Dr.Dre, Snoop Dogg & Tupac: California Love

"California Love" is a hip hop song by 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman. The song was released as 2Pac'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. This is perhaps 2Pac's best-known song and his most successful, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks (as a Double-A side single with "How Do U Want It"). The song was nominated for a posthumous Grammy Award as a Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (with Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman) in 1997.

In accordance with wikipedia, the original version of the track was not available on any of Shakur's studio albums, but it can now be found on Shakur's compilation of Greatest Hits.

The tune was adapted from Joe Cocker's song "Woman to Woman", and "California knows how to party" lines listing Los Angeles County neighborhoods are sung by Roger Troutman. The vocals "In the City of Compton" and the other cities and "California knows how to party" is adapted from Ronnie Hudson and the Street People's "West Coast Poplock". 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 and #51 on VH1's countdown of the 100 Greatest songs of the 90s.

Byron Hurt interview on "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes"

A conversation with filmmaker and activist Byron Hurt on his renowned documentary on male identity in hip hop "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes".


The film deconstructs hip hop as it relates to African American culture and consciousness, and it illustrates the elements of violence, misogyny and homophobia that are often endemic in this cultural form.


This conversation also engages on aspects of modern race relations, culture and the rise of inspiring new models of African American manhood, including Barack Obama.

The Game: Thug Life Of Gangsta Rapper

Jayceon Terrell Taylor, better known by his stage name The Game, is an American rapper. He rose to fame in 2005 with the success of his debut album, The Documentary, and his two Grammy nominations. Since then, he is considered to be a driving force in bringing back the West Coast hip hop scene into the mainstream and competing with many of his East Coast counterparts.


Aside from releasing two albums that debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, The Game has gained notoriety for involvement in feuds with other rappers. His music falls under the gangsta rap subgenre, a style of hip hop popularized in Compton, California.


He grew up in a primarily Crip gang neighborhood known as Santana Blocc, although he grew up to become a member of the Bloods. In an October 2006 interview with MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway, The Game described his family as "dysfunctional" and claimed that his father molested one of his sisters.


After graduating from Compton High School in 1999, Taylor claimed to have attended Washington State University on a basketball scholarship before being suspended in his first semester because of drug allegations.


However, the university's athletic department refutes these claims. It was then that he started fully embracing street life and turned towards selling drugs and gang banging. At the age of eighteen, he began to follow his older half brother, George Taylor III known as Big Fase 100, who was the leader of the Cedar Block Pirus.


Studying various influential rap albums, The Game developed a strategy to become a rapper himself and with help from Big Fase, they founded The Black Wall Street Records.