The Wild Reed: Changes

Friday, January 26, 2018

Changes

This evening for music night at The Wild Reed I share "Changes," a hip hop song by 2Pac featuring Talent.

2pac was the stage name of Tupac Shakur (1971-1996), an American rapper, poet and actor. Shakur is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 75 million records sold worldwide.

About "Changes" Kent Umeki writes: "This song clarifies the problems in our world and what we can do to fix them while at the same time displaying Tupac’s rap and poetic skills. In 'Changes' Tupac sings about what it’s like to live life being poor. He also sings about war, poverty, racism, corrupt police, drugs, and prison." Umeki also suggests that through Tupac's "Changes" we're given an opportunity to ponder and perhaps even understand the grief that so many people experience throughout the world.

Writing in Atwood Magazine, Sydney Sweeney contends that "Changes" is "one of hip-hop’s most successful political statements, not because it’s especially radical in its words on police brutality, drugs and gang violence, but because the track was, from music to lyrics, accessible to those who needed it – people unconcerned with the politics challenged by unapologetic MCs [microphone controllers]."

"Changes" was originally recorded during Shakur's tenure at Interscope Records in 1992 and was produced by Big D The Impossible (Deon Evans). It was later remixed during 1997-1998. The song re-uses lines from "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" which was recorded during the same year. The song samples the 1986 hit "The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, with the chorus re-sung by Talent.

I dedicate my sharing of 2pac's "Changes" to a friend who started treatment for chemical dependency today. This friend, who finds the music of Tupac Shakur very meaningful, is very much on my mind and heart this evening. I pray that he may know many positive changes in his life from this day forward.

Notes Wikipedia:

Released posthumously on his album Greatest Hits, "Changes" talks about all of the different issues that were related to Tupac's era of influence – notably racism, police brutality, drugs and gang violence. The "Huey" that 2Pac mentions in the song ("two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead") is Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party. The song refers to the possibility of a black president of the United States, claiming "we ain't ready". Further, the last verse of the song refers to Tupac's premonition about being shot to death, mimicking the sound of the gun with the phrase "rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat."

The song was the #1 hit in Norway and the Netherlands and reached the top ten in the singles charts of several other countries, including #3 in the United Kingdom, which gained Tupac a broader audience. The Chris Hafner-directed music video is a compilation of a number of previous music videos Tupac released in addition to home videos and never-before-seen pictures, similar to the format of The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Dead Wrong", also released in 1999.

"Changes" was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards of 2000 and remains the only posthumous song to be nominated in this category. It was also nominated at the MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing in a Video & Best Rap Video in 1999.