2Pac ft. Dr. Dre's "California Love"

Shake, shake, shake, baby. Shake, shake, shake, baby. Shake, shake, baby. Shake, shake, baby. Shake, shake, baby. Shake, shake, baby. You better. Imagine Zooms through a talk box. Like imagine like, I don't have the report. Like you can do all kinds of harm to me. Oh, hell yeah. Lectury I'm hype for today's show. We're talking about a rapper who's not only one of the greatest of all time, but arguably one of the most complicated. It's honestly what I loved about him so much was that he could be an activist and a playboy and a self-proclaimed thug, yet to even apply these labels feels wrong and reductive. That's right, Ciola. His shifting personas, combined with his untimely death, have made him one of the most endlessly debated figures in hip hop, not to mention one of the best-selling artists ever. He's sold more than 75 million records worldwide. And today, we're talking about a song that cemented his status as a global icon. That's right, Lectury. When this track comes on, it never finds a dance floor empty. We're talking one song, and that song is California Love by Tupac featuring Dr. Drake. Out of the rail, push out a jail, California dreaming. The sum is up step on a scene. A mirror in Hootsie streaming. Feeding for money and alcohol, but life for the West side playing what's out. I'm after writer director and sometimes DJ, Deala Riddle. And I'm producer DJ, songwriter and musicologist, Luxury, aka the guy who whispers interpellation. And this is one song. The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres and tell you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before. And you can watch one song on YouTube and Spotify while you're there. Please like and subscribe. So Deala, today we are talking about Tupac and California Love. When was the first time you heard this song? I think the first time I heard it might have been, might have been when I got the 12-inch single. Probably as a promo. I was already DJing at this point. So anytime new vinyl came, you're like, ooh, you know, this might get the crowd going. And this one was sort of a hit from the very first time I put it on. It also has that thing that I love that, you know, is very DJ friendly like the California Love. Ba-ah, I don't know. Like the California Love part of that is a perfect countin. Intro is on the deep. Yeah, there's some songs that have weird intro. So as a DJ, you gotta figure out, well where am I gonna bring this one in? This is one where you can literally hit stop on the other turntable. It's nice. And hit start on this one. And it just comes in with that perfect four countin. Dre with the DJ choices, man. You know, like it really happens across the catalog. He has all these choices about what sounds good with the bass and the frequencies, but also choices like that. I have a little bit of an issue with Dre because he just, yo, Dre, kick in the bass. And that one is a little bit off, so it doesn't come in right. But other than that, yes, right. You just want to make sure you're still paying attention. That's right, that's right. Luxury, when did this song first come on your reener? California Love video. I remember vividly being in a hotel with my parents and video came on. And it's a very, it's like such a memorable video. It felt expensive. It felt like a very big, what a 90s video. It caused more of the most movies to do. Totally. And it was production value and it was like Mad Max theme. So that was the vibe of like the moment. Jada Pinkett was supposed to direct it. I heard it was her concept. And yet she pulled out of the project. And the hype Williams is one of the first really big hype Williams videos. For those of you listening, not watching Chris Tucker, the actor is such an expensive video. Chris Tucker comes out and he says, he says, and now I'd like to introduce to you the man of the hour and then he yells something. What is it, why is it producing the man of the hour? Monster! What did he say? He said mustard? Mustard! I thought all these years that he said myself. Like I thought he introduced myself. The man of the hour, myself! We thought that was hilarious. And then this other character comes and pushes past him. I can hear now that he's saying master, because that's the name of the character who he's introducing. But if you ever have to introduce yourself. Just say, myself. Just say, myself. Was this sort of your first real exposure to Tupac? I mean, yes and no, the funny thing is that I actually went to middle school with a girl who went on to Tam to Mount Tam High School, where Tupac went. Yeah. She was famous throughout our little friend group after later on, we'd hear through the great find that she was like dating him. Wow. And so these little bits and pieces of like, basically, 1989 information and great find information, I'm pretty sure she really did date him. I'm not saying skeptically, but it was more of a legendary thing. And it was just like many phone tags removed from the actual story source, but our friend dated Tupac. It was super cool. So I was aware of him at a young age, because he was already famous for the digital underground connection and everything was so cool. I mean, Tupac, famous for dating the ladies, I will say that the one time there's one time in life, and I'm so grateful for this night, there's one time in life, Tupac and I were in the same space. We were in the same room. And that beats my story. Well, so I was I was spending the summer of 96 in Los Angeles staying with my sister was working for a for an actor, famous actor, and I was staying at that actor's house while he was out of the country shooting a movie. So I had this insane house in the hills and like a little internship. But in fact, as I was out here and I had plenty of free time, but I was under 21 and I had like the worst fake idea on the planet. And there was one night that I went by myself, because I used to go out by myself sometimes. I went out to the sunset strip and I went up to the sky bar at the Mondrian Hotel and anybody who's ever been there, I don't think they're there anymore, but they had this gigantic, I don't think this predates those mattresses. But they had these gigantic flower pots that were right by the rope where they let you in. Okay. And I'm standing in this long, long line and then one of the girls who like I knew in Los Angeles at the time, she was like, hey, come around the flower pot. So I snuck around the flower pot. To get past the wall of the rope. Like a pure sneak, snuck around the flower pot. These things are huge. I snuck around the flower pot. And suddenly I'm in the sky bar. And like everybody's like such an adult because you gotta realize like I think I was like 19 or 20. Like everybody looks like a full on adult. I couldn't believe that I was there. And I'd only been there for a little bit before something like a pulse went through the room. Like everybody's like, ah, measure, measure. And two pop walked into the sky bar with shug night and the comedian Eddie Griffin, who I guess was like performing across the street at the comedy store. That's crazy. And for the time they came in, it all just got really tense. And I don't know if it was because people were worried about violence or if they were worried that two pop was gonna take their girl. But like when I say the frequency shifted though. Yeah, everything you could just feel it. And cause like all of a sudden even in this crowded bar, like you felt like, oh my gosh, that's two pop. You know, and Eddie Griffin, who by the way was like a huge comedian at the time. We've talked about this on the show. Like you talk with the prince, your prince interaction. Didn't you have a prince interaction? Oh yeah, that was the yeah. But like you said, there's a charisma. There's like a vibe for these superstars sometimes. Dude, he sense their presence. You got the sense like our breath exited our body and it all went to them. It's like a weird fee. But it was the one time I was in the same space as Pog. And I was already a two-pog fan. So I couldn't believe I was like, holy, that's him. That's him. Like when you talk about stark quality. And just the ability to just walk into a room and just control it like, you're crazy. Cause the second he left, you felt like this great exhale happened. You were tensed the whole time. Sure. Well, it was a bit like so. I could see other people like loosen up again. Okay. Because we're gonna get beat up or like I said, their girl wasn't gonna let you do it. I'm just watching all these videos and I'm like tense and stressed out. Cause he's a handsome man and he's gonna might steal my wife. I feel very sure about what he's talking about. Anything can happen. Just to get everyone who's listening on the same page, two-pog Amaru Shakur was born in New York City. His mother, Afini Shakur was a black panther. He grew up in New York City, then Baltimore and moved to the Bay Area in high school, which again, which is where my, my loose connection to him comes into play. And by the way, can we point out now is so weird that the East Coast West Coast viewed as between two-pog and puffy. But he's born in New York. He's from East Harlem technically. You know what I mean? I always thought that was really interesting part of his story. I mean, we know now to this day that like the beginnings of that was a little bit created for marketing purposes and in fact, two-pog and Biggie seemed to be like. Yeah, they were absolutely great. Yeah, Mark and Lians and others have said like these guys were absolute friends, Pog tended to try to reach out to those other rappers and artists from various regions. They seem to genuinely admire each other. Absolutely. And the footage of them, they seem very, it seems very real. Two-pog reached out to Bone Thunks. He reached out to Goodie Mob. Like anytime somebody released music, he was really into it, didn't matter where they were from. He would always be like, you know what, let's get together and make some music together. So yeah. Other issues. It's another thing beyond the scope of this podcast, but we're mentioning that things that got in the way, you know, we're definitely coming from outside forces. Yeah, external forces, for sure. Listen, this man was multi-talented. He took acting classes. He took poetry, jazz, ballet. He was in theater productions at his school. There's like a theater teacher who talks about one of the best off fellows he's ever seen with when he gave a reading at age 17. Wow. Yeah. And his rap career begins in earnest in Oakland when he goes to a poetry class run by a woman named Layla Steinberg, who later becomes his mentor and first manager. Yeah, that's really interesting. It was actually Layla who helped two-pog get his first deal with Atron Gregory, the manager of Digital Underground. Let's hear a bit of his recording debut in 1991 with Digital Underground on this song called, Same Song. People change, wanna live their life by Same Song, can't no longer play the nice guy. It's a claim and fame, must have changed not a ribcage strong. I'm a man, still the same. Why? Because it's the same song. By the way, the best part of that is that Hump-D Hump calls him too. Short for two-pog. He was like, yeah, this dude, that's gonna be your name. They haven't figured out pocket. Why, too? Could have gone either way. By the way, I have been rocking my brains, like all around the world, it's the same old song. That feels like an older song, but I have not been able, it's not on who sampled. Really? Is that an older song that you're aware of like a 70 song or a 60 song? Yeah, I feel like an older song. I feel like an older song. One song nation, if you know the answer, fight us in the comments, you always do. So in 1991, two-pog released his debut, Solo Single, Brenda's got a baby, which looks at the harsh reality as being a team mom. It's pretty heavy stuff for a debut. Earlier, I mentioned that there are many sides of two-pog, many faces, you know, there's the socially conscious two-pog, you know, who's like the voice of the voice list, so to speak. You hear this two-pog on songs like, keep your head up. Say the black of the black, the sweet of the juice. I say the dark of the flesh. Say the deep of the roots. I can't forget my mom. Here, mama. And even as a crack fee, mama, you're always with the black queen. And the poshroomist release changes. Instead of overpopping, they got a woman, just in a police can bother me. It's hard not to feel like there's an obvious influence from his mom being a black panther. Right. Everything that she went through and everything that he saw and heard, just growing up with that group of people. And his house and their whole lives were devoted to the cops. So his father was a black panther, who Billy Garland, who doesn't sound like he was really involved in Fox Live after I guess 1976. But, you know, I think all that, you know, that kind of environment is what really helped shape this world. Yeah, and it's there at an early age. There's this incredible interview when he's out Mount TAM, high school, age 17. And he talks about the influence that his mom had on him. Let's watch a quick clip. My mother taught me three things. Respect, knowledge, search for knowledge. It's an eternal, eternal journey. That's like my aunt cut the line. 360 degrees, part of knowledge always. And she taught me to not be quiet. To, if there's something in my mind, speak it. Like, it worked. I can't hold the job. But I just quit my job today, actually, because I wanted to come and do this. And it would let me. So you just quit. You quit round table pizza and strawberry village right there. Am I my, my school bus went past that every day when I was a teenager? I knew exactly where it worked. He worked at the round table. He's from, okay, first of all, he's from Marin City. My school bus went to the Marin City stop. And like, there was a, there was an incredible flea market. It was like exciting for teenage me to go to the flea market at Marin City. So everything about two pox, like this part of his life, at least, it's like really, when I watched the footage and I know where he is. Yeah. And I know that this girl that I knew from middle school might have been dating him during that interview. Who knows? It's so interesting to kind of have that connection. It's peripheral as it is. It kind of makes it even more powerful. You could have been two-pox. I could have been. You could have been two-pox. What I'm trying to say, like John Lennon with the whole Jesus thing, I'm very much. You have a greener influence on the youth in two-pox. I get it. Pretty much how I feel right now. Well, look, although he'd never abandoned this activist lens, it was actually the charismatic Playboy Pock that got him his first billboard hot 100 hit with I Get Around. You hear this Pock on so many hits, like, how do you want it all about you? Let's hear a little bit of a deeper cut. Here's what you phone number. I'm standing at a bar for the back, dude. Say you wanna see the storm in my tattoo. When we hit it for my heart, I'm back right. Both play it when I bought up, that's right. What you phone number? That song obviously sampling the time, 777-93-11. Yeah. So there's another layer of two Pock who I wanna talk about. And that's the death obsessed gangster Pock. I first noticed this darker side of him on his track, Pain, which is one of my favorite songs of all time. Pain from the above the rim sound track. He also starred in the movie. They'll never take me alive. I'm getting high with my phone five. Don't need something. It's time to die even as a youngster. Close the bucket. So in the back of the bus, I was a fool of the right school. It was interesting listening back to Pain now. He's wrapping as his character from that movie, which is a drug dealer named Bertie. But his time would go on Pock would sort of take on that error if you know. He starts inhabiting these roles. Yeah, it's almost like a method actor who goes so deep undercover they forget that they're a cop. No, dear mama, which is that one of the great documentaries that I think eliminated a lot of his upbringing. And part of its thesis is that it's inhabiting some of these characters and these roles that he starts to blur the lines between being on screen and being off screen. Yeah, and I feel like this song in particular, Pain, at least for me as a casual listener at the time, it's signal to a transition that can be heard on later songs, like ambitions as a writer. That don't feel scars, my trivillain plus cause. Like a surprise star with nothing without a ball. With pull, rock, and rock it, I'm just in the man. Hail Mary. Hail Mary, run quicksie. What do we have in here? I want to ride a dog. And let's hear a bit of a song that he recorded with bone thugs. This is a little bit of a deep cap, but it was recorded around very close to the near the time of his death. This is Thug Love. I'm running, I'm punished for calling you. Now into the facts, love is convinced and God's wisdom. Hands on the strap, bring it so far, but please forgive me. It was interesting. This is from a purely aesthetic point of view. Gunfire works in songs. It really works well. It makes you put your fingers up and make it. It helps it go pop pop. And it reminds me of MIAs with the planes. You mentioned the word faces before. The many faces of Tupac. And it had me flashing on the comedy and tragedy masks. And the thing is, it's an existential question. Where does one end and where does one begin? We're always as humans putting on masks in different scenarios. So if he's putting on a mask, so to speak, more so of a quote unquote gangster, after he plays gangsters, but he's still Tupac, the same Tupac in that 17. The video we saw in the 17. That person still wants to end. Where does the other begin? But that question is true for everybody. Like actual gangsters and thugs are also sensitive people with who want love at the end of the day. Well, it's funny that you should bring that up because in Tupac's, he famously had Thug Life tatted on his torso. But according to the pot, that stood for Thug Life, stood for the hate you give, little infants, fox everybody. You know, this is probably a backranality. Probably a backranality. But that Pock who's very aware of like social injustice, it's not like that Pock went away. No, but it was also like in a weird way. Oh, I have to give people in this, because this is like in the height of gangster rap when this, when he's coming out with a lot of this music. It's almost like he had to do something else to get people to listen. Yeah, exactly. And then once they were in the door, hey, I'm going to share all this other stuff. I was just thinking the same thing. Maybe he finds a new opera, like a new choice. You know, like there's one way to do it, which may or may not in his mind feel like it's been working. Yeah. Because he's disappointed. He talks about when he's, his shock when, who is it? Do caucus didn't get elected, which is so charming. He's like, I really thought do caucus is going to win. Pock was really watching that Iowa caucus results. But he's really, he really is like paying attention to this stuff. And it shocks him when the world continues to disappoint him. So maybe there comes a point where he's like, you know, it's not working doing it this way. Maybe, maybe the, it's the classic Malcolm X versus, you know, Martin Luther King kind of dichotomy. It's like, you know, the King isn't working. Maybe, maybe, maybe try the Malcolm X. It's a little bit of the public enemy. Like Chuck G always said, I need a flavor, flavor there so that it would seem fun and seem like a party. And then when you're while you're there, I was going to do some rapping. But I love what you also said about Pock being a person who wore a mask. You could almost say he didn't wear a literal mask, but he did wear the bandana backwards. Oh, yeah. And that sort of let you know which Pock was coming. Right. But gave him some power. But Pock was, he was, he was totally wearing, he was an actor. You know, and by the way, a very good actor. He was excellent in juice. He was excellent in poetic justice. So many movies. I actually think if we have any centipiles, listen and go back and watch, it's hard to believe this movie got made. But go back and watch gridlocked. I think gridlock is very underrated. Tupac and Tim Roth together on screen. They have so much chemistry directed by Vandy Curtis Hall. If you get a second watch gridlocked. And he said, if folks out there, you know what? Don't watch the movie. It's going to be afraid of it. Same as same as same. I like TV movies suck. I'm afraid of them. So fast forward to 1995, you know, Tupac gets embroiled with this, you know, feud with bad boy records. It's an insane time for Tupac in some of the best and worst ways. He's imprisoned for most of 95. But while he's incarcerated, he had his first album today, BU at number one with me against the world. Then towards the end of 95, Shug Knight paid two Pox, $1.4 million in bail in exchange for a three album deal with death row records. I remember when death row was at the corner of Wilshire and San Vicente here in Los Angeles. That office had blood red carpets. No joke. I think we have a picture of it. For those of you watching. I heard nothing but horror stories about this office. Are you saying the carpets were blood red to mask the actual blood? Like what do you say? Like why is that bad? I think they might have been towards a gang affiliation. But it might have had a dual purpose. Got it. All right. Now I get it. You could actually slaughter. No, I mean, there was like a famous story about a musician. I think he played violin on like some death row album he had been paid. So he showed up at the office. And there was like somebody having sex in the lobby. Like insane, not really appropriate things happening. That's inappropriate. At the corner of Wilshire and San Vicente. But here's what I do now. It was probably not the healthiest environment for a newly freed two-packed fresh from, you know, prison and also beefing with a bad boy. It was probably not the best environment for him to come out of prison and enter into. Seems like it might have been fuel for the fire. Quite possibly. And I'm going to choose my words carefully on this topic. And I agree with you, D. But listen, we're going to take a quick break. But when we get back, we're going to try and trace the origins of that iconic California love hook. It's not as simple as you think when we get back. Industry leaders are transforming business with AWS AI. From Phillips advancing patient care to smarter auto design and games that evolved in real time, AWS AI is how innovation happens every day. Hey, Saints Breeze, we get through so many snacks. Have you gone to think to help me save? Well, we're always matching and lowering prices. So hundreds of Saints Breeze fresh fruit, veg and everyday products are price matched to Aldi. And every week with nectar, you can save money on thousands of the products your family loves. So you can snack away knowing you're saving money. Saints Breeze, good food for all of us. Selected products, Aldi Price Match, not in an eye. Netter prices require nectar recumb. Terms at www.saintwee's.co.uk, slash AldiPriceMatch, and netter.com slash prices terms. Welcome back to One Song. We're about to get into the stems of California Love, which actually started off as a purely Dr. Dre's song. All right, so apparently when Tupac out of prison, he went to a barbecue at Dre's house. Dre showed him the completed beat. And by the way, at the time, there would have been, I've heard up to three verses that Dre had completed, thinking it was going to be his own song. He strips away two of them. And then Tupac went in the booth, laid down his verse in 20 minutes, and the rest is history. Okay, well, let's get into the stems. Yeah, I've recreated the basic beat here. Dre has talked about in a number of interviews over the years. In the NWA era, he would have been chopping using, I think, a Yamaha SY77. At a certain point, he moved to the NPC 60 and the SP 1200. In this moment, I'm not sure whether he used one of those, or if he had already moved to the NPC 3000, which definitely became his NPC of choice, like literally in this moment, like in 1994, when it comes out into 1995. Yeah. So in some form, he chopped up a kick and a snare. And what Tamayir sounds like a high hat and a shaker coming from another source, this is what they sound like individually. You can hear it in the chop that there is some percussion behind it. The snare sounds pretty clean, but I think there might be like a high hat in there too. Again, these are just as chops indicators that they came from samples. These aren't Tamayir's drum machine sounds. They may also be layered with an 808, another tool of choice for Dre in this era. Not sure. Not sure. These are best guesses. This is Luxury's best guess. And then there's a high hat, which as I mentioned, you can really hear the artifacts of the sample source, of some vinyl source. And it's got a little bit of swing in it. So again, as a lifetime of chopping, I can tell you, you hear a break beat or you hear a beat you want to use, you can take the whole thing holistically, an entire loop if it's just like a kick snare beat. Like, you know, we've talked many times about classic breaks, like funky drummer, etc. and peach the president. Or you can go in and do Marley Marl style, just chop out the individual pieces that you want to reuse. So in this case, I do believe we're getting these from different sources. Okay. But last but not least, I'm also hearing what sounds like a drum machine crash. This sounds like a 606 to me. Here is my best effort to recreate the beat. Let me know how close you think I'm getting. Okay. I suck. I fucking nailed that. I freaking nailed. Okay. You crushed that. You know, right after I'm playing a beat, my mouth stops working. So the sentence was to do in real time what an absolute genius trade made and you did a freaking amazing. The tightro walk of this show sometimes is very amusing to me. I'm like, how do I go home? I'm doing like this is insane. But that is my best effort to recreate the beat from California Love. I hope I got at least 70% of the way. Dude, you got 75%. Oh my god. I got to see. Not a few minutes. I appreciate that. Okay. I'm sorry. You got a 83. Yeah, I know. Check this out. Let's play a little bit of the beat. California Love has this iconic riff. It's sort of like the defining quality of the song. It's a single bar loop that goes up the entire song. Yes. It's a piano. I always said that like back when I used to DJ full time, like I wanted to compile a like a playlist or a compilation of like the hardest pianos used in hip hop of all time. There are a couple of songs where like the piano is just hard. Yeah. It's freaking it's heart. It'll street blues by Kooji rap is an example of that. Like I just it hits so hard that piano. And this song has a hard piano in it. Hard piano. Hard piano in it. Correct me if I'm wrong. Does this song, California Love Does It Sample? The song in question would be Joe Cocker's Woman to Woman. Intrude Dre form. This is the era where he's not sampling it. Yeah. He's a trouble later writing for the most part. That's because you pay less money to clear it. That's right. You don't need to clear both the publishing and the master. You're only paying the publishing side of things. Which means you're giving up publishing as we will be a little foreshadowing as we get to this. Let's a little bit later. No small thing for this song with a lottery percussions. But here's the song that was interpolated. This is indeed Joe Cocker's Woman to Woman. And importantly, this is technically Joe Cocker with the Christainton band. Oh, in 1972. I'll get back to that in just a second. Let's listen first to the source. I mean, what kind of music would you say Joe Cocker is? For the right. That's funky. That's fun music. Crazy. And he's also like he's a white British, but he's a blue singer. But he's a blue singer, right? Exactly. And he's the one who did the Beatles, right? He did. Yeah. A little help from my friends. Which is a joke. One of the funniest John Belishie clips of all time. But I feel like Joe Cocker's got one of those great music, alcohol-drenched voices. Yeah. That just sounds really cool. That's Woman to Woman. That's Woman to Woman. And so the Christainton band part's important, because it's actually played by Christainton as a piano player. Kind of an unzong hero, arguably, of this whole song. For sure. Because he's written and performing that hook. Before the part that got used. That's what we say about Sting. Yeah. You know, because I'm sad. He played the piano in the original, which was then recreated by a mysterious force. We don't really know who played the piano. Could have been Dre. Could have been one of his. One of their in-house death row musicians. That's absolutely right. But he's a session player who played with the who and Brian Ferry. And he's been touring with the Eric Clapton band for the last 20 years. So like a renowned background player, basically, who's known in the industry to all the cats. And but like not a name necessary that you would know. And by the way, that wasn't the first hip-hop tune to reuse it. No. No, I feel like you're going to talk about Nicknack Paddy-Wack. Exactly. Let's play a little bit of EPMD Nicknack Paddy-Wack. This is from 1989. Maybe this is where Dre had heard it used before. Maybe not. There's a lot of spelling in there. I'm so glad you bring this up because EPMD is so important to the development of like sampling in hip-hop. And I feel like they don't always get their props for it. Eric Sermon is an absolute genius. Perishmith. But EPMD was the first to a lot of really deep-cut samples that got sampled about five or six later by other artists. And it blew up bigger for them. So I'm going to recreate that sample to the best of my ability with my tiny little keyboard, 25 keys in my little lap over here. So I'm feeling a little constrained. Okay, first of all, let me just say these are parallel fourths playing three chromatic notes in a row. So you're hearing simultaneously is. And also. And together there. But the question is, to my ears, they sound like a fourth apart. Where the G, which is what the key of the song is, is below a D. But it could very well be in the reverse, which would sound like this. Which one sounds more right to you? Versus. This is. Okay, it's the second one. I'm kind of hearing the G on top, which would be. That's what I'm hearing too. So we're going to go with that one song nation, unless you strongly disagree, in which case we would love to hear about it in the comments. I like your face when you play that. Do you like my tongue doing that? What's going on with the bass in the song? Because to me, to my ears, to my DJ ears at the time, I was aware of death row using like live, you know, live musicians in the mix. Is this a song that was in a live musician? So this is one of these episodes where we have to have a little bit of a caveat about names. Because first of all, two things. One, in the credits, there aren't any names to be as performers outside of Drey, Tupac, and Roger Troutman, who we will be doing a little moment about a little bit later. But as far as who's actually performing the sounds that you hear in the mix, we know that they are interpolated and not sampled. But I'm not sure who is reperforming them on every instrument. I will in one moment for one of the sounds I have a theory. Okay. I will say that in the credits for this song on Discox, you'll see a couple of names. One is Sean Barney-Rubble-Tomas. What an amazing name. Such an amazing name. He's a collaborator on a handful of Drey tunes. I do think though that that is just for the remix. It's one of those things or in the credits for the record, it just lists everybody and doesn't correlate a name to an instrument on a song. I'm pretty sure though he's not in this one. Okay. So we're not sure who played the bass line, but we do know that it sounds like this. And this was a fun surprise for me. I thought that this was mapping exactly to the rhythm that we know from the iconic piano line, but it's slightly different. So I'll recreate the part right here. That first note is so important and that's the one that surprised me. I thought it was going to recreate the chromatic. It doesn't have the G-flat in it. And that gives it that sort of tension. Yeah, I was going to say it leads into the resolution of the G. It actually makes it a little bit harder, which would make it more hip-hop-friendly. So that was one of my favorite surprises when I went into the stems. One of my favorite parts of the song is what's going on with the horns. Who's playing the horns? I don't know who's playing the horns, and up until I saw an interview with a foreshadowed soon-to-be-unsung hero of this episode, J-Flex. Okay. I thought that they were synthesized horns, but- Oh really? I thought they were real horns. You know what? This has been a fun episode for me because the rabbit hole, the deep dive into trying to figure out how this got made and by who, led me to all these deep-cut interviews. So there's like at minute 58 of an interview with J-Flex, he mentions almost in passing, quote, then they brought the horns in. I was like, okay, I guess they had live horns on this. So they're live horns? According to J-Flex at minute 52 of this interview. I got to say that isn't surprising because to- Again, to my entrain ears, I thought I heard actual horns. I thought you were going to tell me, no, these are the synthesizers. Here's the thing too, in 1995, when I'm about to play you is a 2025-2026 VST basically, the synthesized version of horns that you can play, which comes from sampling live horn players. It's in the computer. The technology has evolved to the point that they sound like real horns in 1995. Probably didn't have that. Remember when we did the boys to men episode, or this is a horns, they sound like that. They sound a little bit dinky. What Jimmy Jam was talking about? Jimmy Jam was horn sometimes. In the 90s synthesizer horns still sounded like a little fake sound. Swing out, sister. It sound like swing out, sister. So that makes sense to me that this would be live horns. I have recreated them to the best of my ability, and here they are. And I keep hearing now that held first note, that long or first note, that is such an important part of the motif that runs through, again, the entire song is just one four bar loop. Now that said, the horns do come and go for punctuation, Marx essentially throughout it, but you're still getting that long or first note. I'm now hearing the more deeply we dive into the song, how crucial that is to giving it a big part of its power, I think. Absolutely. And what I'm realizing now from the use of live horns, even though we can't find out exactly the names of the players, but the use of live horns, this music video that was probably $2 million or something like that, like when you put money into the art, sometimes it makes it better. Sometimes it makes it more memorable. And I think that one of the problems that we have in society today is that we think we can shortchange the arts essentially, you know, and spend the bare minimum on everything. And that's still going to be just as good. That doesn't seem to be the case. If he had used synthesizer horns in 1995 and they just shot a video at an alley, you know, it wouldn't have the same impact that it has today. Absolutely agree. And to your point, when we get to the songwriting splits by the end of this, you'll see that no expense was spared in the making of this song. Yeah. Interestingly, because we're not done with the interpolations. We've got a couple more to come. And ultimately it cost a pretty penny. So there's one more important part of the music track, which is there's a single stab, which is kind of ghostly sounding. You may or may not have even noticed it, because it's a little subliminal. But here it is. Yeah. Yeah. It's very important. That's actually what makes it sound West Coasty. For whatever reason. Yeah, I think you're right. There's something kind of ghostly about it. It sounds like that kind of moge sound that he's using on the other songs. Yeah. What is that? So I'm not exactly sure what instrument that is, or what synthesizer. But I do know that there's someone who claims to have played it. Okay. Again, the fun of this episode, all the rabbit holes, levy. It's the fog of war. The fog of war led me to Chris the glove tailor, who on a live from the basement interview says, quote, it's a part that I created. One part, one little cord. Can I get my eighth of a percent for that? So he's uncredited as a writer. And it doesn't sound like he was necessarily paid. Yeah. We don't know though. He might have been like in house getting a salary or something like that. But we do know that Chris the glove tailor says that that's his contribution. Okay. That single cord that wasn't part of the sample that he added to the song which we agree is pretty iconic. Yeah. We like that part. We definitely like that part. And just for a little more shine on unsung hero, Chris the glove tailor, he was in the 1984 movie, Breaking, DJing for iced tea. He wrote the song, Reckless for that movie. All right, so let's get into the lyrics. Let's start with the chorus. I was fine. Is that Roger Troutman talking in between a little bit like? Let me give you another one. It's so cute, right? Yeah. The cutest thing ever. We play this game often on the show. Is it vocoder, talk bots? Obviously, I think this is too early for auto tune. Yeah, where are we getting this robot voice from? Yeah. Sure. Well, we're going to talk about Roger in just a second. But first, let me answer your question. A talk box is what we're hearing. Okay. And the difference between a talk box and a vocoder. Because they're very similar. But the easy way to think about it is that so the talk box, you see the tube. Yeah. The tube directs the note in from the singer's mouth to a connected instrument. Uh-huh. In this case with Roger Troutman from Zap. Yeah. He tended to connect it to a mini-mogue. And for this song though, he's using the Yamaha DX100. But what that means is that he's making the instrument sound like the human voice, which is the opposite of a vocoder, which makes the human voice sound like an instrument or more like a robot. Or one ends and the other begins his challenging. Go back to our DAF Punk episodes. That's right. Our two-parter. Because there are moments in, I think that there's a mix of vocoder and talk box and get lucky. But they're very similar. But we know because Roger Troutman is the king of the talk box. Is he sort of the pioneer of the talk box? He is one of the pioneers. One of them, yeah. Let's just say that Peter Frampton did it first in 1976. And in his case, he's using the same device of a tube. Yeah, he's got a tube in his mouth. But it's connected to the guitar. Yeah. So you can connect it to any instrument. That's very fun. Let's watch a little bit of Roger Troutman using his famous talk box. Please roll that clip. First time I was like, Moor down step. Moor down. Moor down. Moor down. Much more down. Moor down. Moor down. Moor down. It's fascinating. It's like I'm almost more fascinated by his old gold outfit. That was insane. For those of you not already watching us on YouTube, watch us on YouTube. Because that outfit is incredible. And I just don't even know if they make that. And let's give a little shine to Roger Troutman and to Zab. Because not just a unsung hero of the song. By the way, he's one of the listed features on the song. Go forget it. Featuring. It's two pop featuring Dre and Roger Troutman. Oh, G. Oh, G. So he Zab is the name of his entity that he was in with his brothers. Four Troutman brothers from Dayton, Ohio. They are foundational to funk. So much. So foundational to West Cones. We have to know Zab episode at some point. Yeah. Zab is just, it's incredible. Absolutely. Incredible music. Incredible catalog. That song that we just heard that was, he was just doing a rendition of more bounce to the ounce, which is produced by Bootsie Collins. Yeah. George Clinton actually signed them. And their first record came out produced by Bootsie. So there's a connection right there to the godfather, the pee funk mothership right there. Yeah. Which is another West Coast connection, obviously. Yeah. So there's a lot in the mix here of like references and sources. Dre was a huge fan of Roger Troutman. And you know, really wanted to get him on a track. And this is what they figured out how to do. So many great songs out of Zab. I'm talking about. I want to be your man. Computer love and so rough, so tough. What is the relationship between so rough, so tough with the song we're talking about today? California love. It's so interesting how many different ways Roger Troutman and Zab are part of the song. So interestingly, the actual chorus to the song, which is California knows how to party, is an interpolation of a song called West Coast Pop Lock by Ronnie Hudson and the street people. Why am I saying this? After you ask me about Zab, we'll find out in just a second. But first, let's listen to West Coast Pop Lock from 1982. California knows how to party. In the city of LA. In the city of C. I can't pop lock. I can't pop lock through. You were pop locking. I can imitate pop locking. But I cannot pop lock to the listeners. If that song sounds familiar, West Coast Pop Lock is because the musical bed of it is supposed to sound like so rough, so tough. Let's listen to that. So right now, keeping your head, there's a lot of information going on here. That's clearly the source of the interpolation, potentially, one of the sources of the song, California loves chorus. But we're also at the same time pointing out that the music for that song from 1982 is a replay of this song by Zab from 1981, so rough, so tough. Those guitars are important. It's the walking baseline, it's the groove, it's the guitar part. These are all staples of fun. About the way it's written. Johnny Hudson didn't sample it. Like, it's a replay. Yeah, there's a replay. He doesn't interpolation. It's slightly different what he does on his song. Yeah, and it's absolutely. It's one of those things where it's like, it's super close. Oh, trust me. And it's, I think, part of the reason why when we get to the credits, we'll see some familiar names. Sure. Yeah. But I was just saying, it's like the difference between bounce rocks, gait, and good times by chic. These songs sound extremely similar. Yeah, and not for no reason. There was an intent to recreate it basically. Exactly. I love the idea of how West Coast pop-lock came about, because the idea for the song actually came from Ronnie's manager. He suggested Ronnie write a song inspired by the pop-lock dance craze that was going on on the West Coast, and specifically in the communities of Compton and Watts. So Ronnie, I love this story. Ronnie literally went down to do research. He lived for those big attention. He lived at the corner of Washington, La Braia. But he went south of the tent. He went down to Compton and Watts. He befriended some locals. He thinks there was some gang affiliation there. But they basically took him on a wild night a parting to show that like, hey, we can have fun. And he saw the roles, Royces that had people inside doing pop-lock and getting out into the street. And that experiences what shaped the song as a genuine celebration of the life that they were living. And you know, to hear Ronnie tell it, you know, he was still able to always go back down there and hang out there because they're like, oh, you did West Coast pop-lock. Hey, that was actually putting a positive light on our community. So there's another wrinkle to the story. A wrinkle to the story. Listen, a rabbit hole within a rabbit hole for this episode. I went down to Discox Rabbit Hole because a gentleman who goes by magic fraga, that's his Discox user name, claims that he wrote a song called Magic's Wrap in 1981 and that it sounds like this. Okay. We're going magic. Listen. On the bottom, in the city, you'll be right there on the What is this song? So I have never heard this song about like, no one has. Listen, let's take a step back. We don't usually trust wiki editors and this is like magic fraga sounds like this is for fun. This is absolutely a bonus round just for fun. I'm pretty sure that this is first of all, it's a record that I don't think ever came out on wide release. Listen, this is a whole Discox saga, which is wonderful. Okay, so can I just say? Okay, I think that in the late 70s, early 80s, there were so many people pressing vinyl records that it's really hard to ever know. You can make it on your own, just go to a recording studio and then pay someone to press the vinyl. We did a minimal amount of research and we found this picture for in fraga, which actually it leads to more questions than an answer. Like who is Sergeant Pepper? Why does he look like he's in that bad BG's Beagle movie? And he was rapping in 1981. You know, but here's also the one more thing I'd add to this is we talked a little bit about this on the Little John episode, which is that sometimes there are these, you know, chance and for the lack of a better word, we don't call them layers, but with there these chance that sort of percolate up from the streets. They percolate up from the streets from the schools. Yeah. In fraga, herded and put it in her song and maybe Ronnie Hudson also heard it and put it into a song. And neither one necessarily, you know, set down a sheet of paper and wrote this out. 100% agree. We don't, it's like a street joke. We will never know who first said chicken or the egg. Exactly. And a million versions of that kind of thing. They're just kind of in the ether. So then so much pop culture. That's right. Not even based on justice picture. Something tells me that this, uh, this, uh, this, this style was probably on the streets first. In fact, DJ Quig said that he was, uh, performing a massive square garden. He started doing that West Coast pop lock. And Dre was there. And Dre was like, oh, yeah, that's good. You got to use that. Yeah. Right, right. Speaking of Dre, let's hear Dre's verse on California love. On a mission for them greens. Lean me money making machines serving things. I've been in the game for 10 years making rap tunes. And this is how these was wearing sassoon. Now was my favorite part of that whole verse is what he says. I've been in the game for 10 years making rap tunes. Ever since honey's was wearing sassoon. Which we know what that is. Those are jeans. Those are like tight jeans from 1979. But sassoons, here's what's crazy about that line to me. Hip hop was young enough where the idea that you had been in it for 10 years was insane. It was like what you've been in rap for 10 years. And now we're like at a time like rappers are in their 50s and 60s. So it doesn't seem so weird. But at the time to be in the rap game for 10 years was unheard of. Especially if you're operating at the level that Dr. Dre was operating at. So earlier we alluded to there's another unsung hero, another YouTube rabbit hole where there is a gentleman called J Flex. So in an interview on the art of dialogue, J Flex has said that he wrote that line. He wrote all three of the verses that in fact were originally in this tune. Yeah, because he was originally a Dre song. So he wrote and recorded those three verses and then Dre went in and wrapped over them. Sure. Basically, you know, maps to what was on the guide vocal essentials. A lot of hip hop producers at this time are using those writings for when it comes time for them to step. Exactly right. Very common for vocalists to do a similar thing. So great interview I would recommend on art of dialogue with this gentleman, J Flex. J's ghost writer on a bunch of tunes. One of my favorite anecdotes though that he talks about for this song is he mentions how when Roger Troutman came in, he was wearing a yellow suit. And he would. As he wore on video soul. Okay, got it. And he talks about how Roger Troutman, I mentioned the talk box works. It's got this tube. So occasionally in between takes, he would take the tube out and swing it around the studio. And they would all need to duck underneath this talk box tube. Is that because of the spittle or the tube itself? The tube itself is like maybe 10 and 15 feet long. So he would just spin it around for kicks just like free people out. And then they'd off the duck underneath Roger Troutman's. That's a pump behavior right there. That's a pump behavior. Behavior. Well, speaking of Roger Troutman, he does come back with one more iconic part. He doesn't just sing the chorus. He has the post chorus. Yeah, let's listen to it. I mean, it's so good. It's so good. I got to believe that he goes into the studio and he records all those different layers. It sounds like he's got one primary and then he's got at least one higher falsetto. I think he's doing a couple of takes. But also, it should be said that the way the machine works, the way a talk box works, is that what you're performing, in other words, with your 10 fingers, is what you're hearing. Imagine zooms through a talk box. Like imagine, like, I don't have the report. Like you do all kinds of harmonies. Oh, hell yeah. Now we're talking to Pock, one of the greatest hipstees of all time. And I kind of want to just let the lyrics speak for themselves. Let's hear a little bit of Tupac Shakur. Only in Cali, will we ride it? Not rally to live in Duh. In LA, we wear chucks, not bellies. That's right. Just in love and khaki suits and ride is what we do. Blossom, but have caution, we can lie with other proofs. His voice has such raw power. Yeah. Until you hear it, I say like that. I don't realize like how emotionally like he just gets you. Amp. You wake right up. You listen everywhere. It's preacher like. It's totally like a preacher. It's totally like a preacher and I can just remember at the time hearing it. I was not a fighting kid, but it made you feel like if anybody steps to me right now, it's going to be on them. It's going to be on them. I was just a contrast too to sort of the more laid back. I mean, it's not snoop, right? It's sort of the opposite of snoop, right? We have this California love. We have this Drake connection, but then he's coming bringing a different energy. Like I like the fact that you could hear him like breathe in. Like you know, like his even his breath feels aggressive. You know what I mean? Right. And then when he spits it out, it's like giving a bump beat for Drake. Like it's like boom, boom, boom. Yeah. It's crazy how much just the human voice can be used differently. You're right. It's so not snoop or slick rake. It's aggressive, not even in like the Chuck D style. I think you know, it's preacher like and it just gets the people. It's so authoritative. He's such a leader. He was such a leader. That's all of everything we've been listening to and watching and like the earlier interviews even, even at 17 years of leader, there's a leadership quality that he has, which is in his language, but then it's also in his voice. And I never thought about it, but literally he starts off Hail Mary Follow Me. So yeah, I think you're right. There's so much potential there and unfortunately, um, dead by 25, which is funny because I hear that voice and I still hear somebody who's older than me. Yeah. But I know he's old. Yeah, at this age, like thinking of 25 year old, it's like it's hard to imagine, like I don't remember feeling that confident at that age personally. No, no, when I go back and watch you like interviews with him and stuff, like he has a way of just sitting in a chair that's compelling. Like you just like, oh god, this man has so much confidence. Okay, so now that we've heard all that luxury, tell us how this blitz break down on California love. Buckle up my friend because there's a lot of people that got paid on this song. And interesting who didn't get paid. That's good. We like people to get paid. Let's do it. So starting with the interpolation of the Joe Cocker song, Woman to Woman, Joe Cocker and Chris Stanton from that song, are also cut into California love to the tune of 20% each. Okay. So right there, 40% of the song going to Cocker and Stanton for the hook for the done and and and and and and and and makes a lot of sense. I think that's worthwhile. West Coast pop lock also gets a fair share 25%, which is shared between Ronnie Hudson and his co-writer Michael Hook. So they get 25% for the chorus for the chorus. We're 65% we only got 35 left. 35 left and there's a number of names. And not all of them get cut into the math of this 100% pie. Yeah. Because the other 35% goes to the Trotman Brothers, Roger and his brother Larry. So, Pock gets nothing off of this. Pock and Dre are listed as songwriters in the public credits with zero next to their names, which is really interesting because it means that by the time they were done clearing all their interpolations, there wasn't anything left for themselves. What's nice about that? This is I believe Pock's best commercial performing single. Now, he would have been paid probably on the master side for royalties, depending on the nature of his record contract or his deal with Dre. There's some money that they are making from his song. And of course, any sort of live performance, etc. But the publishing is all taken up with all of these interpolations. So interesting. Yeah. Luxury, what do you think the legacy of California love is? It is such an iconic song for our state, for the Golden State, for the place where we live. You know, it's a lot of hometown pride. That's true. A lot of home state pride. And I love that it's encapsulated in the song, and especially given who the players are on the song. The people who made the song and the song's legacy with all the layers as we've been discussing with the interpolations and the use of other things. I agree. And so funny. In my mind, it enters the pantheon of great songs about places. You know, you would never, you know, from California's soul, California love, some of the songs by the doors, like this song definitely reeks California. You wouldn't put together a definitive playlist about the West Coast and leave this song off. But I think there's so much, in terms of legacy, there's so much I want to say about Tupac, but for this song in particular, it's the one that launched him into full-blown superstar. You know, it's what prevents him from just being the guy who did deer mama. There are a lot of people with hits in the 90s who have never risen to the level of Tupac's Accord. And I think that because this one never finds a dance floor empty, it actually helps preserve Tupac in the mass consciousness. Yeah. You know, I mean, like if all the songs were like serious and earnest, well, then it would be easier to forget them, right? I feel like it's like maybe the most widely known across the population. Like the general population, not the head necessarily for the fans. I agree. I think that if Marmigay only had like his slow songs and not like a, got to give it up. You know, it'd be easier to forget that he had been there. And I think that this song, because it gets people to the state to get up and dance, isn't some way more of a celebration of his musical legacy than if it had not been there. Tragically, just nine months after the release of this song, Tupac was gone. But what's wild is how massive his career came after his death. Seven posh in the salons, a Grammy, more than a dozen to Huckian Mineries, the Coachella hologram. Who knows how many books and articles there are about this guy? Like I said, we need a whole podcast off on the side to talk about Tupac. I don't know of any other artist whose legacy stretches quite as far as Tupac's. And thanks to artists like Kendrick Lamar, I think future generations will know him too. We have future generations carrying that torch. I don't think Tupac or California love is going anywhere anytime soon. Okay, luxury is time for one more song. This is the segment where we share a deep cut or a hidden gem with you, the one song nation and with each other. T yellow, what's your song today? My song this week, I'm going to keep it West Coast. There's a song on the radio right now called Rockin' by Shoreline Mafia. And it's so freaking cool. It sounds like old school West Coast. So when I heard all the radio, it was like, I like that somebody was like going back to the sound. So let's hear a little bit of Shoreline Mafia's rockin'. Love that song. So old school. It samples funky little B by Connie. That's awesome. I mean like, wonderful way to throw back the vibes. Like when you're playing that on like a Sunday afternoon, the sun is like, you know, still out here in LA. It's got that Q80s electro kind of feeling. Absolutely. And I like the use of the sample. Like the sample comes back like every four bars or so. I love it when people do that because it makes it sort of like a small in-song chorus. There's like a sub-genre of a lecture I just as we're talking about. It's like, I love a lecture. I like the hard beats. I love the, you know, everything from the crowdwork and planet rock. But then there's the sort of cute sub-genre where you have these female vocalists. I have so many songs I'm thinking of now. Shannon, let them use it play. Might be my favorite. Absolutely. Shannon, listen to the show. Shout out to you. Now let's hear just a little bit of Connie Funky Little Beat just so that people can hear the original. They've all got the same sort of craft work. Beat. But then you can do so much on top of that. Am I right? This is cute. This is cute electro. It's a funky little beat. It's a funky little beat. Luxury, what's your one more song? So I've been enjoying this new phase of life, whereas the KCRW DJ, I'm actually doing a rock show. Being like a disco and funk DJ and practitioner for a decade plus, like they gave me a post-punk show. So I'm having fun finding some new or more recent music to kind of throw in the mix along with my, you know, post-punk classics for a wire and gang of four. This is a band called Ambreening Girls at a Brighton, the UK. Right on. The record is called Who Let The Dogs Out? The song is called Love. A full day. Tars are back, baby. I love it. Also, what I like about that is that she's singing aggressively. Yeah. And I think the aggression is way better on, on a song that it isn't real. It's kind of preaching a little bit. She's kind of like two pocketed a little bit. I was going to say like there's, there's a little bit of like, this is what Brighton anger. Yeah. So she's so in Brighton love. Yeah, and the guitar is a little bit of a yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Zee, vibe. This is a little briny. It's a little briny, it's called Lambreeny Girls. Lambreeny Girls. Yeah, that song is called Love. It was one of the few I could play with how to explicit lyrics in it. I will say another song from this record, which I can't say is Blankology 101. That's like the key track. Okay. Go check that one out. Lambreeny. I'm not going to say the C word. Lambreeny, but you, Lambreeny, but this song was called Love. That song was called Love. Perfect. The other one is called Blankology 101. Well, I loved it. I love it. Definitely going to go out and buy that one today. As always, if you have an idea for one more song, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at DialloDi8, LLO, and on TikTok at DialloRotel. And you can find me on Instagram at LUXXURY and on TikTok at LuxuryXX. And you can follow our podcast on Instagram and TikTok at one song podcast for exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of one song on YouTube and Spotify and on Apple. Just search for one song podcast. We'd love it if you'd like it. Subscribe. Also, be sure to check out the one song Spotify playlist for all of the songs we discuss in our episodes. You can find the link in our episode description. And if you've been at this far, you're officially part of the one song nation. Show us some love. Give us five stars. Leave a review and send this episode to a fellow music fan. It really helps keep the show thriving. Luxury helped me in this thing. I'm producer DJ Songwriter, Musicologist, and every Friday night from 10 to midnight on KCIRW, KCIRW DJ Luxury. And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ, and sometimes KCIRW listener, the all-o-rittle. And this is one song we will see you next time. This episode is produced by Melissa Duaniaz, our video editor is KC Simoncent, mixing by Michael Hartman and engineering by Eric Hicks. This show is executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Wile, and Leslie Guam.