'Rebel for the hell of it; the life of Tupac Shakur'
by Armond White (Quartet Books)

''All Eyez on Me' is widely referred to as rap's first double album, actually rap's first double CD. Sex is the sound of 'California Love', Tupac's first number one single. It certifies a level of achievement and commercial bliss. It's also the expression of Roger Troutman. And Dr Dre, who produced 'California Love' gets props for reviving Troutman's sound and fitting it to Tupac's ecstasy. As the lead exponent of 80's dance group Zapp ('Computer Love' was its big 1986 hit) Troutman innovated a rhythnic vocal distortion that wove through the band's basic funk grooves. His eerily sensual vocal contrasts could be hard to take yet it's one of those signature sounds of individual genius that occur throughout the history of Black pop. On Scritti Politti's 1989 'Provision' Green Gartside enlisted Troutman along with Miles Davis to augment his exquisitely high tech pop deconstructions on the tracks 'Boo! There She Was' and 'Sugar and Spice', where Troutman sang the extremes of nearly inexpressible physical release.

Troutman's high squeak and low-pitch warbles turn up on 'California Love' to sexualise Dre's particular politics, where prosperity equals orgasm. No-one expected a a love song from the cold blooded maestro of gansta rap but 'California Love' commemorates Tupac's flight west after his East Coast jail bailout. The song celebrates the social haven (goldmine) Dre and Suge Knight invite Tupac to join. It's not the sunny California fun that the Beach Boys created but something darker and more evanescent. Dre mystifies success as 'love' then raps about California as the locale of his professional and cultural triumph.

There's a mythological and historical background to that victory: West Coast hip hop is that area's strongest Black musical achievement. It's an empire of sorts-a dream to the young generation of Black working class kids whose parents suffered through that Republican community's severe racial redistricting-even after numbers of them had fled to California from worse conditions in the American South. For many, the dream of hip hop is still deferred.

'California Love' has a quasi-Republican ethos in the way it substitutes feel-good sentiment for social action. It launched the release of 'All Eyez on Me', with Tupac playing the hyped up Black ne'er do well to perfection. A dull rapper compared to Dre, who masters a functional snarl, Tupac has little to do with this record's beauty. Dre has the best lines, updating California's sun fun myth as a defence against depression: 'Like a vest for your jimmy in th ecity of sex'.

'On a mission for them greens/Lean, mean, money makin machine servin fiends/I been in the game for ten years makin rap tunes/Ever since honeys was wearin Sassoons/Now it's 95 and they clock me and watch me/Diamond shinin, lookin like I robbed Liberace/It's all good from Diego to the Bay/Your city is the bomb if your city's makin pay'. Tupac's sex-grunt 'Umpf' can be heard in the background. Troutman's sizzling counterpoints ('Come on come on' and 'California knows how to party') epitomize how Dre and Tupac get off on the commercialization of Black lawlessness by the direct sensual distraction of artistic recreation.

Hip hop has certainly rocked the authoritarian world; its success can be seen as earthshattering to musicians beefitting from its revolution. After the Clash had done its job Joe Strummer tried to keep going and put an 80's album out titled 'Eartquake Weather', a lame effort still holding on to the idea of creating pop art that can change things aesthetically and for real. It happens that Black American artists who triumph over daily social oppression can automatically achieve the subversive effect white artists construct through effect and illusion.'

witm8

What is Anhomie and Bonhomie? I did a google search and came up with Scritti Politti... Are you using a pun as in Bon 'Homie'? like Home boy? Clever, but how did you come up with Scritti Politti? Do you know the album? Its terrible....!!!

I'm being honest. Its so cryptic on here sometimes I get confused.

Anyway, yeah, Tupac's alwight if ya like that sort of thing, Gimme some proper old skool Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five for genuine social comment anyday tho. Without the polish

...or the gloss.

...and ya can't knock Strummer. He meant well, and even if he didn't nail it on occasion, I still love the guy.