As I'm sure you've heard, the state of hip-hop is in a period of mourning, having had just lost one of its greatest voices of soul, the legendary Nate Dogg.
Nate Dogg, born Nathaniel Hale, was born and died in the city and on the coast that he repped for the length of his career, Long Beach. Nate Dogg suffered from a series of strokes within the past few years and his health deteriorated slowly with each one. Complications from the strokes and congestive heart failure sent one of hip-hops most beloved voices to Heaven's Ghetto on March 15.
Dr. Dre is widely credited with creating the sub genre of G-Funk. Well, if Dre is the king of it, Nate Dogg is the ambassador, emisarry, prince, voice and acolyte of G-Funk. His voice was so smooth and yet commanded your ears without any apparent effort. He was the king of the hook, pushing many average songs into the upper echelon of the Billboard charts. Everyone that was anyone knew that if you wanted a bomb song to blow up, you hit Nate Dogg for the hook.
Nate worked with many of hip-hops elite, from Dr. Dre to Eminem, Ludacris to his own group 213, with Warren G and Snoop Dogg. He was admired and loved by many and respected by all. His voice instantly made the song a hit, in my opinion. I loved it when Nate Dogg was on the track and clearly, so did the industry.
Nate Dogg has had critically acclaimed albums, including Music and Me, which reached third on the Billboard hip-hop charts. He is also credited with appearing on over 40 charting singles, including "Regulate" and "The Next Episode." Who can forget those classics, eh? I know that I never will. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that waited for those five seconds to pass at the end of "The Next Episode" so that I too could scream out "Smoke weed everyday!"
His voice, his ethic, his skill and talent will be missed and will never be duplicated, no matter how hard people try, and try they will. Nate, I hope that you will look over our world of hip hop and I hope to see you on the next episode...
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