Snoop Dogg Originally Wrote “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang” To A Different Beat

Snoop Dogg was introduced to the world in April 1992 with Dr. Dre’s “Deep Cover,” and the Long Beach rapper helped shape the future of hip-hop with an unforgettable verse on their next collaboration, “Nuthin' But a ‘G’ Thang.” As it turns out, however, Snoop actually wrote his rhymes on the groundbreaking hit to an entirely different beat.

During an appearance on Questlove’s podcast Questlove Supreme, the G-funk pioneer described his songwriting process for the song.

“[Dr. Dre’s beat] ain’t what I wrote ‘‘G’ Thang’ off of,” Snoop said before humming the bassline of the original beat. “That’s the beat [Dr. Dre] gave me. I took it [over to] my cousin’s house [in Long Beach], and I wrote the whole ’‘G’ Thang’ song to that. [I] came back to [SOLAR] Studios, and bust that shit off that for [Dr. Dre].”

Snoop Dogg opens “Nuthin' But a ‘G’ Thang” with some of the most iconic lines in hip-hop history:

One, two, three and to the four
Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre is at the door
Ready to make an entrance so back on up

Questlove identifies the bassline as being played by “Southside,” which is likely a reference to The South Side Movement, a Chicago soul and funk group who scored a Billboard R&B chart hit with “I’ve Been Watching You.”

The track is taken from South Side Movement’s 1973 self-titled debut album and has been sampled on songs like Erykah Badu’s “Woo,” Jadakiss‘ “Show Discipline,” and Brotha Lynch Hung’s “24 Deep,” the latter of which was released one year after “'G’ Thang.”

Dr. Dre released “Nuthin But a ‘G’ Thang” as the first single from his debut solo album, The Chronic. While it’s well known that the self-produced track includes samples like Leon Haywood’s “I Want'a Do Something Freaky To You” and Public Enemy’s “B Side Wins Again,” Questlove revealed on the episode that the song also includes vocals by his parents.

Questlove’s late parents, Lee Andrews and Jacquelin Thompson, were members of the Philadelphia-based soul group Congress Alley, whose 1973 song “Are You Looking” is sampled right between the “‘G’ Thang” hook and its refrain. The Roots drummer and Tonight Show in-house bandleader said he recognized the sample immediately when the song came on The Box, a now-defunct music video channel.

“When the shit would come on The Box in Philly and I heard that—Yo, me and Tariq lost it,” Questlove said. “Like, ‘Yo, that’s your mom and dad!‘ It was like we won the lottery ticket!”

Elsewhere in the interview, Snoop revealed that one of Dre’s other close collaborators, The D.O.C., suggested the “like this, that, and this” part of the hook.

Read all the lyrics to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin' But a ‘G’ Thang” on Genius now.