Warren G is enlisting Snoop Dogg and Nelly to collaborate on "My Village Ghetto," a remix of "Ghetto Village," a song featured on his latest album, The Return of the Regulator, which was released in December.

The all-star collaborators will polish the album's second single, which features excerpts from the Stevie Wonder song "Village Ghetto Land." Although Warren has high hopes for the original single, he looks forward to reworking it.

According to the rapper, the project was put together with a couple of phone calls. "I reached out to Nelly and I told him I wanted to do a remix with him," Warren explains. "He was cool with it. Snoop was just, 'Warren, I got your back. Let's do this.'"

According to Warren, Nelly is in the process of writing his verse, and when he's ready a Universal rep will fly to St. Louis and record the track. "Then they'll bring everything to me and Snoop will record his part," he adds. "It's all about helpin' each other out -- gotta show that unity." The remixed track will be released shortly after the album track hits the radio airwaves.

The song isn't the first collaboration between Warren and Snoop; Along with Nate Dogg, they once performed as the underground rap act 213. The trio made a name for themselves playing house parties and clubs from Los Angeles to Long Beach in the early Nineties. While 213 never released a proper album, the trio performed "Yo' Sassy Ways" on Warren's latest. "It's the first 213 track on one of our albums," he says.

It won't be the last, either, as Warren says a 213 reunion is in the works. "It's all about negotiating right now," he says. "I know that Snoop and Nate are with it."

DAVID JOHN FARINELLA
(January 25, 2002)