This upcoming December will mark the 20 year anniversary of the classic Dr. Dre album The Chronic. Ego Trip found the director of some of that era's most iconic videos, Dwight Patillo, and they discussed with him how linking up with the good doctor came about, what it was like working on the set of "Nuthin' But A G Thang" and why MTV censored so much of the video, including scenes of a girl getting showered in beer.
It’s one of the most memorable videos of its era. Obviously, the song was huge, but the video made just as big of an impact. Why do you think it resonated with people so strongly?
Dwight Patillo: I think it was because we went out to capture as opposed to stage. And even though things [in the video] were staged, we just tried to keep it as loose as possible and get the little nuances that just popped up and happened. Nobody knew that Warren G was gonna be doing what he was doing in the video at that time. The little kid [that you see in the video] actually just got into the moment and was grooving to the music all on his own. No one directed him to do that.
Was the final version more or less faithful to the treatment you guys drew up?
Dwight Patillo: It was very close. Not a whole lot of that changed. We ran into some problems with the misogynist tilt of the video towards the end when they pour the beer on the girl. That was one of the main problems with that one. But [Death Row] fought for it, and they kept it in. We had a problem with Warren G rolling a joint in the background that we had to take care of. We had to blur out a bunch of marijuana leaves on hats. Most of the problems came in post-production where we were basically being censored by MTV.
Patillo also goes on to mention his first experience working with Snoop Dogg and fear of a Death Row collapse during that time. Head over to ego trip to read the entire interview.
