Snoop Dogg, Warren G and P Diddy paid tribute to the late rapper Nate Dogg at this weekends (March 19) South By Southwest festival.

The rappers joined forces at Snoop Dogg's Funk N' Soul Extravaganza event at the Austin festival where they performed Nate Dogg's 'Regulate'.

"That's like my brother. Me and Nate were friends since 1986, so it's a little bit deeper… this is somebody who started with me," Snoop Dogg told Billboard.

He added: "We dreamed the same dream and our dreams came true, and now he's no longer with us. So it's a little hard to deal with, but in the spirit of Nate Dogg we're dealing with it because we know he would want us to celebrate and have a good time. That's the spirit he possessed."

Nate Dogg – real name Nathaniel D. Hale – died on Tuesday (March 15). A cause of death is not yet known.

(by Holly Frith)