Preeminent hook man Nate Dogg, who anchored some of rap’s most seminal songs and helped define the sound of West Coast hip-hop, died Tuesday at age 41.
His attorney, Mark Geragos, said Nate Dogg, whose real name was Nathaniel D. Hale, died of complications from multiple strokes that occurred in recent years.
Perhaps Nate Dogg’s greatest legacy was the path he paved for other singers in hip-hop. He helped to blur a previously defined line between hip-hop and R&B.
Nate Dogg wasn’t a rapper, but he was an integral figure in the genre. His deep voice wasn’t particularly melodic, but its tone provided just the right touch on hits including Warren G’s “Regulate,” 50 Cent’s “21 Questions,” Dr. Dre’s “The Next Episode” and countless others.
“There was a time in music when hip-hop and R&B were two separate entities,” former Little Brother emcee Phonte Coleman explained, “even to the point where rappers who collaborated with singers or had singing on their tracks were viewed as sellouts to some degree.”
“Nate helped bridge the gap between hip-hop and R&B because he got respect from both sides of the fence.”
After word of his death spread, tributes poured in on Twitter.
“We lost a true legend in hip-hop and R&B,” Snoop Dogg Tweeted Tuesday night. “One of my best friends and a brother to me since 1986 when I was a sophomore at Poly High where we met.”
“Nate Dogg is one of the pioneers who helped establish that ‘Snoop & Dre’ sound,” Inflowential and Kooley High emcee Charlie Smarts said. “He could always be counted on for the grooviest hooks.”
Nate Dogg’s influence was also felt throughout the Triangle’s hip-hop and R&B scenes as news of the artist’s death rippled through the tightly knit community Wednesday morning.
“I was just listening to Nate Dogg the other day,” King Mez said. “He’ll live on through his timeless music, and the love and the ideas he left behind.”
King Mez added, “He carved out his own lane. No one else had a sound like him. He made a liaison between hip-hop and R&B that sounded so polished.”
“He had real chops as a singer, but rappers liked him because you could have him on a track and it wasn’t considered ‘soft’ at all,” Phonte pointed out. “A song like ‘Regulate’ was so smooth that you almost forgot that he was singing about a botched robbery attempt.”
Charlie Smarts said Nate Dogg’s influence was at times felt in his own music with Kooley and Inflow.
“I may have channeled him the best I could on ‘There You Go,’” Charlie Smarts said. “He’s like the hip-hop Luther Vandross.”
“There You Go” by Kooley High
He added, “I try to hold a tune sometimes, and he does the type of melodies that make you want to sing along. A true original — [he] let me know that I could do my own thing and still be successful. Very few people in hip-hop could sing and still be considered a cool gansta-type fella.”
Phonte recalled Nate Dogg’s influence during the recording of LB’s debut album, The Listening, an album that put the Durham-based hip-hop trio one the map.
“When we recorded the first Little Brother album, The Listening, I did all the hooks and male vocals on the record,” Phonte recalled. “The running joke was that I was LB’s in-house Nate Dogg. So I ran with the joke and credited myself as ‘Tay Dogg’ for the hook I did on ‘Groupie Pt. 2.’”
“Groupie Pt. 2″ by Little Brother
Phonte continued, “That was my way of poking fun at myself, while at the same time paying tribute to Nate and his run of classic records.”
Since his run as an emcee for Little Brother ended, Phonte has found celebrity as a vocalist for The Foreign Exchange, who was nominated for a Grammy Award for their song “Daykeeper” in the category Best Urban/Alternative Performance. With +FE, Phonte’s role has been much more of a singer rather than a rapper.
“Daykeeper” by The Foreign Exchange
“Shortly after the release of The Listening, I started getting calls to do hooks on people’s records and I couldn’t believe they actually wanted me to sing,” Phonte said. “Singing was nothing that I took seriously. But after The Listening — and to a bigger extent The Foreign Exchange’s Connected — I started thinking, ‘Well, maybe I could be a hook man.’”
The path Nate Dogg paved for vocalists is what helped propel Phonte to that next level as a musician.
“Nate Dogg was definitely one of the singers who created that lane and gave me the confidence and inspiration to sing and write songs for myself,” Phonte explained. “He wasn’t a virtuoso by any means, and there were dozens of singers who were more skilled than him on a technical level, but he had an incredible ear for melody.”
He added, “He used his voice in a way that was uniquely his. Nobody could do it the way Nate did it.”
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