I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto
"I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" | ||||
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Single by 2Pac | ||||
from the album R U Still Down? (Remember Me) | ||||
B-side | "When I Get Free" | |||
Released | September 21, 1997 (1997-09-21) | |||
Recorded | 1992 | |||
Genre |
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Length | 4:40 | |||
Label |
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Songwriter(s) | Tupac Shakur, D.K. McDowell, Larry Troutman, Lawrence Goodman, Roger Troutman | |||
Producer(s) | Soulshock & Karlin | |||
2Pac singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" on YouTube | ||||
"I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" is a song by American rapper 2Pac. It was released as the first single from the posthumous album R U Still Down? (Remember Me). The original version, titled "I Wonda if Heaven's Got a Ghetto", was released as a B-side on the 1993 single, "Keep Ya Head Up".
There are two versions of the song on the R U Still Down? (Remember Me) album. One, a remake of the original (using the same sample); the other, a completely new remix, subtitled as the "hip hop version", was the version used for the song's single release.
The song's title originally came from the lyrics of fellow West Coast rapper, Spice 1's 1992 song, "Welcome to the Ghetto",[1] and contains a direct sample of Cameo's 1978 song, Two of Us.[2]
Rapper Nas interpolated "I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto" in the song "Black President" from his untitled 2008 album. The line "And though it seems heaven sent/We ain't ready to have a black president" is used repeatedly as the song's chorus. Rapper The Game used the instrumental in the beginning of his song "I Didn't Wanna Write This Song" off of his studio album Born 2 Rap.
Music video
In the Lionel C. Martin directed music video from September 14–15, 1997, the perspective is a first-person viewpoint of Shakur. After being shot, he stumbles to a nunnery in fictional Rukahs, New Mexico. ('Rukahs' spelled backward is 'Shakur'.) The license plate of the car that Shakur gets in with the older man reads "61671", which references Shakur's birthday on June 16, 1971. The room he goes into with the girl is room number 7. The clock in the background at the end is set to 4:03, the same time Shakur officially died at 4:03, Tupac also appears at the end, he goes into Amaru Diner, Amaru being his middle name.
In the first 5 seconds "...rapper Tupac Shakur shot multiple times" is heard from the helicopter.
The video also features several notable figures. Mother Teresa is seen getting on a bus, and already on the bus are Jimi Hendrix, Martin Luther King Jr., Huey P. Newton, and Elvis Presley.
Charts
Weekly charts
Chart (1997–1998) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[3] | 70 |
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[4] | 11 |
UK Singles (OCC)[5] | 21 |
UK R&B (Official Charts Company)[6] | 4 |
US Billboard Hot 100[7] | 67 |
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[8] | 14 |
US Hot Rap Songs[9] | 18 |
Year-end charts
Chart (1998) | Position |
---|---|
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[10] | 77 |
References
- ^ "2Pac's "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" Sample of Spice 1's "Welcome to the Ghetto"". WhoSampled. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ "2Pac's "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" Sample of Cameo's "Two of Us"". WhoSampled. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
- ^ "2 Pac – I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto". Top 40 Singles.
- ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
- ^ "Official Hip Hop and R&B Singles Chart Top 40 | Official Charts Company". Official Charts.
- ^ "2Pac Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
- ^ "2Pac Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)". Billboard.
- ^ "2Pac Chart History (Hot Rap Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
- ^ "Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs – Year-End 1998". Billboard. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
External links
- Music video on YouTube
- v
- t
- e
- The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
- R U Still Down? (Remember Me)
- Still I Rise
- Until the End of Time
- Better Dayz
- Loyal to the Game
- Pac's Life
- 2Pac Live
- Live at the House of Blues
- Greatest Hits
- Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988–1991
- The Prophet: The Best of the Works
- Tupac: Resurrection
- The Prophet Returns
- Best of 2Pac
- Nothing but Trouble (soundtrack)
- Sons of the P
- Juice (soundtrack)
- Poetic Justice (soundtrack)
- Above the Rim (soundtrack)
- Gridlock'd (soundtrack)
- Gang Related (soundtrack)
- A 2Pac Tribute: Dare 2 Struggle
- The Rose That Grew from Concrete
- The Rose, Vol. 2
- "Brenda's Got a Baby"
- "If My Homie Calls"
- "Trapped"
- "Holler If Ya Hear Me"
- "I Get Around"
- "Keep Ya Head Up"
- "Papa'z Song"
- "Cradle to the Grave"
- "Dear Mama"
- "So Many Tears"
- "Temptations"
- "California Love"
- "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted"
- "How Do U Want It"
- "I Ain't Mad at Cha"
- "Toss It Up"
- "To Live & Die in LA"
- "Hail Mary"
- "Wanted Dead or Alive"
- "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto"
- "Do for Love"
- "Changes"
- "Unconditional Love"
- "Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)"
- "Until the End of Time"
- "Letter 2 My Unborn"
- "Thugz Mansion"
- "Still Ballin'"
- "Runnin' (Dying to Live)"
- "One Day at a Time (Em's Version)"
- "Thugs Get Lonely Too"
- "Ghetto Gospel"
- "Untouchable"
- "Pac's Life"
- "Playa Cardz Right"
- "I Don't Give a Fuck"
- "Runnin' from tha Police"
- "Ambitionz az a Ridah"
- "All Eyez on Me"
- "Hit 'Em Up"
- "Are U Still Down"
- "Panther Power"
- "Gotta Get Mine"
- "Smile"
- "Playa Cardz Right"
- The Rose That Grew from Concrete
- Holler If Ya Hear Me
- Biggie & Tupac
- Tupac: Resurrection
- Tupac: Assassination
- Dear Mama
- Yaki Kadafi
- Kastro
- Napoleon
- E.D.I. Mean
- Hussein Fatal
- Mussolini
- Komani
- Young Noble
- Outlawz
- Digital Underground
- Afeni Shakur
- Assata Shakur
- Mopreme Shakur
- Mutulu Shakur
- Thug Life
- Death Row Records
- East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry
- Niccolò Machiavelli
- Orlando Anderson
- Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts
- All Eyez on Me (film)
- Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.
- City of Lies
- "Taylor Made Freestyle"