early 1993, about two months after The Chronic, but, according to many accounts, was finished beforehand. “G-funk was our style of music,” said Above the Law collaborator Kokane, adding that group producers Cold 187um and KMG the Illustrator forged the sound.

During Dre’s final months at Ruthless, he worked on NWA’s Efil4zaggin while Cold 187um was simultaneously working on Black Mafia Life, and the pair often sounded each other out. It was during this period that he fashioned the G-funk sound, said Cold 187um. “The only thing I can say is that G-funk was my theory,” he said. Dre “utilized it and made lots of money and commercialized it, and I never got credit for it. All I wanted was my credit. I don’t think he was being malicious. I think he heard a hot sound and then he used it.”

Many agree with this version of events, including Eazy-E. “Dre stole that style,” he told writer Phyllis Pollack. “Dre stole stuff from Above the Law, Black Mafia Life’s Never Missing a Beat.” NWA promoter Doug Young agreed that Above the Law had the sound first. But Dre, he added, deserves credit for turning G-funk into the powerhouse it became. “When you listen to that stuff to this day, it still holds up because of the sonics of the production,” he said.

The dispute caused tension between Ruthless and Death Row to nearly boil over. In February 1993, at an industry event called the Urban Network Power Jam held at the Marriott Hotel near LAX, Cold 187um angrily approached Warren G, Dr Dre’s stepbrother. Warren G would later become famous for his song with Nate Dogg, Regulate, and had worked closely on The Chronic. Warren had also previously stayed, for a time, at Cold 187um’s crash pad in Colton, California, along with members of Above the Law. Warren and Cold187um had previously been friendly, but now there was tension in the air. According to Cold187um, a dispute erupted:

“That’s fucked up how motherfuckers just integrated our style into they shit and created The Chronic,” Cold 187um said. “I ain’t got nothing to do with that, that’s between you and Dre,” Warren responded.

“Wait a minute man, I let you stay at my house, I let you be a part of my family, and you treat me like this?” said Cold 187um. “If you ain’t got nothing to do with that, you ain’t got nothing to do with me no more.”

Warren was accompanied by fellow Death Row affiliates Snoop Dogg, Lil’ ½ Dead, and others. Cold 187um was backed by artists including Eazy-E and an artist Eazy was recruiting at the time – Tupac Shakur, about two years before he signed with Death Row.

The camps got to barking at each other, and before long everyone reached for their guns. “There were 15 of them, and about 25 to 30 of us,” remembered Charis Henry, Eazy-E’s assistant. “It was a standoff. It was the most nerve-racking thing imaginable.” No one pulled the trigger. A bodyguard named Hollywood – who had worked with both camps – interceded. “I need you, Death Row, to turn around, drop your guns, and walk out the door,” he said, in Henry’s recollection. “[Eazy], I need you to wait for 15 minutes, and then take yourself home.” Both sides complied, and the situation resolved peacefully.


Warren G, G-Funk child

The G-funk drama was far from over, however.

‘You rollin’ with Ruthless’


Ruthless Producer Rhythm-D

Producer Rhythm D smelled the stench of defeat when he walked into Eazy‑E’s Norwalk home around this time. Morale was low. Bodyguards were lying around on couches, while Ruthless affiliates watched LaserDiscs from Eazy’s library or were out driving his luxury cars. The house boasted a top-of-the-line studio, armed with equipment like a brand new E-mu SP-1200 drum machine and sampler. But nobody was using it.

Rhythm D had come over to play Eazy his beats. It was something of an audition for the tall, light-skinned South Central producer, whose career was on the rise thanks to his hit track for Los Angeles rapper Paperboy, Ditty. During his brief dalliance with Death Row, Rhythm D also made a song for the Deep Cover soundtrack called Down with My Nigga, featuring rapper Paradise. But he was broke and anxious for his next payday. To Eazy’s house he brought with him a green tackle box. Rather than fishing lures, it held a floppy disk of his beats.

While Rhythm cued up his songs, Eazy ducked into the shower. He seemed to have only half his mind on the proceedings. Undaunted, Rhythm plugged in his speakers and played a beat. It featured him and producer Battlecat going back and forth, trying to outdo each other with samples. The track had a wild energy about it, which Eazy felt immediately. He jumped out of the shower, hair all crazy, throwing on a towel and running into the room.

“You rollin’ with Ruthless,” he exclaimed, signing Rhythm to a deal on the spot. Rhythm immediately moved into the house and got to work. Now that Dre was gone, his job description was Ruthless’s newest in-house producer.

Rhythm quickly realized he would have to do more than just make songs – he was going to have to shake Eazy out of his creative coma. He wasn’t himself lately. The conflicts with Dre and Death Row leader Suge Knight had taken a toll.

Eazy’s first instinct was to craft a diss record scathing enough to send Dre scurrying under a rock. But his timing was bad. In this pre-YouTube era, rap beef moved at the speed of molasses. Eazy’s last EP, 5150: Home 4 tha Sick, came out just a few days before The Chronic dropped, and didn’t address Dre by name. It sold only a bit more than 500,000 copies, a flop considering Eazy’s previous platinum sales history.


Ruthless Records advert

Rhythm D had sat in on The Chronic recording sessions and had a strong feeling that G-funk was about to take over. After much arguing, he convinced Eazy that their Fuck wit Dre Day response should include the haunting new gangsta sound. But what about the song’s message? How could they hit Dre back where it hurt?

Rhythm lit up a fat one and got to thinking. Sure, Dre was practically untouchable right now, from a musical perspective. But there was a big difference between sounding like a gangsta and being a gangsta. To the guys in the streets, this was not incidental.

They needed to convince these guys that Dre was phony, an opportunist. After all, not long ago, while Eazy was out selling crack and getting into trouble, Dre was dancing on stage and wearing makeup and fitted suits in his first group, called World Class Wreckin’ Cru. Eazy was authentic. He was real. It was time to drive that point home.

Rhythm stayed up all night one night in 1993, fashioning the template for the song that would become Real Muthaphuckkin G’s, or, on the radio, Real Compton City G’s.


Dr Dre diss single 'Real Cpt Gz' casette tape cover

Mirroring the tempo of Dre Day, the track also features a high-pitched Moog squeal. But it sounds even more intimidating, owing largely to Eazy’s performance. The pace of Real Muthaphuckkin G’s suited him, and his own eerie instrument-a “demonic, gnome type of voice”, Rhythm D called it – fit the track’s tone. And so, in the studio, Eazy launched into a series of disses and rebuttals. (“All of the sudden Dr Dre is the G thang / But on his old album covers he was a she-thang”).


'It's On' commercial 1993

The song also took aim at Snoop Dogg (Tell me where the fuck you found an anorexic rapper) and featured Eazy-E’s newest, toughest recruits: Dresta, who had recently emerged from prison for assault, and who wrote the hook and Eazy’s verses, and Dresta’s younger brother BG Knocc Out. Both of them were Nutty Blocc Crips whom Eazy met through a connection from Watts’s Jordan Downs projects.


Ruthless Compton rappers Eazy E, BG and Dresta

The song’s accompanying EP It’s On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa contained a photo of Dre in his snug‑fitting doctor’s outfit from his World Class Wreckin’ Cru photo shoot, with arrows pointing out his eye shadow”, “eyeliner”, “lipstick”, and “sequins”. In an era before Google, the mere existence of this photo probably came as a surprise to many Dre fans.


World Class Dre

The disses were disingenuous at times. The stuff about Dre’s glam days overstated, and besides Eazy knew about all of that when he signed on with Dre for NWA, and it didn’t bother him back then.

The particulars aside, one thing was clear: Eazy was back on message, and had his swagger back. It’s On reinvigorated Eazy, selling more than 2m copies.


It's On poster

So, who won this G-funk showdown, Eazy or Dre? You could say they both did, as it reignited both of their careers. But one could argue that hip-hop ultimately lost, as their dispute had far-reaching consequences, foreshadowing the murders of Tupac and Biggie.

Previously, rap confrontations had been about who was superior on the microphone. The Eazy v Dre battle, however, was about who was the toughest in real life. As journalist Kevin Powell said in the 2003 documentary Beef: “That was the first time I began to think, man, this is going in a different direction now.”