In Memory of Nate Dogg

3 days ago, hip-hop singer Nate Dogg passed away due to a stroke. He was 41 years old.

Part 1: History of Nate Dogg
Part 2: my talent show experiences singing Nate Dogg's song
Part 3: links to songs featuring Nate Dogg



1) The History of Nate Dogg
While Nate Dogg was a singer and not a rapper, he was an important part of gangsta rap history. He was the background singer for many gangsta rap classics of the1990s and 2000s.


He started out making songs with Snoop Dogg, Warren G back when they were in high school in Long Beach. Warren G hooked them up with his step-brother Dr Dre, who was in the process of leaving the already legendary NWA for a new record label Death Row, which was just about to revolutionize the hip-hop industry.



Nate Dogg was introduced to the world on Dr Dre's "Chronic" and Snoop Dogg's "Doggystyle" both albums released in 1993. Those albums were among the most influential albums in hip-hop history. This was when radio and MTV started playing gangsta rap in regular rotation, whereas before, gangsta rap was only played late nights when the kids were sleeping. Before those albums came out, radio mostly played pop-rappers like Hammer and Salt-N-Pepa.



Those albums were also important in that they signified that the West Coast was taking over rap music. Previously, most of the popular rappers came from New York. But between 1993-1997, West Coast rappers ruled the hip-hop world. The most popular videos had guys wearing khaki clothing & colored bandannas, driving lowriders, and having picnics in the park with palm trees and brown mountains in the background.



Nate Dogg's 1st mainstream hit was with Warren G, "Regulate". While I do think both Nate Dogg and Warren G made better songs than that one, I still have to say, that song is a major classic!



Nate Dogg also appeared on other West Coast rap classics like Dogg Pound's "Let's Play House" and 2pac's "All About U".



From 1996-1997, Death Row Records fell apart. 2pac was killed, Dr Dre left to start Aftermath Records and Suge Knight went to jail. Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg also felt they were being ripped off by Death Row Records, so they left.



This was the beginning of the end of the West Coast's reign as the capital of hip-hop. The South started it's reign of the center of hip-hop, to the point where I wouldn't even be surprised that today's kids mistakenly believe rap started in Atlanta.



But that didn't stop Nate Dogg. He spent the following decade making classic hits with rappers from various parts of the USA. He made classic songs with E-40, Eminem, Fabolous, Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, Westside Connection, 50 Cent, Shyne.

My Talent Shows

I sang Nate Dogg's "Never Leave Me Alone" at 2 different school talent shows.

The 1st time was at McKinley High School during my senior year. I never did any talent shows before my senior year, but dammit, I was going to make my senior year an exciting year! That's how you're supposed to handle your senior year, regardless of what dramas might come!

My 1st talent show that year was the Senior Luau in Nov 1998. I did Usher's "Nice & Slow" acapella style! It got everyone giggling, all in a good way.

But the big show was what was then called Brown Bags to Stardom (which has changed its format since then) in March 1999. Whereas the Senior Luau was just attended by the seniors, Brown Bags was for the whole school. Would it make you nervous? I didn't let it stop me!

I decided to sing Nate Dogg's "Never Leave Me Alone". It was safe enough to satisfy the censors, but still had the street credibility which was important in my urban school. That song did feature Snoop Dogg rapping the 3rd verse. But the talent show organizers limited our performances to only 3 minutes, so I didn't have time to rap the Snoop Dogg verse.

My performance was a classic. I became famous to the whole school. The students who were in the younger grade levels all knew me from the performance. All the public housing students said they loved it. (if they didn't like it, they'll tell it to your face) Many of the athletes would sing "Never Leave Me Alone" the moment they seen me on campus. Even at the Project Grad (the post-graduation party hosted by the school), people encouraged me to sing karaoke and rap along with the songs played by the DJ. That wouldn't have happened earlier in my high school days. I credit Nate Dogg for that

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My 2nd talent performance involving Nate Dogg's "Never Leave Me Alone" was at UH. It was part of Manoa Moonlight Madness, which was a late night talent show in December 2002. It was 3 years since I did a talent show, but I was ready to go back to the stage.

My original plan for the talent show was to sing Nelly's "E.I.". However, as I tried to practice "E.I." I found that I couldn't sing fast enough to do well on that song. I decided to switch songs and do Nate Dogg's "Never Leave Me Alone".

While the college audience is obviously different from the high school audience, I did get a lot of cheers for my performance at UH! Even people I never seen on campus before would see me and say "Hey, I loved that song you was singing".

3) Links

Here are some links to some of my favorite Nate Dogg classics.

I tried to avoid the more "dirtier songs" on the following list, though I wouldn't recommend playing some of them at a church.

First off, my favorite, the one I sang ................

"Never Leave Me Alone" with Snoop Dogg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzveEPBVQtA

Explosive (clean version) with Hitman, featured on Dr Dre's "Chronic 2001"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRj3MrotSww

Nate Dogg's "One More Day"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lpfIDl6Q54&feature=related


2pac's "All About U" (nate's singing "everywhere we go ...")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2WGekQoHT4&feature=fvst

E-40 "Nah Nah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlQmrGYHLE&feature=related

Dogg Pound's "Let's Play House" (Nate just sang the title in this song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx9yypsIW_Q

"Ring the Alarm" (with Jermaine Dupri)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd4ME-LvpMg

Nobody Does it Better (with Warren G)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8UD-eLIfw

I'm sure there's more, but time is limited. You can easily find more on YouTube.

and of course "Regulate" (with Warren G)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1plPyJdXKIY

Tsunami warning

As most of you already know, there was a mega-earthquake in Japan last week. It measured 8.9 on the Richter Scale. The earthquake itself damaged many buildings. But it caused many tsunamis as well. The first tsunami hit the already earthquake damaged Japan without much warning.


Tsunami waves also went throughout the Pacific as well. Nearly every country that touches the Pacific Ocean were under a tsunami warning.


Here in Hawaii, some of the waves hit the coasts. While it was never as severe as the tsunamis that hit Hilo in 1946 and 1961, it did damage some small boat harbors. The coastal areas of the Big Island and Maui got most of the damage, though the waves never went that far inland.



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It was a Thursday night (3/10/2011) at around 8:45 pm that I got a call from a former co-worker. She called about reports of tsunamis on the Pacific Ocean that might head toward Hawaii. The sirens didn't come on yet. I turned on the radio, they were playing music as usual, so I turned it off! I'll just wait until 10pm local TV news to see if there's anything major.



Just when the 10pm news went on, the sirens made their noise.



That same co-worker called again, and she was in total panic.



She was originally from Chicago, lived in Hawaii a few years ago, moved back to Chicago and recently moved back to Hawaii, now living in the building next to mines.



She was like "what should I do". I told her "just go up the hills". She didn't want to go alone! She was super-freaking out! I just told her "don't wait for me, just go!" She was still expressing fears, so I just told her "I'm going to hang up".



Now, some of you might think I was being "cold-hearted" or whatevers. But this is not the time for me to be on the phone. It was time for me to pack a few of my belongings, duct tape whatever I'm leaving behind, and double-check on everything. To continue being on the phone will only delay things. In fact, to continue to be on the phone would put my life at risk, so I hung up!



I didn't call my friends or relatives after the first siren! Why should I? If I did, I would only be wasting their time! I would've been just interrupting their disaster preparedness actions. If they're able-body adults, they should know what to do without me calling them! Plus, if they got kids, disabled or elderly people living with them, they shouldn't be interrupted by me calling them after a siren!



Anyways, I pack up my backpack and left my building to walk up the hill to UH-Manoa. That lady who called was right outside the building she lived in. Again, more panic from her. She kept worrying, asking questions like "do you know where you going?", and I reminded her that I lived in the area for about 8 years, plus I was a student at UH for 5.5 years, so I course I know where I'm going.



She was also worried about walking alone late at night! I know the cliches, "there is danger for women walking alone at night". But reality is men are likely to be victims of murder, robbery, assaults and other violent crimes. The news media distorts the issue everytime they report a woman getting kidnapped or raped outside at night! While I would never want a woman to go through that, that doesn't erase the fact that the overwhelming majority of crimes are male-on-male violence!



I'm also thinking if this was a 3rd world country, people are so used to the risk of violence, that if there's a tsunami warning, even most women would just go up the hills even if there were risk of getting attacked along the way. You don't have time to over-analyze your fears in an emergency!



Anyways, we went up to UH-Manoa. Again, that lady freaked out about sitting on dirty benches there. She admits she's not an outdoors person. And again, I'm thinking that lady needs to chill! We're escaping a tsunami and she's worried about some mildly dirty stuff on the bench?



We later went to Sinclair Library (which is usually open 24 hours during weekdays), checked the internet, sat on the 2nd floor lanai, and watched news reports from someone else's laptop. Sirens kept going on every so often!



My brother called hours AFTER the 1st siren. This was fine, since at that point, we were out of harm's way.



At around 3:30, while watching the news report from another person's laptop, we saw the waves hitting Diamond Head. We could see the reef being exposed, which was a sign that the waves are about to come back with greater force. But that was about it. The news reports were mostly focused on Oahu & Kauai, and didn't show anything from Big Island or Maui which got more damage.



Anyways, the library shut down, and we all went to Campus Center. They had a big-screen TV with more news reports showing. The Campus Center staff was even nice enough to offer cookies and coffee.



At around 7:30 am, the tsunami warning was downgraded to an advisory. It was obvious to everyone that the storm was over, but they called it an advisory just in case.



I just went home and sleep after that!

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Back to that women I was with that, when I described her panic state of mind, I do NOT intend to humiliate her in any way or form.

However, I bring that issue up because I want to use that as an educational example of what not to do!

When there's a tsunami warning, you shouldn't be calling your friends in a panic mode. You're only interrupting their disaster preparedness action.

When there's a tsunami warning, look for a hill, and GO THERE! Don't wait for your friends! Don't call people in a panic mode! JUST GO!

Even if you don't know the area that well, just look for higher ground and JUST GO THERE!

If you got kids, or some disabled or elderly people under your care, DO NOT show a "panic mentality". You are supposed to be an example of calm leadership!

While you don't want to be those morons who head for the oceans in a tsunami warning, you don't want to be an overly emotional person who gets paralyzed by fear.

Your goal has to become someone with Confident Awareness. Aware of the dangers, but confident enough to take action without getting overly emotional.

That is NOT easy for some people! It is easier said than done!

I admit I was at times over-emotional as a kid. But I'm not a kid anymore!

Being person with Confident Awareness is someone all adults shall strive to be! That's not the easiest thing to do! But those who have Confident Awareness usually get things done properly in an emergency, and are usually someone who can earn the respect of others!

That woman is a very nice person. I just hope she develops some Confident Awareness soon!