Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

Download

The Making Of Makaveli - The 7 Day TheoryThe Making of Makaveli (from XXL Magazine)The recording sessions that yielded 2pac's last album took place over 7 hennessy soaked daysin Aug 1996 While the rapper was concurrently filming two movies (Gridlock'd and GangRelated). Approximately 20 songs were put to tape at Los Angeles Can-Am studios, 11 of which made the finished product. Pac's final work was produced mainly by Tyrone "Hurt emBadd" Wrice and Darryl "Big D" Harper. Two Death Row records producers who failed todraw intrests even in the vacuum left by the departed Dr. Dre and featured guest spots mostlyfrom Pac's childhood friends and family the Outlaws.Released nine months earlier Pac'sdouble album "All eyes on Me" had been certified quintuple platinum, making thecontroversial star the marquee name at the most successful company in rap music. So withSnoopand the dogg pund in an adjacent studio, Pac closed ranks and rushed his supportingcast of underdogs through a blitzkrieg artistic process creating a dark, insular, paranoidcollection of songs he sub titled "The 7 day theory" The urgency of the album is palable.Many listeners have in fact suggested that he was running out of time. Today, Makaveli,remains pac fans favorite memrial to their hero after his passing. 7 years later. XXl magazinespoke to some of the people who were working so closely with pac during his final days. andgot a track by track run down on the making of a classic album.WHITE MAN'Z WORLDYoung Noble That was one of those ones that 'Pac was just expressing himself on, just being a black man. 'Pac had love for White folks too. 'Pac had love for people in general. [ Das isteinfach ein Song, wo Tupac sich ausdrÃ¼ckt, einfach ein schwarzer Mann zu sein. Pac hatteauch Liebe fÃ¼r WeiÃŸe. Pac hatte Liebe fÃ¼r Menschen generell.E.D.I. He's talking to his sister. It's kind of personal, so I don't want to get into the personalside of it, but he's talking to his sister and he's talking to his mother. It's a personal record. Ithink it's like an open letter to his mother and his sister. He's like writing from jail. He's really just apologizing for alot of shit. At 25, we're all trying to grow up and change and figure outshit. Alot of people don't remember that dude was only 25. That's still a kid, really. 25 is a realyoung, immature age. But at the same time, he had the responsiblity of a 40-year-old. He hadthe responsibilty of a whole family, a whole label. At that point in the game, Death Row wason 'Pac's shoulders and he knew it.Darryl Harper: 'Pac wrote the hook. I had did a beat; he liked it. He wrote the melody andeverything for the hook and I sung it. I wasn't really happy with a lot of the stuff, because hedidn't let us do alot of parts over. On "White Man'z World" I could hear my backgrounds are

kind of off there-like I'm saying something twice or something. But 'Pac said "That's it. That'sit That song's Finished. Wrap that up send it down there to get mixed."ME AND MY GIRLFRIENDYoung Noble: He got that concept from Nas. Remember Nas did that song about the gun["IGave You Power" from the 1996 album It Was Written]? 'Pac used to like that song. Whenhim and Nas Squashed their beef, I was happy. I grew up on NAS. Around my way, when Nascame out with "Live At The Barbeque" Shit. I could have been the first nigga promoting hisass. All the Outlawz were fans of Nas. 'Pac was too. He used to like Nas. That's all hip-hopdo. You hear a nice idea, and you flip it and make it better. That was one of those shits. Therewas a lot of shit going on, and 'Pac was never a dude to hold his toungue. He put it out there.He felt like a lot of mutherfuckas was against him, and that didn't sit well with him neither.Muthafuckas made it like an East Coast/West Coast situation, when in reality 'Pac and all theOutlawz is from the East Coast. That was just one of those songs where 'Pac was riding on hisenemies. 'Pac had nothing but love from New York. We was in New York for the MTVAwards two days before he got shot in Vegas. That's where we seen Nas and they squashed it.That was one of the happiest time I've seen him. He was happy to be in New York and feelingthe love. We was all in New York Uptown, it wasn't like we was in the hotel all day We evenwalked for some damn blocks. in Manhattan somewhere. 'Pac said, "f##k it, let's walk." Wecould have walked for 30 minutes. People couldn't believe it. This nigga was giving bumshundreds of dollars and shit He had me holding a damn little briefcase with all this money. Hewas really happy to be back in New York. I think he wanted to get in touch with everybodyout there - Rappers, and just the streets, period. He was happy about squashing the beef outthere with Nas.E.D.I.: 'Pac had the idea for the song already. We was in the studio trying to come up with theright track fo ti. I rember Hurt M Badd was up there working on the drums and 'Pac wasn'treally feeling what was coming up on there and then ricky Rouse just came up and said, "'Pac,I got something. I got a song I wrote." Ricky Rouse, he a session player. He a cool brother, but he was always worrying about his publishing. 'Cause he knew where he was at. He was atDeath Row, And you got to be about your business or you won't get paid. So he's like, "'Pac, Igot some shit for this shit, it's some Spanish shit. But I got to get my publishing on it. I got toget my writer's credit on that." 'Pac was like. "Hell yeah." 'Cause 'Pac was a fair nigga. Hegave everyone their shot, Their credit. He was the only one who gave Val Credit, Even thoughhalf the dime he might have wrote the hook. Ricky Rouse started playing this guitar shit. 'Pacwent crazy. He was like. "That's it right there. That's what I'm looking for." Then he startedsinging , just came up with the hook. He told us all to write verses for that, too. All of uswrote verses but he just shot us down like, 'Nah, that ain't tight enough." He had ol' grilQueen-she play the part of the gun in the song-'Pac had her come in once the song was done. Iknow her as queen she used to work at Death Row. She was the receptionist up there. She go by Virginya Slim now, and she's signed to Deaht Row. She the one that talking that shit like,"Like what? West side Nigga. Die Nigga Die!"Darryl Harper: "Me And My Girlfriend" was Tyrone's [Hurt M badd's] but I just played on it.Keys. We would work on eatch other's beats. He would do drums on mine and I would dosomething on his. We basically did the whole album together. The album was finished in threedays, the mixing still had to be done. So the album was done in a week. As for 'Pac's parts, Allof them was done in three days if I rember correctly. He would have ideas for it. He wouldknow. He would instantly tell the Outlawz what they needed to be writing about. And they

had to be on it, because the one that didn't have it, he wasn't going to be on the song. It was atrip because 'Pac would finish his Vocal and come out [From the vocal booth] and point at oneof them. If he stutterd, he would point to the next one. He just missed that track. If they wern'tconfident right away, he would let them know they wern't going to be on there.Lance Pierre: We had an idea to do an intro where the gun is talking. And we needed a broad.Finally, there was this one girl-actrully she's on Tha Row Records right now-Virginya Slim.She put it down with like one pass, ba-ba-ba!Hurt M Badd: On "Me And My Girlfriend," he tried to bluff me, he called me out. After wehad done like four songs, Tupac had called me in my session one day-now mind you, I work in my own little production room-Tupac called me in his room one day and he said, 'Youknow what? I need a kind of up-tempo beat that don't sound like anything you ever done before." So my eyebrows raised and I was like, Whoa! so he said, "And I want you to standright here and create it right in my face." Let me tell you something: Everything surroundingmy heart went to my feet. Sweat just broke out all under my arm. But I'm also that type of person, I love a challenge when it comes to something I do, you know what I'm saying? SoTupac said, "Right now,in my face" So I stared from scratch. I just told the DJ to sample akick and a snap from the keyboard. Everybody was looking at me like "What?" Looking at mecrazy like, He Don't know what he's Doing." Before you know it. I had the drums going and Ilook over at the guy with the bass guitar. I told him to come in with something, and I gavehim a little rhythem. He came in with it. Before you know it-Tupac was on the couch-he hadthis look on his face like, "I don't believe this guy." by the time we laid the guitar strings, hewas up on the follor like, "Yeah!" Every time he'd get a track that he liked, he would listen toit and come up with the hook in his head. Then he'd turn around to the Outlawz and say,"Here's the hook, listen to this and came up with "Me And My Girlfriend."HOLD YA HEADE.D.I.: That shit remind me of some Me Against The World shit. That's another one of thosemelodies where I sat watched this nigga sing to them like "Play this." That shit just cametogether. Hurt M Badd did the drums, you got the piano shit. It's some real shit that 'Pac wasfamous for.Hurt M Badd: 'Pac did the verse and the hook already. He came in my room and asked me if Iknew how to sing. He said he wanted me to sing on the hook. I said, "I'll be right in there,"When he shut the door, I started jumping up and down in a room by myself. When I went inthere, I got real nervous. He gave me the notes to sing and everything. And fortunatly, itturned out cool. Anytime you had to like rap or sing with him, That's how he was. But as far as producers, I've seen him get at a couple of producers. Fortunatly-Thank God Me and himdidn't have to go through that.AGAINST ALL ODDSE.D.I.: That just closes the album out. A lot of people don't know it's a replay of a Cameosong, "The Skin I'm in." 'Pac probably listend to it on the way to the studio, came in and played that shit for Hurt M Badd, like, "I want that bass line right there." Hurt M Badd playedthat shit [on the keyboards]. I don't want to take nothing from none of the producers that