Nate Dogg

He was known as the soul man of G-funk, and before his first album had ever been released, Nate Dogg made appearances on several huge hits: “Regulate” with Warren G, 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me, and the soundtrack to Murder Was the Case. The cousin of Snoop Dogg, Nate grew up in Long Beach, and began working with Warren early in the ’90s. By 1994, the duo hit number two on the pop charts with “Regulate,” from the soundtrack to Above the Rim. The two later severed their relationship, with Warren going on to multi-platinum success. Nate scored again in 1996 with “Never Leave Me Alone,” featuring Snoop, and released his debut album, G-Funk Classics, Vols. 1 & 2, early the following year on Interscope. Nate subsequently garnered praise for his guest work on hits such as Ludacris’ “Area Codes” and Fabolous’ “I Can’t Deny It,” and in 2001 he finally issued an album that many deemed worthy of his talent, Music & Me, released by Elektra. However, later in the new millennium Nate Dogg suffered from a pair of strokes — one in December 2007 and another in September 2008 — the first of which left him partially paralyzed. On March 15, 2011 he died of congestive heart failure in Long Beach; Nate Dogg was 41 years old. ~ John Bush