Nate Dogg

“If I'm not around, not only do I fail my sons, I fail myself. Becoming a father changed my outlook and gave me a whole other reason to be around.”

“I really didn't even pick producers. I just picked beats, except for Dre - he's the only producer I knew I wanted to work with.”

“A lot of people just send me beats, and I pick the ones I like. See, once I said I was doing my album - because I know everybody and they mama - everybody just got in touch with me.”

“Boys need fathers, and you can't do that in jail.”

“A lot of black men get in desperate situations because they don't see any other avenues to make it. You make a couple of mistakes today, that's all she wrote. You're not going to get a good job; nobody's gonna hire a felon. You can't even vote. They just want to silence you.”

“There are certain rules: If you know somebody did something, you don't just say, 'Ay, po-leece, I know who did it!' it's more like, 'Okay, I'll take care of it.'”

“I love old R&B records.”

“My family don't listen to R&B - never have, never will. They only listen to gospel. That's where I get my voice from. I got a gospel voice.”

“The first song I wrote was called 'Baby Darling Darling Girl,' and you know what's funny? It went, 'Baby darling darling girl, I really love your Jheri Curl.' I thought it was tight as hell.”

“I literally grew up in the church.”

“Long Beach is fast. Every day, you hear something bad; somebody gets hurt.”

“Wherever I go with my life, even the good times and the bad parts, only two people are with me: God and my music.”

“People don't know how deep, loving, and caring 'Pac was. He was more than a rapper or an actor: he was a real friend.”

“I met Snoop through church when we was, like, 13 or 14. You know, they had them little church picnics and basketball games, and that's where I got to know him.”

“I see myself as the ambassador of hip-hop. I do songs with people from everywhere. We ain't got nothing but love.”

“I'm trying to make a big statement - that I'm not just a hook singer.”

“The South Side loves me - I've got a song with Jermaine Dupri - and I've got songs on the East Coast and songs on the West Coast. Now, if I could just find me a rapper from up North.”

“That's all I know how to do, just make music.”

“Death Row is a bridge out of that ghetto world, giving voices to those people society thinks shouldn't be heard.”

“Thirty days after high-school graduation, I went straight into the Marines.”