quickdodgeŽ
07-22-2007, 10:10 PM
Prepare, this is a long ass read:
The recording sessions that yielded 2pac's last album took place over 7 hennessy soaked days in Aug 1996 While the rapper was concurrently filming two movies (Gridlock'd and Gang Related). Approximately 20 songs were put to tape at Los Angeles Can-Am studios, 11 of which made the finished product. Pac's final work was produced mainly by Tyrone "Hurt em Badd" Wrice and Darryl "Big D" Harper. Two Death Row records producers who failed to draw intrests even in the vacuum left by the departed Dr. Dre and featured guest spots mostly from Pac's childhood friends and family the Outlaws.Released nine months earlier Pac's double album "All eyes on Me" had been certified quintuple platinum, making the controversial star the marquee name at the most successful company in rap music. So with Snoopand the dogg pund in an adjacent studio, Pac closed ranks and rushed his supporting cast of underdogs through a blitzkrieg artistic process creating a dark, insular, paranoid collection of songs he sub titled "The 7 day theory" The urgency of the album is palable. Many listeners have in fact suggested that he was running out of time. Today, Makaveli, remains pac fans favorite memrial to their hero after his passing. 7 years later. XXl magazine spoke to some of the people who were working so closely with pac during his final days. and got a track by track run down on the making of a classic album.
WHITE MAN'Z WORLD
Young Noble That was one of those ones that 'Pac was just expressing himself on, just being a black man. 'Pac had love for White folks too. 'Pac had love for people in general.
E.D.I. He's talking to his sister. It's kind of personal, so I don't want to get into the personal side of it, but he's talking to his sister and he's talking to his mother. It's a personal record. I think it's like an open letter to his mother and his sister. He's like writing from jail. He's really just apologizing for alot of shit. At 25, we're all trying to grow up and change and figure out shit. Alot of people don't remember that dude was only 25. That's still a kid, really. 25 is a real young, immature age. But at the same time, he had the responsiblity of a 40-year-old. He had the responsibilty of a whole family, a whole label. At that point in the game, Death Row was on 'Pac's shoulders and he knew it.
Darryl Harper: 'Pac wrote the hook. I had did a beat; he liked it. He wrote the melody and everything for the hook and I sung it. I wasn't really happy with a lot of the stuff, because he didn't let us do alot of parts over. On "White Man'z World" I could hear my backgrounds are kind of off there-like I'm saying something twice or something. But 'Pac said "That's it. That's it That song's Finished. Wrap that up send it down there to get mixed."
ME AND MY GIRLFRIEND
Young Noble: He got that concept from Nas. Remember Nas did that song about the gun["I Gave You Power" from the 1996 album It Was Written]? 'Pac used to like that song. When him and Nas Squashed their beef, I was happy. I grew up on NAS. Around my way, when Nas came out with "Live At The Barbeque" Shit. I could have been the first ***** promoting his ass. All the Outlawz were fans of Nas. 'Pac was too. He used to like Nas. That's all hip-hop do. You hear a nice idea, and you flip it and make it better. That was one of those shits. There was a lot of shit going on, and 'Pac was never a dude to hold his toungue. He put it out there. He felt like a lot of mutherfuckas was against him, and that didn't sit well with him neither. Muthafuckas made it like an East Coast/West Coast situation, when in reality 'Pac and all the Outlawz is from the East Coast. That was just one of those songs where 'Pac was riding on his enemies. 'Pac had nothing but love from New York. We was in New York for the MTV Awards two days before he got shot in Vegas. That's where we seen Nas and they squashed it. That was one of the happiest time I've seen him. He was happy to be in New York and feeling the love. We was all in New York Uptown, it wasn't like we was in the hotel all day We even walked for some damn blocks. in Manhattan somewhere. 'Pac said, "f##k it, let's walk." We could have walked for 30 minutes. People couldn't believe it. This ***** was giving bums hundreds of dollars and shit He had me holding a damn little briefcase with all this money. He was really happy to be back in New York. I think he wanted to get in touch with everybody out there - Rappers, and just the streets, period. He was happy about squashing the beef out there with Nas.
E.D.I.: 'Pac had the idea for the song already. We was in the studio trying to come up with the right track fo ti. I rember Hurt M Badd was up there working on the drums and 'Pac wasn't really feeling what was coming up on there and then ricky Rouse just came up and said, "'Pac, I got something. I got a song I wrote." Ricky Rouse, he a session player. He a cool brother, but he was always worrying about his publishing. 'Cause he knew where he was at. He was at Death Row, And you got to be about your business or you won't get paid. So he's like, "'Pac, I got some shit for this shit, it's some Spanish shit. But I got to get my publishing on it. I got to get my writer's credit on that." 'Pac was like. "Hell yeah." 'Cause 'Pac was a fair *****. He gave everyone their shot, Their credit. He was the only one who gave Val Credit, Even though half the dime he might have wrote the hook. Ricky Rouse started playing this guitar shit. 'Pac went crazy. He was like. "That's it right there. That's what I'm looking for." Then he started singing , just came up with the hook. He told us all to write verses for that, too. All of us wrote verses but he just shot us down like, 'Nah, that ain't tight enough." He had ol' gril Queen-she play the part of the gun in the song-'Pac had her come in once the song was done. I know her as queen she used to work at Death Row. She was the receptionist up there. She go by Virginya Slim now, and she's signed to Deaht Row. She the one that talking that shit like, "Like what? West side *****. Die ***** Die!"
Darryl Harper: "Me And My Girlfriend" was Tyrone's [Hurt M badd's] but I just played on it. Keys. We would work on eatch other's beats. He would do drums on mine and I would do something on his. We basically did the whole album together. The album was finished in three days, the mixing still had to be done. So the album was done in a week. As for 'Pac's parts, All of them was done in three days if I rember correctly. He would have ideas for it. He would know. He would instantly tell the Outlawz what they needed to be writing about. And they had to be on it, because the one that didn't have it, he wasn't going to be on the song. It was a trip because 'Pac would finish his Vocal and come out [From the vocal booth] and point at one of them. If he stutterd, he would point to the next one. He just missed that track. If they wern't confident right away, he would let them know they wern't going to be on there.
Lance Pierre: We had an idea to do an intro where the gun is talking. And we needed a broad. Finally, there was this one girl-actrully she's on Tha Row Records right now-Virginya Slim. She put it down with like one pass, ba-ba-ba!
Hurt M Badd: On "Me And My Girlfriend," he tried to bluff me, he called me out. After we had done like four songs, Tupac had called me in my session one day-now mind you, I work in my own little production room-Tupac called me in his room one day and he said, 'You know what? I need a kind of up-tempo beat that don't sound like anything you ever done before." So my eyebrows raised and I was like, Whoa! so he said, "And I want you to stand right here and create it right in my face." Let me tell you something: Everything surrounding my heart went to my feet. Sweat just broke out all under my arm. But I'm also that type of person, I love a challenge when it comes to something I do, you know what I'm saying? So Tupac said, "Right now,in my face" So I stared from scratch. I just told the DJ to sample a kick and a snap from the keyboard. Everybody was looking at me like "What?" Looking at me crazy like, He Don't know what he's Doing." Before you know it. I had the drums going and I look over at the guy with the bass guitar. I told him to come in with something, and I gave him a little rhythem. He came in with it. Before you know it-Tupac was on the couch-he had this look on his face like, "I don't believe this guy." by the time we laid the guitar strings, he was up on the follor like, "Yeah!" Every time he'd get a track that he liked, he would listen to it and come up with the hook in his head. Then he'd turn around to the Outlawz and say, "Here's the hook, listen to this and came up with "Me And My Girlfriend."
Later, QD.
The recording sessions that yielded 2pac's last album took place over 7 hennessy soaked days in Aug 1996 While the rapper was concurrently filming two movies (Gridlock'd and Gang Related). Approximately 20 songs were put to tape at Los Angeles Can-Am studios, 11 of which made the finished product. Pac's final work was produced mainly by Tyrone "Hurt em Badd" Wrice and Darryl "Big D" Harper. Two Death Row records producers who failed to draw intrests even in the vacuum left by the departed Dr. Dre and featured guest spots mostly from Pac's childhood friends and family the Outlaws.Released nine months earlier Pac's double album "All eyes on Me" had been certified quintuple platinum, making the controversial star the marquee name at the most successful company in rap music. So with Snoopand the dogg pund in an adjacent studio, Pac closed ranks and rushed his supporting cast of underdogs through a blitzkrieg artistic process creating a dark, insular, paranoid collection of songs he sub titled "The 7 day theory" The urgency of the album is palable. Many listeners have in fact suggested that he was running out of time. Today, Makaveli, remains pac fans favorite memrial to their hero after his passing. 7 years later. XXl magazine spoke to some of the people who were working so closely with pac during his final days. and got a track by track run down on the making of a classic album.
WHITE MAN'Z WORLD
Young Noble That was one of those ones that 'Pac was just expressing himself on, just being a black man. 'Pac had love for White folks too. 'Pac had love for people in general.
E.D.I. He's talking to his sister. It's kind of personal, so I don't want to get into the personal side of it, but he's talking to his sister and he's talking to his mother. It's a personal record. I think it's like an open letter to his mother and his sister. He's like writing from jail. He's really just apologizing for alot of shit. At 25, we're all trying to grow up and change and figure out shit. Alot of people don't remember that dude was only 25. That's still a kid, really. 25 is a real young, immature age. But at the same time, he had the responsiblity of a 40-year-old. He had the responsibilty of a whole family, a whole label. At that point in the game, Death Row was on 'Pac's shoulders and he knew it.
Darryl Harper: 'Pac wrote the hook. I had did a beat; he liked it. He wrote the melody and everything for the hook and I sung it. I wasn't really happy with a lot of the stuff, because he didn't let us do alot of parts over. On "White Man'z World" I could hear my backgrounds are kind of off there-like I'm saying something twice or something. But 'Pac said "That's it. That's it That song's Finished. Wrap that up send it down there to get mixed."
ME AND MY GIRLFRIEND
Young Noble: He got that concept from Nas. Remember Nas did that song about the gun["I Gave You Power" from the 1996 album It Was Written]? 'Pac used to like that song. When him and Nas Squashed their beef, I was happy. I grew up on NAS. Around my way, when Nas came out with "Live At The Barbeque" Shit. I could have been the first ***** promoting his ass. All the Outlawz were fans of Nas. 'Pac was too. He used to like Nas. That's all hip-hop do. You hear a nice idea, and you flip it and make it better. That was one of those shits. There was a lot of shit going on, and 'Pac was never a dude to hold his toungue. He put it out there. He felt like a lot of mutherfuckas was against him, and that didn't sit well with him neither. Muthafuckas made it like an East Coast/West Coast situation, when in reality 'Pac and all the Outlawz is from the East Coast. That was just one of those songs where 'Pac was riding on his enemies. 'Pac had nothing but love from New York. We was in New York for the MTV Awards two days before he got shot in Vegas. That's where we seen Nas and they squashed it. That was one of the happiest time I've seen him. He was happy to be in New York and feeling the love. We was all in New York Uptown, it wasn't like we was in the hotel all day We even walked for some damn blocks. in Manhattan somewhere. 'Pac said, "f##k it, let's walk." We could have walked for 30 minutes. People couldn't believe it. This ***** was giving bums hundreds of dollars and shit He had me holding a damn little briefcase with all this money. He was really happy to be back in New York. I think he wanted to get in touch with everybody out there - Rappers, and just the streets, period. He was happy about squashing the beef out there with Nas.
E.D.I.: 'Pac had the idea for the song already. We was in the studio trying to come up with the right track fo ti. I rember Hurt M Badd was up there working on the drums and 'Pac wasn't really feeling what was coming up on there and then ricky Rouse just came up and said, "'Pac, I got something. I got a song I wrote." Ricky Rouse, he a session player. He a cool brother, but he was always worrying about his publishing. 'Cause he knew where he was at. He was at Death Row, And you got to be about your business or you won't get paid. So he's like, "'Pac, I got some shit for this shit, it's some Spanish shit. But I got to get my publishing on it. I got to get my writer's credit on that." 'Pac was like. "Hell yeah." 'Cause 'Pac was a fair *****. He gave everyone their shot, Their credit. He was the only one who gave Val Credit, Even though half the dime he might have wrote the hook. Ricky Rouse started playing this guitar shit. 'Pac went crazy. He was like. "That's it right there. That's what I'm looking for." Then he started singing , just came up with the hook. He told us all to write verses for that, too. All of us wrote verses but he just shot us down like, 'Nah, that ain't tight enough." He had ol' gril Queen-she play the part of the gun in the song-'Pac had her come in once the song was done. I know her as queen she used to work at Death Row. She was the receptionist up there. She go by Virginya Slim now, and she's signed to Deaht Row. She the one that talking that shit like, "Like what? West side *****. Die ***** Die!"
Darryl Harper: "Me And My Girlfriend" was Tyrone's [Hurt M badd's] but I just played on it. Keys. We would work on eatch other's beats. He would do drums on mine and I would do something on his. We basically did the whole album together. The album was finished in three days, the mixing still had to be done. So the album was done in a week. As for 'Pac's parts, All of them was done in three days if I rember correctly. He would have ideas for it. He would know. He would instantly tell the Outlawz what they needed to be writing about. And they had to be on it, because the one that didn't have it, he wasn't going to be on the song. It was a trip because 'Pac would finish his Vocal and come out [From the vocal booth] and point at one of them. If he stutterd, he would point to the next one. He just missed that track. If they wern't confident right away, he would let them know they wern't going to be on there.
Lance Pierre: We had an idea to do an intro where the gun is talking. And we needed a broad. Finally, there was this one girl-actrully she's on Tha Row Records right now-Virginya Slim. She put it down with like one pass, ba-ba-ba!
Hurt M Badd: On "Me And My Girlfriend," he tried to bluff me, he called me out. After we had done like four songs, Tupac had called me in my session one day-now mind you, I work in my own little production room-Tupac called me in his room one day and he said, 'You know what? I need a kind of up-tempo beat that don't sound like anything you ever done before." So my eyebrows raised and I was like, Whoa! so he said, "And I want you to stand right here and create it right in my face." Let me tell you something: Everything surrounding my heart went to my feet. Sweat just broke out all under my arm. But I'm also that type of person, I love a challenge when it comes to something I do, you know what I'm saying? So Tupac said, "Right now,in my face" So I stared from scratch. I just told the DJ to sample a kick and a snap from the keyboard. Everybody was looking at me like "What?" Looking at me crazy like, He Don't know what he's Doing." Before you know it. I had the drums going and I look over at the guy with the bass guitar. I told him to come in with something, and I gave him a little rhythem. He came in with it. Before you know it-Tupac was on the couch-he had this look on his face like, "I don't believe this guy." by the time we laid the guitar strings, he was up on the follor like, "Yeah!" Every time he'd get a track that he liked, he would listen to it and come up with the hook in his head. Then he'd turn around to the Outlawz and say, "Here's the hook, listen to this and came up with "Me And My Girlfriend."
Later, QD.