california love

California Love is a gangsta rap song by Tupac Shakur featuring accompaniment from Dr. Dre. The song was released as Shakur's comeback single upon his release from prison in 1995. A popular remix version of the song appeared on his 1996 double album All Eyez on Me. It was nominated for a posthumous Grammy Award as a Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (with Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman) in 1997,and defeated the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Tha Crossroads.

The original version of the track was not available on any of Shakur's studio albums, but it can now be found on his compilation of greatest hits, Greatest Hits.

The tune was adapted from Joe Cocker's song "Woman to Woman" and the "California knows how to party" lines listing California towns are sung by Roger Troutman in his song So Ruff, so Tuff. The vocal "In the City of Compton" is adapted from Ronnie Hudson and the Street People's "West Coast Poplock" and "Dance Floor". The remix features sample from the song "Intimate Connection" by Kleeer written by Norman Durham and Woody Cunningham.

"California Love" was Shakur's only entry on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, ranked #346.

Writing and background

Dr. Dre really didn't plan to include the recording in 2Pac's project. It was one of Dre's only 2 songs produced on All Eyez on Me, which basically was going to be his single for his second album. Because the original version of that is three verses with Dre rapping on it. The only person who's got that original version is DJ Jam, Snoop Dogg's personal concert DJ. Basically Suge Knight's ideology was, "When it's time to work on a project, everybody needs to give everything to whoever's project it is" so he decided putting 2Pac on the remix, and it was the single off his upcoming album. Dre's first version was an unedited, home-studio recorded one so it is not the same with the one later included in 2Pac's Greatest Hits. ^[1]

Music Video

Two different versions of video exist:

• The first video appears to have been inspired by the film Mad Max 3, and takes place in a desert. The casting includes actor Chris Tucker^[2] (then-known only for his role in the film Friday) playing the evil tribal chief's yes-man, and Roger Troutman (from with the band Zapp, the original writers of the song) carrying a talk box. The shooting takes place in the Thunderdome set^[2] known from the movie. It ends with a cliffhanger cut by a To be continued closing text. An alternative version, featuring the remix song re cut, removes the final caption and features 2Pac and Dre naming West Coast towns[1].
• The second video's intro shows a rapid succession of images taken from the first and second video. The premise is that the desert scenes of the previous videos were merely a nightmare 2Pac was having, and when he wakes up, he finds himself at Dr. Dre's summer house party. The rest of the music video takes place as if it were a home video and features several cameos, notably Roger Troutman who is now playing the piano, and a guest appearance by DJ Quik, and E-40. The video was made for the remix of the song. [2]

The first video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video in 1996. It achieved #9 of the top 10 on MTV's 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made list in 1999. In April, 2005 it reached the Bronze medal spot on MTV2 and XXL's 25 Greatest West Coast Videos. It also achieved #1 on the french MTV's 100 Greatest Rap Music Videos in 2006 (featured from 23 till 30 of July).

Credits

• Keyboards - Sean 'Barney' Thomas
• Percussion - Carl 'Butch' Small
• Producer, Mixing, Featuring (Rap) - Dr. Dre
• Vocals, Talkbox - Roger Troutman
• Background vocals : Danette Williams, Dorothy Coleman, Barbara Wilson
• Engineer : Keston E. Wright
• Production Assistant : Larry Chatman
• Video Direction : Hype Williams

Notes and references

1. ^ "XXL", The making of the album All Eyez On Me / interview with Tommy Daugherty, Harris Publications, October, 2004. Retrieved on June 11, 2006.
2. ^ ^a b Wilson, Elliott. "XXL", Pop Shots, Harris Publications, April, 2005, pp. 131-135.

External links

• California Love Lyrics
• Rap Samples FAQ
• Chart Data
• Music Video Database