Songfacts®:

• "Vato" means "Good Friend" in Latino culture. The song plays out as a dialogue between Snoop Dogg and B-Real of Cypress Hill, who comes on the hook with:
  
  Vato, you won't believe what I saw
  I saw this pack of guys and they act real hard
• Snoop puts the young punks in his place on this song. By this time, he had been on the scene for about 15 years and was an OG. Still, not everyone respected him - rappers and gangbangers would come after him, trying to make a name for themselves.
  
  This being 2006, Snoop wasn't doing much gangbanging, but it was still a topic that came up a lot in his songs. In "Vato," he goes in his trunk, gets his gun and starts firing.
  
  Over the next few years, Snoop softened his image and moved away from these kind of songs. He found it much more profitable to put his approachable, humorous side forward, highlighting his status as a devoted family man. This shift earned him lots of endorsements and opportunties; in 2007 he got his own reality show: Snoop Dogg's Father Hood.
• "Vato" was produced by The Neptunes - the team of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. The Neptunes had been working with Snoop for a few years by this point - they produced his 2003 hit "Beautiful" and 2004 banger "Drop It Like It's Hot."
• An alternate version with Pharrell Williams on the hook instead of B-Real plays in the 2006 "MILF Money" episode of the TV series Weeds, which features a memorable appearance by Snoop. Mary-Louise Parker's character ends up in Snoop's studio, trying to sell him some her home-grown pot. "Vato" is the song Snoop is working on before he comes into the control room and samples the product. Not only does he love it and place an order, it inspires a freestyle: "MILF Weed."
• The opening line, "Man, don't you know that I'm loco?" is a reference to the Cypress Hill song "Insane In The Brain," which opens with the lines:
  
  Who you trying to get crazy with ése?
  Don't you know I'm loco?