Folks, this is The Good Stuff.

Undoubtedly, Regulate… G Funk Era was one of the finest hip hop albums ever released.  Top 5, for sure, in the opinion of the senior editorial staff of Racing to the Red Light.

Released in 1994, it contained an entire album of solid tracks, including standouts “Regulate“, “This DJ” and “Do You See“.

Here’s Regulate:

Here’s a clip of Brian Williams “singing” the same song, as produced by Jimmy Fallon and crew:

The area code 213 is referenced repeatedly in the songs on this album. For our readers hailing from outside of Southern California, here’s a little bit of 213 history as described by Wiki:

The area code historically has been associated with Southern California and Los Angeles. Area code 213 is referenced in Warren G and Nate Dogg’s song “Regulate”, Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.”, the Electric Six song “I’m the Bomb,” and the Notorious B.I.G.’s song “Going Back to Cali.”

213 was the O.G. Los Angeles telephone area code, as introduced in 1947, when 213 represented all of Southern California from the Central Coast down to Mexico. Over subsequent years, it was broken down into an ever-smaller geographic area around downtown Los Angeles (from Wikipedia):

• 1951 – most of the southern portion became area code 714
• 1957 – most of the old 213’s western portion become area code 805
• 1984 – the San Fernando Valley and the San Gabriel Valley became area code 818
• 1991 – West Los Angeles and the South Bay became area code 310
• 1998 – current (2013) practically all of the old 213 territory outside of downtown became area code 323

So Warren G, Nate Dogg and Snoop were all living squarely within “the 213” when the album Regulate… G Funk Era was released.  Today, Long Beach is area code 562.