B-side When I Get Free Length 4:40 | Genre R&B, hip hop | |
Released October 26, 1997 (1997-10-26) Label | ||
"I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" is the first posthumous single by 2Pac. It appears on his album R U Still Down? (Remember Me). The original was also released as the B-side on the "Keep Ya Head Up" single.
There are two versions of the song on the R U Still Down? (Remember Me) album. One is an OG Vibe (remake of the original, using the same sample); the other is a "hip hop remix" version. It was featured on the "Keep Ya Head Up" single.
The song title originally came from the lyrics of fellow West Coast rapper Spice 1, of the 1992 song "Welcome to the Ghetto."
Rapper Nas interpolated "I Wonder if Heaven's Got A Ghetto" in his song "Black President" on 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 chorus.
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 appears also. 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.