21/3

Over a decade after three of the West Coast's top rap artists -- <a href="spotify:artist:7hJcb9fa4alzcOq3EaNPoG">Snoop Dogg</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2B4ZHz4QDWJTXPFPgO5peE">Warren G</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:1Oa0bMld0A3u5OTYfMzp5h">Nate Dogg</a> -- broke up their 213 trio and pursued respectively successful solo careers, they reunited for a long-rumored, much-anticipated supergroup album, The Hard Way. The oft-told 213 story is somewhat of a West Coast rap legend. It begins at the dawn of the '90s, a couple years before <a href="spotify:artist:6DPYiyq5kWVQS4RGwxzPC7">Dr. Dre</a> unleashed The Chronic. At that time, <a href="spotify:artist:7hJcb9fa4alzcOq3EaNPoG">Snoop</a> (born <a href="spotify:artist:5lvjWbBddFdSmYVIWrSYmr">Calvin Broadus</a>), <a href="spotify:artist:2B4ZHz4QDWJTXPFPgO5peE">Warren</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:2B4ZHz4QDWJTXPFPgO5peE">Warren Griffin III</a>), and <a href="spotify:artist:1Oa0bMld0A3u5OTYfMzp5h">Nate</a> (Nathaniel Hale) were young and unknown yet talented and aspiring artists from Long Beach, an outlying neighborhood of Los Angeles. <a href="spotify:artist:7hJcb9fa4alzcOq3EaNPoG">Snoop</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2B4ZHz4QDWJTXPFPgO5peE">Warren</a> rapped while <a href="spotify:artist:1Oa0bMld0A3u5OTYfMzp5h">Nate</a> sang the melodies and hooks, and inspired by <a href="spotify:artist:4hSGrfIm5xRloHXESKxrFd">Richie Rich</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:49BgzPvb2yIhr8VQhWQxA6">415</a> group from the Cali Bay Area, the trio named itself after its own area code, 213. In particular, <a href="spotify:artist:2B4ZHz4QDWJTXPFPgO5peE">Warren</a> was the most enterprising member of the group and kept trying to turn his half-brother, the one and only <a href="spotify:artist:6DPYiyq5kWVQS4RGwxzPC7">Dr. Dre</a>, on to 213. It was a priceless connection, and liking what he heard, <a href="spotify:artist:6DPYiyq5kWVQS4RGwxzPC7">Dre</a> invited the three to join his then-burgeoning Death Row Records camp. <a href="spotify:artist:7hJcb9fa4alzcOq3EaNPoG">Snoop</a> got most of the attention, initially starring alongside <a href="spotify:artist:6DPYiyq5kWVQS4RGwxzPC7">Dre</a> on "Deep Cover," a big 1992 hit that set the stage for <a href="spotify:artist:6DPYiyq5kWVQS4RGwxzPC7">the Doctor</a>'s Chronic album later that year. Of course, that album became a gargantuan success, in commercial as well as artistic terms. <a href="spotify:artist:7hJcb9fa4alzcOq3EaNPoG">Snoop</a> became an overnight superstar, and both <a href="spotify:artist:2B4ZHz4QDWJTXPFPgO5peE">Warren</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1Oa0bMld0A3u5OTYfMzp5h">Nate</a> soon shot to stardom themselves on their hit duet "Regulate." Ten years later <a href="spotify:artist:7hJcb9fa4alzcOq3EaNPoG">Snoop</a> remained atop the rap game, one of the few perennial superstars -- not only a recording artist but also a popular touring artist, Hollywood actor, boutique label owner, and media personality. However, the success <a href="spotify:artist:2B4ZHz4QDWJTXPFPgO5peE">Warren</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1Oa0bMld0A3u5OTYfMzp5h">Nate</a> enjoyed with "Regulate" had simmered over the years. Both maintained lukewarm solo careers but couldn't get a good break. Then came a one-off collaboration between these three former group mates: "So Fly," a mixtape freestyle send-up of <a href="spotify:artist:6nzxy2wXs6tLgzEtqOkEi2">Monica</a>'s hit single "So Gone." The song became a surprise radio and underground hit in summer 2003 and quickly led to an album deal with TVT Records. The reunited 213 then hit the studio, and roughly a year later, in August 2004, The Hard Way was released to much fanfare, preceded by the release of lead single "Groupie Luv." ~ Jason Birchmeier