Nate Dogg - Friends, family say goodbye to rap star Nate Dogg in Long Beach

Rap music luminaries Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and the Game joined more than 1,500 mourners under gray skies Saturday to remember singer Nathaniel Hale, aka Nate Dogg. Hale, a Long Beach native and global superstar, died March 15 following complications from a massive stroke.

Tears streaming down their faces, Nate's family, friends and those he worked with during nearly 20 years in the record business packed the Queen Mary Dome in Long Beach for an hours-long ceremony filled with testimonials, music, laughter and stories of the Grammy-nominated singer's life and career.

"The world has lost something and someone special," the Game, a Compton rapper and fellow Grammy nominee who collaborated with Nate Dogg on several tracks, said before the service. "It's just a sad day and a reminder that we can be here one day and gone the next. A reminder that we all should embrace each day and cherish life."

Nate Dogg, who rose to prominence in the early 1990s singing on multimillion-selling albums with childhood friends Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Daz, suffered strokes in 2007 and 2008 and had been ailing in recent months. He was 41.

Some of Nate's closest collaborators and friends, including Snoop, were visibly shaken during the ceremony, wiping away tears as streams of mourners shared stories from a special stage set up to accommodate a crowd of nearly 2,000.

"Nate's music, his words and his message touched people around thc world," said Dee Andrews,

a family friend and Long Beach councilman representing the city's central neighborhoods, where Hale grew up before joining the Marines at the age of 17. He served in Japan and Camp Pendleton before returning to Long Beach. "People may have an image of hip-hop sending out mixed messages, but Nate was about positivity, uplifting people, making them feel joy,' Andrews said. "That's ultimately how he'll be remembered."

The service brought out a number of rappers, music industry executives and big-name artists who had collaborated with Hale over the years, including DJ Quik, Xzibit, Fred Wreck, Mac 10 and Kurupt "It was a beautiful service. At times it was quite emotional but when it got too sad they would inject a little humor," producer DJ Quik told the Press-Telegram after the memorial. "If a service can be great, it was. I know Nate himself would have been proud."

Gathered outside the Queen Mary Dome, several of the original members of Tha Dogg Pound, a rap group in which Hale was an extended member, remembered the late singer as a talented friend and mentor.

"He raised me. He taught me everything I knew since I was 18," said rapper Kurupt, who collaborated with Hale on such songs as "Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None)." "Nate was family."

The service restricted the public to 1,000 tickets distributed on a first- come, first-service basis. Following the memorial, Hale was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Long Beach.

Snoop is establishing a memorial fund for Hale's children and family, with details available on the rapper's website and Facebook page.

Hale is survived by his mother, Ruth Holmes; father, Daniel Hale Sr.; sisters Pamela Hale-Burns and LaTonia Hale-Watkins; brothers Samuel Hale, Emmanuel Hale and Daniel Hale Jr.; and six children.

Posted by donmega on 28 Mar 2011

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