Tupac Shakur And His Song California Love

California Love, is a single written and recorded by none other than Tupac Shakur. Tupac was an American rapper and songwriter as well as an aspiring actor, who was a 1990’s gangster. Tupac began his career of rapping, to embody the injustices and unfair lifestyles of the African American community. Tupac Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in Harlem, New York. His single mother, Afeni, raised Tupac and his younger sister Sekyiwa. The small family didn’t always have the best life with the kids stepfather in jail for murder charges, the constant moving in and out of houses meant the family just were barely making ends meet month to month. Soon, Tupac moved to Baltimore where he attended the “Baltimore School for the Arts”, which quoted (Tupac) was the “freest I ever felt.”

Tupac Shakur moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to start pursuing his music career and in the year of 1995 is when things really started happening for Tupac, but tragically ending at the same time. Tupac signed with the record label ‘Death Row Records’ and shortly released his first album ‘All Eyez on Me’ in February of 1996. Sadly, the young rappers life was taken as a result of a gang-related drive by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tupac Shakur died on September 13, 1996, at just 25 years old. Shakur was hit four times by .40 caliber bullets fired from a glock. Tupac was attending a boxing match that evening with Suge Night, the head of ‘Death Row Records’. At 11:05 p.m, the two men were stopped on Las Vegas Boulevard by officers from the Las Vegas Police Department for playing the car radio to loudly and not having license plates on their car. A few moments later, a white, four- door Cadillac pulled up on Suge Knights side, the shooter, Orlando Anderson, seated in the back of the sedan, rolled down the window and opened fire on Shakur. He was hit in the arm once, twice in the chest and once in the thigh. Suge Knight was hit in the head by fragmentation. Despite having flat tires and injuries from the tragic events that had just taken place, he was able to drive him and his dying friend, Tupac to Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. They pulled over by bike control, which from there were able to contact emergency services which would later arrive. Upon arriving to the hospital, Tupac was put on life support machines while being heavily sedated and was put in a medically induced-coma after trying to get out of bed. Many people came to visit him in his last moments, while his friend Rhaimi and other members of Shakurs ‘group’ stayed by his side in fear that quoted (Rhamimi) “who ever shot him was gonna come finish him off.” Sadly, the rapper passed away on the evening of September 13, 1996 due to respiratory failure that later led to cardiac arrest, in which he was later pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m.

Tupac had a great career as a rapper, even though it was short lived. His most hyped album being ‘All Eyez On Me’ where his most loved song to this day, ‘California Love’ can be found. ‘California Love’, is a hip-hop song by 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre and friend Roger Troutman. The song was Tupac’s comeback song after being released from prison in 1995 and was his first single after signing with ‘Death Row Records’. This single, is Tupac’s most wide known and and factually, most successful single he has released. Reaching the ‘Billboard Top 100’ for two straight weeks, as well as 5 weeks as #1 in New Zeland. The original version of the song is a sample taken from Joe Crockers “Woman to Woman”. The remix version is also a sample from Kleers “Intimate Connection”. The chorus of the song which goes, “California, knows how to party”, was a small part sung by Roger Troutman using a talk box and was taken from the 1982 song “West Coast People” by Ronnie Hudson.