It was released in the spring of 1994 as the first single on the soundtrack to the film Above the Rim and later Warren G's debut album, Regulate... G Funk Era (1994).
[4] The West Coast hip hop track employs a four-bar sample of the rhythm of Michael McDonald's song "I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)".
...But you can't be any geek off the street, gotta be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean, earn your keep.Warren had bought a stack of vinyl records for $250 from a poor man he felt bad for outside of a Roscoe's in Hollywood.
Geitzenauer went to Guitar Center to get a console, microphone preamps, speaker monitors, the ADATs, and cabling and set up all the gear in the apartment.
Geitzenauer added keyboards with a string sound derived from a Yamaha SY77, the riff was in the style of a Hammond organ at the end of every fourth bar.
They began writing and recording the song together in the same session, inspired by the duet style of Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre's Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang, and Run-DMC.
A&R Mike Lynn, a long time associate of Dr. Dre, was shown a cassette of the track in Warren's 1985 Buick Regal.
[16] Bill Speed and John Martinucci from the Gavin Report noted that here, the hip hop artists "tap blue-eyed soulman Michael McDonald's 'I Keep Forgettin'' for the music bed and the familiar groove fuels the duo's narrative raps as they 'Regulate'.
"[17] A reviewer from Music & Media commented, "Sung in a Bill Withers meets pioneer rapper Kurtis Blow timbre, there's something lovely old-fashioned about this soul number off the Above the Rim soundtrack.
"[20] Dele Fadele from NME felt that "Dr Dre and his brother hitch a sad, ominous keyboard refrain onto the smooth, laid-back song and suggest there's more to the situation than meets the eye.
"[21] James Hamilton from the RM Dance Update deemed it a "lovely languid 0-95.3bpm US smash gangsta rap with catchy whistling".
[22] Gareth Grundy from Select wrote that songs like 'Regulate' "are smooth jeep beats that even a fully paid-up Klan member would struggle to resist.
"[23] Charles Aaron from Spin commented, "Funny (or maybe not) how pop's young soul rebels sound more comfortably sincere when they're romancing their gats than when they're sweet-talking their ladies.
Anyway, as a rapper, Warren G's a regular-joe version of childhood bud Snoop Dogg; as a producer, his gangsta fantasyland is even more slickly diminished than big brother Dr. Dre.
[29] Craig Marks recommended "Regulate" for its "lite rock synth lines and rippling bass" but thought that Warren G's rapping abilities were "average".