Daz Dillinger Reveals Early Years with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre Mentorship, and a Brief Oklahoma Detour

In a recent interview, West Coast rap veteran Daz Dillinger—real name Delmar Drew Arnaud—opened up about the formative years that shaped his career. He recounted how his friendship with future superstar Snoop Dogg survived a near‑year jail stint for crack sales, how he briefly relocated to Oklahoma before returning to California, and how Dr. Dre taught him the fundamentals of beat‑making at age 16.

The interview, posted on the VladTV YouTube channel, begins with Daz describing Snoop’s legal troubles. According to the interview, Snoop was sentenced to roughly nine months to a year in jail for selling crack cocaine shortly after finishing high school. Daz, who was 16 at the time, says the two remained close despite the setback. “We kept in touch, and that bond didn’t break,” Daz said. The story illustrates the resilience of early West Coast artists who navigated legal challenges while building a music career.

Daz also discussed a short detour to Oklahoma. He says he moved there for a brief period before returning to California to pursue music full‑time. The move is mentioned in the interview as a personal decision rather than a career move. After returning, Daz began working in the Los Angeles studio scene, where he met Dr. Dre.

Dr. Dre’s mentorship is a central theme of the interview. Daz recalls that at 16, Dre taught him how to operate studio equipment and how to produce full beats on tape machines with multiple tracks. “I went from DJing to actually crafting beats,” Daz explained. The interview notes that the two collaborated on projects, including a solo record for the artist Paradise, recorded at a Hollywood studio. This collaboration is consistent with Daz’s early production credits, which include work on Dr. Dre’s debut solo album The Chronic (1992) and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle (1993), as listed in Wikipedia.

The interview also touches on Daz’s role in the early days of Death Row Records. Wikipedia records that Daz was a founding member of the label in the early 1990s and that he co‑founded the duo Tha Dogg Pound with Kurupt in 1992. His production work on The Chronic and Doggystyle helped define the G‑funk sound that dominated the West Coast scene. Daz’s own debut album, Retaliation, Revenge and Get Back (1998), reached the top ten of the Billboard 200, a fact corroborated by chart data.

Industry experts note that Daz’s early mentorship under Dr. Dre and his collaboration with Snoop Dogg were pivotal in establishing the production techniques that became standard in gangsta rap. The interview’s emphasis on hands‑on learning at a young age highlights a broader trend in the 1990s where emerging producers were trained directly by established artists.

The interview concludes with Daz reflecting on his continued influence in the music industry. He remains active as a producer and artist, and his early experiences—overcoming legal obstacles, learning from a legendary producer, and navigating the early Death Row environment—continue to inform his work.

The story underscores how personal relationships and mentorship shaped the trajectory of West Coast hip‑hop and how early challenges were overcome through collaboration and skill development.