California Love (Remix) ft. Dr. Dre

“California Love (Remix)” is American rapper and producer Dr. Dre’s remix of rapper 2Pac’s original track “California Love”. It is the last track on 2Pac’s 1996 album “All Eyez on Me”.

The track features 2Pac and Dr. Dre rapping about aspects of California life, with Roger Troutman singing the chorus using a talkbox, which produces a electronic/robotic sound. “California Love” is arguably 2Pac’s most famous track as well as his track to be released after his stint in prison and his decision to join Death Row Records. According to Rolling Stone magazine, 2Pac stated that he didn’t want the track to “…be about violence. I want it to be about money.” The song was made and written in Dr. Dre’s in house studio, 2Pac came in and wrote his verse straight away; it took him just 15 minutes to write his verse.

The weekend after the song was completed the video was then recorded. There are 2 versions of the music video. The original version was directed by Hyper Williams and inspired by the Mad Max film “Beyond Thunderdome”, and it takes place in the desert in 2095. The second version of the video for the remix, is a continuous version of the first video. Opening up where the first video left off (in a desert), but realise it is simply 2Pac having a nightmare. 2Pac wakes up to next to a woman, calls Dr. Dre who invites him over to his summer house for a party. The rest of the music video features scenes of the party and appearances from Dr. Dre, Robert Troutman and other rappers. It was uploaded to YouTube by a user named “RedDome1995” on the 30th December 2010. As of September 2019, the music video has almost 300 million views.

Release Date: 3rd December 1995

Songwriter/s: Tupac Shakur, Andre Young, Roger Troutman & J-Flexx

Producer/s: Dr.Dre

Label/s: Death Row Records & Interscope Records

Music Video Release Date: 1995

Music Video Director/s: Original Version: Hype Williams

Chart Rankings, Certifications & Accolades: In its year of release, the remix of “California Love” hit #1 in the charts in Canada, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, and the US Billboard Hot 100, US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop & US Billboard Hot Rap charts. It also reached the charts in other countries such as Australia, Belgium, Iceland, Germany, Norway and Scotland. “California Love (Remix)” has Gold certification in Australia, Canada, Norway and the UK, as well as certifying Platinum in New Zealand and 2x Platinum in the US. The track was voted the 11th best single of 1996 by an annual critics poll named “Pazz & Jop”, the music video ranked #9 on the top 10 on MTV’s “100 Greatest Videos Ever Made” in 1999, #51 on VH1’s countdown of the “100 Greatest songs of the 90s”, #6 on rap.about.com’s “50 Great Hip-Hop Songs” from 2001, #17 in Slant’s 2011 “The 100 Best Singles of the 90s”, and #346 on Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list in 2004.