Daz Dillinger is not a name many hip hop fans would know right off the top of their heads, or maybe not even a name you'd associate with music, depending what you know. See this was my opinion at first, not knowing who he was, all I saw him as was some random dude who hung out with Snoop Dogg. If you saw Snoop's movie "Reincarnated," which documents Snoop's rebirth and his trip to Jamaica to find himself, your first assumption might be that Daz is just a guy Snoop has been friends with all his life who just tags along with Snoop and smokes weed all day. But to those of us new to Daz, he is definitely much more than that.
Daz Dillinger, real name Delmar Drew Arnaud, is known mostly for his role in the hip hop group "Tha Dogg Pound," originally formed with fellow known west coast rapper Kurupt. Hanging out with Snoop so much of course wouldn't not open up doors for you, although he surely didn't need things handed to him. His real start in the industry began as a producer for legendary west coast rap label Death Row Records, where he produced multi platinum albums and singles for rap goliaths like Snoop and Tupac, along with contributions to Dr. Dre's highly acclaimed debut album "The Chronic."
I knew none of this, and of course didn't bother to do the research until now. The idea of Death Row Records and its rise to the pinnacle of hip hop always fascinated me, so I kept digging. When you think of Death Row you obviously think of Snoop, Dr. Dre, Tupac, Suge Knight and Kurupt. So where really does Daz fit into such a star studded line up of hip hop giants? Daz got his real chance to show and prove himself once Dr. Dre, head producer of Death Row at the time, left the label in early 1996 due to issues with label boss Suge Knight to form his own label Aftermath. The rest of that story is very well documented history. *Cough Cough* where's Detox?
So this lead to nothing but great things for Daz, not only producing such hit songs as Tupac's "Ambitionz Az A Ridah," "I Ain't Mad At Cha," and Snoop and Pac's "2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted," all multi platinum selling singles, but also being given the task of producing for Snoop's entire sophomore album "Tha Doggfather." But wait, in case you didn't think that was enough to believe Daz has the ultimate resume, there's much more. Would you believe me if I said the man raps as well? Well you better because guess what; he does!
Shortly after fellow Death Row rappers Snoop, Kurupt, and Nate Dogg had left the label, Daz released his first solo album "Retaliation, Revenge, and Get Back" in 1998. Leaving Death Row seemed to open up many doors for the man, as he put out solo albums in every single year from 2002-2012, including two albums in 2005. Not only the rapping, but the production for other artists continued as well as he produced for rappers Kurupt, Soopafly, and B-Legit. It is known that Dillinger and Kurupt had a brief falling out in 2002 after Kurupt re-signed to Death Row, but they squash the beef in 2005 at a west coast unity event hosted by Snoop. Rumors say that Daz is planning to offer the new owners of Death Row Records unreleased material to re package along with re-mastered old Death Row material.
So that's that, at least for this portion. I hope you learned a lot, I know I definitely did just in this little research project of Daz. It just goes to show you a little research on someone you know little to nothing about can change your perspective about them. Now do I think Daz is just some dude who hangs out with Snoop Dogg and smokes weed all day? Half of that is right, but I know not to think he isn't productive at least, no pun intended. Daz is just another portion of a huge segment of rap that practically defined a genre inside a genre with west coast g funk hip hop. If only we could relive those days in a way, get all the old heads together and put them on an album that will define the west coast for years to come. I'll bet it could happen, but we'd need a couple producers to work together and a few rappers to get on songs and rap about the right stuff. I wonder who we'd turn to for this project? Hmmm....
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