The Formative Years – Nate Dogg
When one Nathaniel Dwayne Hale shuffled off this mortal coil about eleven years ago, the realm of hip hop not only lost an iconic legend but an immensely charismatic trailblazer that helped to create the foundation for how successful the idiosyncratic G-Funk and West Coast sounds were to become.
Classifying Nate Dogg’s soulful, gospel-inspired singing style, which was conveniently located between tenor and baritone, as smooth would be an understatement par excellence as he rightly earned himself the title “king of hooks”, infusing songs with an unrivalled verve and his deep melodic vocals ever since he first teamed up with Snoop Dogg and Warren G in the early 1990s.
What followed was a career that through his gangsta singing guest work elevated the oeuvre of artists like Dr. Dre, 2Pac, Eminem, Mobb Deep, a myriad of Death Row Record artists, 50 Cent, Mos Def, et cetera, to new heights, resulting in a sheer endless array of billboard chart hitting anthems, aside from his own three studio albums
Nate Dogg remains an innovative originator that created a unique and diverse flow, especially in combination with Dr. Dre’s intricately layered yet seemingly simple beat compositions, in whose wake a myriad of imitators have only been able to create a diluted, washed down soulless carbon copy of his art.
