So in a way you can say that Pac was cleaving to the idea of bigging up the West as a means of striking against the East. And he wanted to taunt his New York-based rivals, in a roundabout way, by showing them that after all of the hardship he had gone through (including freshly coming out of prison), he was indeed chillin’ and enjoying life to the fullest. And despite its geographic setting that’s what “California Love” is really about – the homeys partaking of the actions they love best (making money, women and getting intoxicated) in a joyous, party setting. And this was on top of his and Dre’s label boss, the infamous Suge Knight, having his own personal tiffs on the East Coast. But it was initially released in the aftermath of Tupac going through a number of life-threatening incidents in New York (i.e. But you don’t have to travel far to witness his impact: Even two decades after his untimely demise, 2Pac’s influence can be heard in everyone from Lil Wayne to Kendrick Lamar to Future.But as alluded to earlier there is also a street side to this track also. In other words, the artists keep it ‘hood while bigging up California, acknowledging the likes of “pimps” and hot women. And overall, they present “the sunshine state” as a place where residents enjoy lots of bedroom fun, high-grade grass and are primarily concerned with “making pay”, as in generating income. And amidst it all they give a shoutout to quite of few California neighborhoods such as “Hollywood”, “Compton” and of course “L.A.” Deeper Meaning behind “California Love”?īut ultimately as inconspicuous as this track may sound, once again it was released at a certain era in the life of Tupac and the overall history of American rap music. So nowadays, long after the East Coast / West Coast feud has died down, this song may be perceived as simply an ode to California.
Originally branding himself MC New York, 2Pac incorporated influences from the East and West Coasts, not to mention the South, to create a universalist message and sound that explains why murals of him can be found all the way to Sub-Saharan Africa. And as Death Row Records’ strain of gangsta rap defined the middle years of the decade, he became the label’s avatar. But there was also the funkadelic player (“I Get Around”), the insular loner (“Me Against the World”), the savage warlord (“Hit ’Em Up”), and the sensitive poet (“Brenda’s Got a Baby”). For much of his career, he embodied this revolutionary, fight-the-power ethos on songs like “Trapped” and “Keep Ya Head Up,” befitting the Afrocentric, conscious-minded milieu of the early ’90s. He was born Lesane Parish Crooks in 1971, but his mother (a Black Panther leader) swiftly changed his name to Tupac Amaru Shakur in honor of the last Incan emperor to perish while resisting Spanish rule. Even if his legend has become a tall tale, his music remains an indelible testament to the multitudes he contained. In fact, his closest analog may not be late rival The Notorious B.I.G., but rather dorm-room icons of the mythologized past: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, and James Dean. 2Pac is arguably the most influential rapper of all-time.
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