They were both powerful, strong figures for the black community. Trapped, one of the hit singles from his first record, samples James Brown's The Spank.īrown is one of the most sampled artists in hip hop, along with Curtis Mayfield. Tupac sampled a range of artists on his records, such as Herbie Hancock, Pink Floyd, Parliament, Joe Cocker, Public Enemy and Stevie Wonder. It tells the story of a 12-year-old girl from the ghetto who has a baby and ends up slipping into drugs and prostitution and is eventually killed. Songs like Brenda's Got A Baby on his debut studio album, 2Pacalyse Now, highlight that. On the other side was that social conscience, showing all the facets of what life was life in the ghetto as a young black male, telling stories that hadn't been heard, and speaking out for the black community. There was a side of him that wanted to just let it all out and cut loose and not care about consequences.
It wasn't necessarily about telling a story in the most intricate and detailed of ways, it was about making you feel like you were there seeing what he was seeing. Tupac's ability to communicate what was going on around him was second to none. " wrote some of the rawest stories, man," he told the LA Times in 1995. He also studied theatre as a teenager at the Baltimore School of Performing Arts, and was inspired by Shakespeare.
Tupac took a lot of early inspiration from the politically-charged music of Public Enemy and Ice Cube. He had a level of self-empowerment that made people want to listen to what he had to say.Įven today, you could fly anywhere and surely there'd be someone who knows of Tupac. What he brought to hip hop was a level of rawness and a poetic drive in the way he delivered his words. A woman who said and believed:Īrts can save children, no matter what’s going on in their homes.Tupac Shakur, known by his stage names 2Pac, Pac, and Makaveli, is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential rappers of all time. It’s cool to hear this gem of a recording while remembering Afeni. when Tupac comes in the studio very upset and proceeds to explain to us that we had to take out Yo-Yo’s part because a person by the name of Pat Charbonet would not give us the clearance to use that part in the song, so we had no choice but to take it out and that’s where even the Richard Pryor excerpt, which you will hear, is completely off the released version of the song.” The day after we had finished up on everything we were in Echo Sound in L.A. The sample was ‘Wouldn’t be a damn thang without a woman,’ which was taken from the original song from Ice Cube’s ‘This Is A Man’s World,’ with the scratching done, of course, by yours truly DJ King Assassin. Originally, the hook was a sample of a song from the legendary rapper and friend of both of ours named Yo-Yo, from Ice Cube’s Lench Mob. The original version of ‘Dear Mama’ was far different than the version that was released, as far as the hook was constructed. King Assasin explains the politics of why the woman’s vocal was removed from the record and replaced with the chorus that we all know today. The lyric taken from Yo Yo’s verse on Ice Cube’s “This Is A Man’s World”. Wouldn’t be a damn thang without a woman.
Yo Yo, a fellow MC and close friend of Tupac at the time, can be heard rapping a powerful womanist statement in the hook: Yo Yo) ĭJ King Assassin, who was around for a lot of the recordings of Tupac’s “Me Against The World” album shared the version of the song this week in a mixtape tribute to Afeni. Afeni Shakur was not only Tupac’s mother, but a strong political activist, businesswoman, and the inspiration for Tupac’s persona in rap – a true icon. The song was originally a tribute and a gift to Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur who passed away earlier this week. Here’s an original version of Tupac’s “Dear Mama”, a single that dropped in 1995 and originally featured a sample from woman emcee, and Ice Cube protege, Yo Yo. There’s nothing like finding a demo version to one of your favorite songs.
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