2Pac – Changes


“Changes” is a hip hop song by the late Tupac Shakur originally recorded during his tenure at Interscope records which was rerecorded and remixed between 1995-96. The song was a #1 hit in Norway and in The Netherlands and reached the top ten in the singles charts of several other countries. It is one of his most notable and popular songs. Released posthumously on his album Greatest Hits, the song addresses issues close to 2Pac’s era of influence, notably racism, police brutality, drugs, and gang violence. In addition, the song heavily samples the 1986 hit “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. The Chris Hafner-directed music video is a compilation of a number of previous music videos 2Pac released in addition to home videos and never-before-seen pictures, similar to the format of The Notorious BIG’s Dead Wrong, also released in 1999. “Changes” was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards of 2000; it remains the only posthumous song to be nominated in this category. One verse in “Changes” was first featured in his previous release “I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto”. There is also a notable remix of the song mashed up with Nelly Furtado’s “All Good Things (Come to an End)”. The “Huey” that 2Pac mentions in the song (“two shots in the dark, now Huey’s dead”) is Black Panther Party activist Huey P. Newton. In 2008, Changes climbed to Number One on Billboard magazine’s Hot Ringtones chart.


 

 

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