BEHIND THE VIDEO: Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg – “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” (1993) w/ Director Dwight Patillo.

THIS IS PART 2 OF A 2 PART INTERVIEW: Previously on Behind The Video, filmmaker Dwight Patillo recalled how he came to meet Dr. Dre and work on one of the most iconic music videos of the ’90s, Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.” Teamed with production partners Ben Bazmore and Al Stewart at Nu Vue Films, Patillo worked on all of the music videos from Dre’s landmark LP, The Chronic, even directing the controversial, cameo-heavy “lost” clip for “Lil’ Ghetto Boy.” Here, in Part 2 of our interview, Dwight discusses prison riots, funeral shootouts, and wrecked campers, meeting 2Pac, and Nu Vue’s last days on Death Row. The muthafuckin’ saga continues…

READ BEHIND THE VIDEO: DR. DRE’S “LIL’ GHETTO BOY”… AFTER THE JUMP…

Coming off the success of “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang,” what was the biggest challenge facing you guys making “Dre Day” and “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” – both of which were actually shot over the same weekend?
Dwight Patillo: After “’G’ Thang” we were still in a struggle at that point. Nobody was ever on time. [For whatever reason] it was so important for up and coming hip-hop artists to not be around when they were supposed to be! So it was real difficult to get through the production, but we did. That was our main thing – making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be at the right time. And having enough stuff to shoot if they weren’t around to at least get through the video.

[With the “Dre Day” video] Dre was very, very pissed at Eazy-E at that time. It was the middle of the fray and this was the first [shot fired] after everything that had culminated through the N.W.A era, the Jerry Heller situation, and all of that. This was his first public visual blast of how he was feeling at that time. [Comedian] AJ Johnson was [cast to clown] Eazy-E. He caught a lot of flack from the [Ruthless camp] because he did that. The next time he saw us [after the video came out] he was basically saying, “I can’t hang out no more. I’m friends with those guys, and I’m friends with Dre, so I don’t know what to do.” But I don’t think it was too seriously threatening.

You mentioned in Part 1 of our interview, that you had issues with “‘G’ Thang” as far as having to blur marijuana-related images. But “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” is on a whole other level with guns and violence. Where was it possible for this video to be aired at the time? And what was the struggle like to get it out there?
Dwight Patillo: Well, that was the battle brewing between the power of Death Row and the power of MTV – and [Interscope Records'] Jimmy Iovine in the middle of it. So what Suge [Knight] pushed for was to make it as hard and as ghetto [as possible] because that makes [the label's reputation] bigger. You know – the harder the hood, the bigger they are. And so he kind of went [extreme] on the violence end of it. I really didn’t want to take it that far. But what ended up happening was MTV banned it. They said, “No guns, period. We can’t do it.” So it ended up going to [pay per view video request channel] The Box. And shortly after that The Box [banned it]. And it was just too hot to be released at that point. So it became this little ghetto secret kinda video. Its [banning] caused it to have a longer shelf life now. Back then we were so busy, we had moved on to the next video and all that. There was supposed to be a re-edit. I don’t know if it was [the result of just being] stubborn, or not wanting to spend more money, or what, but we never did the re-edit. Which was a huge hit for me. That would have been my directorial debut and it would have aired everywhere. But because it was so violent it just didn’t quite work out.

Unlike Dre’s performance and slice-of-life based videos that preceded it, “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” presents a pretty serious narrative.
Dwight Patillo: We wanted to [dramatize] a crew rolling on the street, and the stuff that they were into before one of ‘em ended up in jail. It’s like a cycle. We start off in jail where we see [the main character] go through his thing and die, and then another guy starts the cycle all over again.

Dre and Snoop, though, only appear as these floating heads superimposed over the action as it unfolds. Was it planned that way?
Dwight Patillo: That was an intricate little thing that we wanted to do, but we didn’t get exactly what we wanted. What I was looking for was the feel of [Dre and Snoop] coming out of the background to the foreground – like how things in the ghetto will take you from the foreground to the background. As the heads come closer the color was supposed to drain out of the rest of the picture. But this being my first video, we shot it the wrong way to be able to drain the color how I envisioned it. So we just said forget it, let’s leave ‘em black and white. People say it’s eerie and ghostlike. It was a very dark video, which was kind of pushed into being made darker through suggestions [from Death Row]. [laughs]

What do you recall about shooting the prison riot scene? There’s a moment when a guy actually gets thrown over the jail balcony.
Dwight Patillo: [When we shot that scene] the guy barely hit the boxes that we had set up [below to cushion his fall]. He wasn’t supposed to hit the railing. If you look at it closely you can see the railing bend or buckle. When he flips over he’s actually supposed to fall face forward. I don’t even think the flip was even supposed to happen. The dude broke his nose on the fall. But he jumped up bloody, saying, “Let’s go again, I can’t get it better.” But we were like, nope, just go home – thanks, have a nice day. That was the scariest part of the whole video, I think – watching him. Everything hit the ground except his head. His head hit a box, everything else hit concrete. So, yeah, that was a one-taker.

There’s also a pretty violent funeral scene. What do you remember about that?
Dwight Patillo: The first take of that [scene] we did without anybody knowing that guys were going to come in and spray the church with machine guns. And it was a thing of film legend. We actually didn’t get to use that first take because we had some technical errors – the camera was too shaky. The one we ended up using was a far cry from it. I wouldn’t suggest doing that, though. I caught a lot of heat. [laughs] [The extras] were not very happy with me. Thank god that was the last shot we were gonna do before lunch, and we were done with extras for the day – because if they were still around it would have been a very long day. But again it was my first time around. I was pretty green at the time.

Nate Dogg (RIP) is also featured in that scene.
Dwight Patillo: That was Nate Dogg’s first video – it’s the first time I’d ever seen Nate Dogg nervous in his whole life. After that first take, dude was like, okay, I got it now. That was the first time it became really real for him. ’Cause before that with Snoop and everything his nose was basically pressed up against the glass. Until that point, then it became, wow, this shit is really real. And I think he went through that [realization] on that set right then and there. Lady of Rage is in the scene too. She’s one of the girls crying in the chorus.

And there’s a ton of cameos throughout the entire video.
Dwight Patillo: We had Lil’ Half Dead – who was Snoop’s cousin, and had just got signed to Priority Records – mainly because he was Snoop’s cousin. He was Lil’ Ghetto Boy. He’s the one who’s in prison when the video opens and jumps into the riot. In the riot, there’s a lot of people in there. But the main people who I remember, and who were just so cool throughout the whole thing, was the Boo-Yaa Tribe. [With everybody else showing up late for the shoot] I was like, maybe it’s just a Black thing because the Latin [sic] cats showed up on time, bro! [laughs]

Daz is in the video, The Twinz, Kurupt, Big C Style, Little C Style, Lee Mack – who was a Western Avenue legend old school pimp from back in the day. We just tried to get as much authentic Compton – Long Beach flavor as we could. We figured after “‘G’ Thang” the closer we could stay to that the safer we would be because people liked that video.

I also met 2Pac on that shoot. I asked him, of course, if he would do a cameo. And he said, yeah, he would if he was gonna be around. But at that point one more person to wrangle wasn’t gonna get the video finished. When I met him I had a feeling about him too. Cool person and all that. But I just kinda had a vibe that he was one of those people who was like a shooting star. Like get to know him now, because it just didn’t feel like he was gonna be around for a long time. I don’t know if that’s intuition or whatever. That’s just what I felt. I said it then: that dude – his fire’s burning really, really hot.

What surprised you about the process of working with these guys?
Dwight Patillo: There’s a weird thing with that video – the overtones and Compton toughness wouldn’t allow people to run. Nobody wanted to run in the video. Even in the face of [staged] murder or death. [laughs] It was like, dude, in this scene a guy is coming at you with a gun: you would try some evasive movement. But nobody wanted to ever act scared, nobody was no punk. Even the guy [that we cast for a scene with a prostitute] got the fever. That was one of our sound techs that we wound up throwing in a suit because somebody’s homie didn’t show up again. [laughs] In that scene the girl is actually supposed to shoot him. And he was too cool to pretend to die. It’s like, dude, I need your eyes to get wild like you’re shot – if that doesn’t happen we don’t know if you got shot or not, we’re not really sure what’s going on. And quite naturally that’s what ended up happening. We didn’t know what was going on because he was too cool to die. So it was real prevalent – that whole [attitude]. [These guys] were on top of the world. Compton was it, Long Beach was it. And it came across. Even with people that were standing around watching the shoot.

You worked on subsequent videos for Death Row, like Snoop’s “Who Am I?” Apparently, there were some on set issues with that production?
Dwight Patillo: That was the video that we ended up having a riot on. Fab 5 Freddy directed that. I started out as the first AD [assistant director].

What happened?
Dwight Patillo: Well, I can only tell you what I remember. Which was getting to the set [of the video], which was a public park in Long Beach. I got there, got out of the car, and somebody came to me immediately and said, listen, there’s something about to go down in the trailer, they’re about to fight. So I look at the trailer and I’m like, wow, this is gonna be the longest walk/run of my life. [laughs] I’m runnin’, trying to get there. And as soon as I get there the fight erupts in the camper. They tear up the camper that we had rented for the video. It was assorted members of Tha Dogg Pound and some other Long Beach crew, I think. And it spilled out of the camper just out in front, and that’s when a gunshot went off. And then the 200-250 people around scattered. And I can’t believe nobody got hurt. But the police deployment was probably about 30 cop cars. And, of course, we were shut down for the day. That’s when the whole “us being the Death Row in-house-video people” started to slip away from us. It just got too big for us. It was just getting crazy. It didn’t slip away at that moment, but we were on our way to our end pretty much.

Looking back then, what are your reflections on this period of your career?
Dwight Patillo: It was a launching point that was difficult to excel further than. It’s like you start off messing around with one of the biggest hits, and one of the biggest [turning points] of an era, and you’re right in the middle of it. Pretty tough to follow that up. [laughs] But it was a fun ride. It gave me a lot of experience in the business that I use to this day to keep me afloat in situations. I’m definitely battle tested because of it. Yeah, I’m not too worried about anything happening on a set that I can’t deal with.

1. • BEHIND THE VIDEO: Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg – “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” (1993) w/ Nu Vue Films’ Dwight Patillo.
2. • See, Hear: Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Daz, Nate Dogg & Dr. Dre Freestylin’ in the Studio (circa 1992).
3. • WATCH: Snoop Dogg Talks About the Origins of Thanksgiving & Gives Shopping Tips for Black Friday.