The Compton rapper Warren G looks up to
Warren G is one of G-funk’s forefathers, but, even so, there’s another West Coast hip-hop star that he looks up to and admires. As talented as Warren G is, Compton’s own Dr Dre is the true powerhouse.
Warren and Dre are step-brothers, which could lead one to presume a certain competitiveness between them. Siblings, whether they’re blood-related or not, can often become rivals, especially if they work in the same field. But Warren seems to hold nothing but admiration for his own one.
Both Warren and Dre released new projects in 2015, with the former releasing an EP called Regulate… G Funk Era, Part II and the latter his third solo album Compton. Even as Warren was trying to promote his own project, he inevitably found himself fielding questions about his step-brother’s album and the Straight Outta Compton movie that was soon scheduled for release.
Far from being annoyed by such questions, he took them with grace. Characterising himself to Billboard as “a fan just like everybody else,” he claimed he “couldn’t wait” for the release of Dre’s Compton album, even after he’d already heard it.
“He played it for me,” he said. “It’s dope. It’s dope hearing the finished product of what he did and how he pieced it together.”
Dre is five years Warren’s senior, so there’s a certain big brother energy there. Warren effectively admitted as much in the interview, speaking about how much he admired Dre. “I look up to him,” he said.
He credited Dre with sparking his music career into life, not to mention the careers of Nate and Snoop Dogg, too. The trio had been “hungry and wanted to do music,” and Dre gave them “that opportunity and opened the door” for them.
Warren believes that the trio, in turn, helped boost Dre’s career. Featured on Dre’s legendary debut album The Chronic, the three helped create a classic and raised Dre’s stature in the hip-hop world immensely.
The success of The Chronic “opened up a whole other lane” for Dr Dre, argued Warren. It afforded him the opportunity to find artists like Eminem down the line, changing the shape of hip-hop forever. “That’s a good thing,” concluded his little step-brother.