Songoftheday 2/15/19 - Some say the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice, I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots...
from the album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from the late rapper Tupac Shakur, aka 2Pac, who had landed his first top-40 pop hit in the fall of 1993 with "I Get Around". As opposed to that party track, his follow-up single was much more topical. As shown in the music video, the song was dedicated to Latasha Harlins, a teenage African-American girl who was shot in the back of the head following an exchange at a liquor store by the store's owner's wife, who was eventually given a creampuff sentence even though convicted of ill intent. This incident, which was part of the sparks that set off the 1992 riots in Los Angeles (along with the beating of Rodney King), was alluded to at the start of this inspirational downtempo rap track, as 2Pac guides the listener to stay strong against all this adversity, especially for black women, all on top of a prominent sample of "O-o-h Child" from the Five Starsteps with the hook sung by Dave Hollister of Blackstreet...
"Keep Ya Head Up" became 2Pac's second top-40 pop hit in January of 1994. The song also climbed to #7 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, and #2 on their Rap Singles chart. A final single from the record, "Papa'z Song", which featured 2Pac's older stepbrother Mopreme (then under the name Wycked), was a minor hit on the pop (#87) and R&B (#82) charts.
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Here's 2Pac appearing on MTV Jams Live in 1993...
In 1999, after his death, a "sequel" to the track was released as "Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head Up)" featuring his collective Outlawz. The result reached #36 on the R&B chart and #72 on the pop Hot 100, and was a top-40 hit in the Netherlands (#22), Germany (#25), and New Zealand (#35). It appeared on the posthumous album Still I Rise...
and finally, here's 2Pac making an appearance at a local school, and quoting his own song giving advice to the kids...
Up tomorrow: Drummer turned pop star requests equal coverage.
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