“One, two, three and to the four…” It’s a line that any seasoned hip-hop head should be able to finish without blinking. As the beginning of Snoop Dogg’s first verse on Dr. Dre’s 1992 single “Nuthin’ But a G Thang,” it set the laid-back tone for the West Coast G-Funk anthem and firmly established Death Row Records as an indelible force. The platinum-certified track, which lives on Dre’s inaugural solo album, The Chronic, simultaneously sent Snoop Dogg into orbit, ultimately propelling him to superstar status.

Behind the scenes, The D.O.C., who co-wrote several of N.W.A’s hits and had released his debut solo album, No One Can Do It Better, in 1989, was adjusting to his new reality. Mere months before his album dropped, The D.O.C. was in a horrific car accident on a Los Angeles freeway that cost him his voice. Emergency responders crushed his larynx while delivering life-saving aid and instantly altered his trajectory. Now unable to continue his solo career, he poured his energy into working with Dr. Dre and Snoop, or “Snoopy,” as he calls him.

The D.O.C. is credited on six out of 16 tracks from The Chronic as Tracy Curry, including “Nuthin’ But a G Thang.” He also appears in the video, which has been viewed more than 37 million times on YouTube. Though he says he didn’t necessarily benefit financially from the song, he understands the bigger picture.

“I’ve always been a ‘everything that happened in my journey happened for a purpose’ guy,” he says. “If any of those guys did anything differently, then I would not be where I am right now, so they all had to play their role. I had to go through that pain in order to find myself.”

Speaking to SPIN, The D.O.C. reflects on the making of the song, where he was in his life at the time, and how that particular song affected his career.

Death Row

If I’m being honest, my life was a bit of a mess at the time. From the outside, I guess everything looked great. We had a great record and it was about to come out, and it was great music. But when we had first started that album, I owned part of the label. And by the time the record came out, I didn’t own any of it. So for me, it was tough as an artist. It was fantastic because the work was phenomenal and we knew what it was going to do before the world got a hold of it.

Regulators, Mount Up!

We met Snoop Dogg through Warren G. We first officially heard Snoop at a bachelor party. Somebody put in a tape of a song that Warren and Snoop had been working on or had done. They were called 2-1-3 at that time. Snoop, Nate Dogg, and Warren G had built a song together. I think it was called “Long Beach is a Motherfucker”—I’m not sure—but everybody in the party loved the song. Everybody was vibing with Snoop, and I think Dre could see something special in it. So he asked Warren to bring Snoop to the lab that following week and he did—the rest is history.

One, Two..

“Deep Cover” came out before the album, well, the whole Above the Rim soundtrack did, and then The Chronic came shortly after that. Snoop got locked up at the beginning. I think the charge had to do with selling dope. But yeah, it’s one of the beats that Dre played for Snoop while he was locked up and he was rapping through the phone.

“G Thang” actually happened twice. The first time it didn’t have the numbers. It was a totally different song and it had to be rewritten. He got out of jail and they wanted to make sure that he didn’t go back to jail, so he moved into my house in Calabasas and we wrote another version at that house. He went upstairs and I stayed downstairs, and we just wrote raps to the beat. He came down and he had this long rap and we just picked and chose the best pieces of that whole thing to construct the song. I was coaching Snoop on the fundamentals of great songwriting.

Funky Enough

When I was telling him about what I thought were keys, it was that you had to have a great beginning, a great middle, and a great ending to every great song. I used “Funky Enough” [from No One Can Do It Better] as a reference for him to understand what I meant. That’s when I said, “One, two, three and to the four.” The first time you hear that, and then the very next time you hear it, you already know it because the numbers are easy. When he came downstairs, he had his version of that same sort of play. And so “G Thang” was a spin of the intro of “Funky Enough.”

Like This and Like That

We wrote this song overnight. Snoopy wrote all this stuff and we picked out the lines. We went through the whole joint, putting bits and pieces together like a Lego puzzle. Then the last line, I told him to put my name in, and so that’s why you got that, “The D.O.C.” line. Great way to end it. Boom—and then there was no hook. I just started chanting the, “like this and like that and like this,” and “who gives a fuck about those , so just chill til the next episode,” and they kept it.

Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, and Warren G of 213 at the Millennium Hotel in New York City in 2004. (Credit: Theo Wargo/WireImage)

Third Eye Vision

I knew it would be big. I have a great sense of these kinds of things for some reason. I knew it with “Straight Outta Compton.” We knew with No One Could Do It Better. With “Niggaz 4 Life,” I knew it was a really good record, but it had lost something. Ice Cube had left, so that energy was gone. It didn’t have the same fire for me, but I knew it was a good record. It was going to do good. But I knew The Chronic was one of those because it had every element that you could ask for, and it gave you no time to rest. There were so many talented voices all on that project. Everybody was high, high quality. Everybody was top of the class. Everybody was great. Plus, Dre had really came into his G-Funk era by that time. Between Kurupt, Nate Dogg, RBX, Snoop—it was so many different versions of great. There’s no way it couldn’t be one of those.

LBC

“Nuthin’ But a G Thang,” 90% of that work is Snoop’s work. I’m just the guy that helped him construct it, so those ideas and thoughts all come from his head. I’m just a guy to help and put it together in a way that made it a great song and not just a bunch of raps stuck together. That song is basically who Snoop was at that moment in time. He was just a young guy that was extremely talented, but he was every bit just that young street guy from Long Beach.

Think Again

I just wanted it to be a great song. I wanted Snoop to be recognized as being a phenomenal artist. It’s so funny that in rap, this genre of music, we put so much on these words, like they have to be the truth about a person or otherwise, it’s not good. Taylor Swift doesn’t love every fucking guy she writes about, you know what I mean? She’s just writing us a love song. When you put out a rap song, if they don’t think it’s 100% true, then they feel a certain way about it. But, you know, I just want it to be a great song. I’m not really worried about if it’s authentic to who you are as a person. If it is, then that’s cool, but I don’t want you self-incriminating on wax and shit. We hold it as some badge of honor when really that’s the wrong way to look at it. This music is a gift and it’s an opportunity to pull yourself out of the trash, not a tool to use to put yourself deeper into some bullshit.

California Love

Snoop had caused such an explosion with “Deep Cover,” so the label was pretty open to give us what we wanted. If I’m being honest, I think that video was pretty cheaply done and pretty straightforward. L.A. is L.A. life. It’s the sunshine. But yeah, it was a good day. I was happy to see my guys, even though it wasn’t the best moment for me, I was happy because my guys were in their moment. For me, it was an emotional win, it wasn’t a monetary win. But as an artist, it was a victory, because art was about to take over the canon. We knew.

Lyrical and Literal Gang-banging

It had already been established by that time that there was nothing anybody could do [for my voice], and I was stuck in this body. That was my drug and alcohol-fueled period. It really is kind of a blur. I was just there, and it was dangerous out there during that time. It was gang-banging everywhere and people getting beat up all the time. We were making great music, but goddamn it was terrible.

The D.O.C. performs at the Genesis Convention Center in Gary, Indiana, in July 1989. (Credit: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)

No Dwelling Allowed

I’m almost positive as a human being, I probably felt those kinds of things, but I couldn’t allow myself to be in that space for too long. It’s just depressing. I’d much rather live in the space where we’re winning. I don’t have to be the guy that shoots the ball, I get a ring anyway.

Best Part?

I love that I told Snoop and Dre to put my name at the end. Because that one line…everybody knows that line. It’s just like I told Snoop, the beginning has to be the shit and the ending line has to be the shit. And those two lines, the beginning and the end on that particular song, are the best parts of that song because you can’t hear it and not say it. I let the song title itself. Sometimes you’ll have it and then sometimes once you’ve listened to the song a few times, it’ll say something else. “I prefer you call me this,” it would say [laughs].

Looking Back

I think what this song did for me was it allowed me to live my dream, so to speak, through Snoopy. When he blew up, it felt like, “OK, I’m still here.” Because I put a lot into it. So even though monetarily I wasn’t getting what I deserve, the accolades from the people made me feel like it was all worth it because the people knew, and Snoopy never hides it. He always tells people that I put a lot into him, and so people knew that I gave a lot to that record. That part was very fulfilling.