Warren G Opens Up About Staying Close to His Fellow Hip Hop Stars in His New Documentary 'G-FUNK'

Warren G (born Warren Griffin III) is chronicling the rise of “Gangster Funk” in a new YouTube documentary titled G-Funk: The Untold Story of Warren G.

The documentary recounts the story of 213 (“Two One Three”) — a hip-hop trio from Long Beach, California comprised of producer Warren G, late singer Nate Dogg and rapper Snoop Dogg — and outlines the birth of hip-hop’s most iconic 90s sub-genre, and its long-lived impact on music and culture. The film will be available for YouTube Premium subscribers only beginning July 11.

“When I was coming up, it was hard — real hard — because we didn’t have a platform where you push a button and your music spreads out to everyone, so we had dub cassette tapes that we had to take to people at clubs and in the streets, and then they take those to people,” Warren G, 47, tells PEOPLE exclusively about what it took to break into the West Coast hip-hop scene. “It circulated like the internet, but without the internet.”

G-Funk features never-before-seen footage and interviews with Warren G, Snoop Dogg, Chuck D, Ice Cube, Ice T, Too Short, The D.O.C., Wiz Khalifa and others, who detail his story.

“These are the guys I grew up with, looking up to some of them,” says Warren. “It’s just a great thing for them to be involved in helping me tell my story, and it gives the new generation a sense of whom I dealt with and whom I was involved with.”

He continues of what he hopes viewers take away from this documentary: “It just opens up the new generation and gives some history on what it took to be a successful artist in our era, and even though we had a lot of issues that we went through we still ended up on top as one.”

While the “Regulate” rapper “likes the new hip-hop” and respects artists like YG, Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz for being true talents who keep the g-funk genre alive, he also wishes the industry would “put a clamp down.”

“What changed about hip-hop is everybody can do it,” he says. “Back in our day, you had to really have a lot of talent to do anything, [so] that line needs to be crossed from real hip-hop and comedy hip-hop.”

“These guys tell their stories and everybody can really relate to it and have fun with it, but you got some artists that don’t do anything but talk about a strip club all day and how they sell dope, but what the hell are you rapping for if you sell dope,” he adds, laughing.

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Although Warren G “wanted to keep it one hundred percent real” while documenting some of the biggest events in his life, he says the artists coming up in the era of social media are hit or miss.

“You can’t document every move that you make, although it seems like them dudes were just on a mission, period,” he says about controversial rapper XXXTentacion, who was shot and killed outside a motorcycle dealership in South Florida on June 18. “That’s something that’s different from our era.”

“If you’re going to tell somebody you’re going to be here, here and here … watch your back,” he continues. “You have to keep a couple certified guys with you and do what you have to do, but documenting your every move is not the move.”