Dr Dre - Stowaways and Throwaways (and Tupac...)

[Deuce-Deuce]

From the Book by Bruce Williams, Dre's former right hand man. Never heard about this before I read the book so I thought Id share.

Tupac had been a labelmate at the umbrella record label Interscope. In 1995, he had gone to jail on a sexual assault conviction, and his album "Me Against The World" came out while he was locked up. The album, while uneven, made him a huge star. Suge put up $1.4 million to bail him out and the next thing you knew he was rollin with us.

The first thing he ended up doing for Death Row was "California Love". Pac recorded relentlessly, and he had a lot of songs for the album that would become "All Eyez On Me", the first rap double album ever, but he didnt have that first single - the monster single that would make folks gravitate toward the CD. Well, Dre was working on a compilation called "Stowaways and Throwaways" that "California Love" was supposed to appear on. That album was a cool bunch of older songs he wrote and produced that didnt make "The Chronic" and a few new songs like "California Love". That version had only Dre doing the two verses. After listening to Tupac's massive collection of freshly recorded stuff, Dre thought his song could instead make a hot single for the newest addition to the Death Row family.

Less than a month out of jail, Pac strode into Can-am studios in broad daylight. Dre played "California Love" for him with his verses still on it.
"So what you think?" the producer asked as soon as his track stopped playing. He could be slow and methodical in presenting new material if the situation called for it. "You want me to play it again, so you can write to it?"
"I'm ready to go right now," Tupac said. "Lets do it."

And the nigga went and walked into the booth and kicked his shit. Now Pac always doubled his lyrics - overdubbed them so that his vocals weighed heavy on the track. For him to come right out of jail, listen to a track one time, not write anything down, go tear it up on the mic, and then bust the exact same thing with the same cadence and inflection was fucking unbelievable.

Dre turned in his seat at the console and looked at me in total wonder.

"That's some incredible shit," he whispered. Even as new to the studio I was , it struck me as phenomenal. What I couldn't know at the time is that I'd not see or hear anything close to that performance again. He was capturing a moment in time: Tupac was fresh out of prison, livin the life of Los Angeles after going through a poor semblance of American life in his formative years. He had the Bishop role form "Juice" in his back pocket. Now here he was in Hollywood, trying to cash come checks and make some art. In that order and right the fuck now. Here was the definition of live performance. (This is why "best performance" awards are absurd. You'll see vocalists win awards for turns that were pieced together by a producer, line by line; it's the producer that deserves recognition. This Tupac shit was almost athletic, a performance worthy of Jordan in his prime.)

Niggas dont realize: Tupac was workin. He was smokin and drinkin and bustin. Think about it, the nigga made wack beats into hits. Nowadays, your average rap star wont even think about putting out a single without some mind-blowing beat to go and block for him. It was never about the beat, it was about his voice. It's a rhythm. The dude was a preacher to me, he told stories. He let you know how it really was in the world.

If only he had people around him who would just tell him every once in a while, "You need to just chill out." Out in the world, that is. Inside the studio, he was off the hook like he had to be.

I dont have to tell you that the song turned out great. The video for "California Love" really set it off, though. Its concept of Mad Max-ish desert partying came from Jada Pinkett-Smith, who wanted to direct the video. Dre and I drove out to Jada's house in Agoura Hills. She had been giving us ideas and explaning the whole situation when, right before the shoot, Jada freaked and said she coudn't be a part of it.
Why?
Two words: Will Smith.
A Dr Dre video? Uh-uh. I knew the deal. Will dont like gangsta rap, so there was no way in hell he was gonna let his old lady direct no video for no gangsta rappers. Plus, Jada and Tupac went way back and were mad cool. Will wasn't trying to see Jada holed up with this nigga, out in some middle-of-nowhere hotel.

So we ended up doing our own thing, We were all in the video - Dre, Pac, me, and just about the whole Death Row crew. We did it off the 15 Freeway, on the way to Las Vegas. Everybody had ridden out to the set, which had once been a lake and now was a dry bed. The effect was to make the backdrop appear like a planet absolutley lacking in moisture. It was dope. We easily fell into our roles as partiers. Niggas couldn't wait to get into those Thunderdome costumes.

For some reason I had to come back to the hotel and found Tupac standing in front of the hotel.
"Yo, Pac, what you doin out here?"
"Man, I thought this was my video, dog. Everybody left me."
I was like , what the fuck is going on?
"Dude, do you want me to take you?"
"Naw man, I dont want you to take me. I want to make them motherfuckers realize they need to come get me."

Thats fucked up. We were supposed to all be in this together. Nobody should have been leaving this dude like that. We ended up doing another "California Love" video because Pac didnt really feel like that was his video.

It's funny, but as Dre was just really starting to relax, Tupac's wilding was reaching it's apex. He was losing himself in the Death Row role.
Pac wasn't as wild as people thought he was. He was as wild as the people around him.

[Okka]

I've heard so many stories about the original version of "California Love" and why it was given to Tupac that i can't even know what to believe. I can't remember who said it, but supposedly Suge told Dre to give Pac the beat. Also i thought that the original version had three verses from Dr. Dre and not two, and supposedly DJ Jam is the only one who still has the original version.

[GangstaBoogy]

^ word there's like 5 different stories about this song

- dr dre and ice cube song
- dogg pound song that wasn't allowed to make the album
- suge made dre give it to pac
- pac took it from dre
- now this story that they went in the studio together and dre offered it to him

Either way its a shame they didn't work together more. People always wanna make these wackass 2pac remix tapes, they need to make one of pac on only dre beats

[kuruptlon]

Thanks a lot for posting this story. Interesting read

[Unforgivable by Sean John]

wow, this story says that pac recorded it at can-am??

every other story involved pac recording the song at Dre's house.

maybe these supposed insiders actually WERENT there, and actually don't know what happened...

[sms130]

I think the song was recorded at Cam-Am originally. From what I've gathered, Dre did that at Cam-Am with Roger Troutman. Not after that session, Roger did the LBC Crew "Beware Of My Crew" song. Now, the session at Cam-Am (I think) was for Dre's version of "California Love". When 2Pac got on tha song, he recorded his part at Dre's house. 2Pac and Dre broke that down on MTV back at that time. I've heard those other stories as well like Suge making Dre give that song up to 2Pac and let Pac get on the song. I think a simular story was rumored to happen with another Dre produced song "Can't C Me". It was said that basicly Suge took the recording of "Can't C Me" and let 2Pac get on the record. So, all of those other stories of Suge giving Pac those 2 songs is bullshit.

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

I think the song was recorded at Cam-Am originally. From what I've gathered, Dre did that at Cam-Am with Roger Troutman. Not after that session, Roger did the LBC Crew "Beware Of My Crew" song. Now, the session at Cam-Am (I think) was for Dre's version of "California Love". When 2Pac got on tha song, he recorded his part at Dre's house. 2Pac and Dre broke that down on MTV back at that time. I've heard those other stories as well like Suge making Dre give that song up to 2Pac and let Pac get on the song. I think a simular story was rumored to happen with another Dre produced song "Can't C Me". It was said that basicly Suge took the recording of "Can't C Me" and let 2Pac get on the record. So, all of those other stories of Suge giving Pac those 2 songs is bullshit.

do the stories of Suge forcing Dre to give up the songs even have a source? Cuz as far as I know they are just rumors. Rumors spread so easily, so I tend to believe this story as it has a source.

[J$crILLa]

who knows, would be dope if we could know the real truth ever one day

[Dre-Day]

I think the song was recorded at Cam-Am originally. From what I've gathered, Dre did that at Cam-Am with Roger Troutman. Not after that session, Roger did the LBC Crew "Beware Of My Crew" song. Now, the session at Cam-Am (I think) was for Dre's version of "California Love". When 2Pac got on tha song, he recorded his part at Dre's house. 2Pac and Dre broke that down on MTV back at that time. I've heard those other stories as well like Suge making Dre give that song up to 2Pac and let Pac get on the song. I think a simular story was rumored to happen with another Dre produced song "Can't C Me". It was said that basicly Suge took the recording of "Can't C Me" and let 2Pac get on the record. So, all of those other stories of Suge giving Pac those 2 songs is bullshit.

do the stories of Suge forcing Dre to give up the songs even have a source? Cuz as far as I know they are just rumors. Rumors spread so easily, so I tend to believe this story as it has a source.

not that i know

[kuruptDPG]

"Stowaways and Throwaways"

gd title...wonder wat else was on it

[sms130]

I think the song was recorded at Cam-Am originally. From what I've gathered, Dre did that at Cam-Am with Roger Troutman. Not after that session, Roger did the LBC Crew "Beware Of My Crew" song. Now, the session at Cam-Am (I think) was for Dre's version of "California Love". When 2Pac got on tha song, he recorded his part at Dre's house. 2Pac and Dre broke that down on MTV back at that time. I've heard those other stories as well like Suge making Dre give that song up to 2Pac and let Pac get on the song. I think a simular story was rumored to happen with another Dre produced song "Can't C Me". It was said that basicly Suge took the recording of "Can't C Me" and let 2Pac get on the record. So, all of those other stories of Suge giving Pac those 2 songs is bullshit.

do the stories of Suge forcing Dre to give up the songs even have a source? Cuz as far as I know they are just rumors. Rumors spread so easily, so I tend to believe this story as it has a source.

I think one of those rumors appeared in that VIBE article in 1996 with Snoop. Dre, Suge, and Pac on the cover along with other stuff. I think that's the one that said that Suge was the one got 2Pac on "Can't C Me" and erased Dre and Cube's vocals off the song. I find that hard to believe. Some of that stuff has been written over the years.

[Mr Wicked]

- dr dre and ice cube song
- dogg pound song that wasn't allowed to make the album

I think you're confusing this with "Can't C Me"
I never heard a rumor that dogg pound or cube did anything on "Cali Love"
but for "Can't C Me" it's confirmed

do the stories of Suge forcing Dre to give up the songs even have a source? Cuz as far as I know they are just rumors. Rumors spread so easily, so I tend to believe this story as it has a source.

not that i know

here's the source
from The Making Of All Eyez On Me article by XXL

"California Love [RMX]" Featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman Produced by Dr. Dre

Tommy D: f##k it, I can say it: Dre really didn't want nothing to do with that record. He didn't
like it at all that 2pac came to Death Row, which I thought was kind of interesting, 'cause I
remember he said, "That's it, I'm done with Death Row now that 2pac is here." I was like,
"What the f##k!?" I mean, if you look at that album, he didn't do shit on "All Eyez On Me"
except for "California Love," which basically was, ughhh, that was going to be his single for
Aftermath, right? And Suge heard that shit and said, "f##k it," and rushed up to Dre's house
and made him put 2pac on there. So basically he lost his first single for Aftermath, and it
ended up being the first single for 2pac. Because the original version of that is three verses
with dre rapping on it. The only person who's got that original version is DJ Jam, Snoop's DJ.
So basically Suge was like, "f##k it, we're putting 2pac on that shit, and this is going to be the
single off the record..." that shit was dope. Suge ain't no dummy.

[Dre-Day]

oh yeah i've read that before, my bad.

strange that tommy is talking about the og, not the remix, even though the article is about all eyez on me

[GangstaBoogy]

@mrwicked

You're right I'm lost lol.

[DUBYA CNN]

only a faggot would make up facts to impress his Euro counterparts...OH WAIT THATS MATTY