Warren G is as adept behind the boards as he is on the mic, a rare quality he shares with the likes of Kanye West, J. Cole, and of course, his half-brother, Dr. Dre. In fact, it was Dre who was responsible for Warren getting into the production game, revealing in an interview with SkeeTV that the legendary west coast beatmaker gave him his first lesson on the MPC.
“Dr. Dre, my oldest brother, he paved the way for me and Snoop to get a chance to get into the studio,” he said. “Back then I was just deejaying so I wasn’t really that active [or] have too much input in what was going on. So I asked him to show me how to work the MPC 60 and he showed me. I was maybe about 18, 17 [or] 18, right around there. So he showed me and after that I just started picking it up because I wanted to be more involved in what was going on instead of just a deejay.
The rapper recalled wanting to broaden his horizons at the time. "I wanted to produce," he said. "I already rapped with Snoop back in the day with the Voltron crew, I had that already. It was lovely man, that’s what introduced me into starting to create this good music.”
Warren also shared memories of his reaction to Dre's early success, revealing that he was nothing less than elated to see his half brother make it. “It was off the chain,” he exclaimed. “It was incredible. I was in junior high school and I would sneak his jacket and wear it to school. It had the World Class Wreckin’ Cru on it. I was just really, really happy for him and looked up to him as a kid—I still look up to him, he’s a cool cat.”
Watch the full interview below.
[via]