Nate Dogg dies at age 41, and hip hop has lost the voice that made so many classic records sound like classics. The Long Beach singer, born Nathaniel Hale, passed away Tuesday, March 15, after several years of health problems. NPR reported that he suffered strokes in 2007 and 2008 that left him partially paralyzed and affected his speech, and that a cause of death had not been announced.
Snoop Dogg paid tribute on Twitter. “We lost a true legend n hip hop n rnb,” he wrote. Snoop described Nate as a best friend and a brother since 1986, when the two met at Poly High in Long Beach, and said he was sad but grateful to have grown up beside him and expects to see him again in heaven.
Nate Dogg, Snoop and Warren G formed the group 213 in 1991, named for the Long Beach area code, NPR noted. His voice reached a wide audience on Dr. Dre’s 1992 album The Chronic, then carried Warren G’s Regulate, which climbed to number two on the Billboard Hot 100, along with 50 Cent’s 21 Questions and Ludacris’s Area Codes. NPR said he earned four Grammy nominations, mostly for hooks and bridges, while his own solo albums, including G-Funk Classics Volumes 1 and 2 and Music and Me, went largely unnoticed.
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