The song refers to the possibility of a black president of the United States, claiming "we ain't ready". Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party. The "Huey" that 2Pac mentions in the song ("two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead") is Huey P. Released posthumously on his album Greatest Hits, the song talks about all of the different issues that were related to Tupac's era of influence - notably racism, police brutality, drugs and gang violence. The song was a #1 hit in Norway and the Netherlands and reached the top ten in the singles charts of several other countries, including #3 in the United Kingdom, which gained Tupac a broader audience. “Changes” samples the drum loop from the 1984 song "Set It Off” by Strafe. Polo G interpolated "Changes" on his 2020 song "Wishing for a Hero". Nas sampled the song for his song "Black President". The Tupac "Changes" instrumental was used by Insane Clown Posse in "Mom Song", a Mother's Day song. Bay Area rapper E-40 had interpreted the song already on his track, "Things'll Never Change", for his album Tha Hall of Game. The song is an interpretation of the 1986 hit " The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, and was further influenced by the 1972 hit " Changes" by Black Sabbath. The third chorus omits the Ice Cube sample and adds B-boy-style chant with an unknown person repeating, "Clap your hands and feel it, clap you hands and feel it!" until the song ends. The second chorus adds the Ice Cube line, "Dope dealers, you're as bad as the police," from his song, "Us". The chorus on the original track features a notable difference in a vocal sample of the line, "It's like that and that's the way it is", from Run DMCs "It's Like That", which is also played twice during the intro. The remixed version released in 1998 has notably different percussion, and a few minor changes to the musical elements. However, since his death many of the unreleased and unmastered songs have been officially released. At times Tupac re-used lines from other unreleased songs because he planned to make an updated version at a later date. The chorus of "The Way It Is" was slightly reworded and sung by Talent and was used for this song. The song re-uses lines from " I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" which was recorded during the same year, and samples the 1986 hit " The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. "Changes" was later remixed in 1998 by Poke from Trackmasters. In the U.S., “Changes” spent 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 32.The song was originally recorded during his tenure at Interscope Records in 1992 and was produced by Big D The Impossible (Deon Evans). The song was a hit both nationally and internationally, topping the charts in Norway and the Netherlands. “Changes” was released in October 1998 as part of Shakur’s Greatest Hits album. There’s a lot of gravitas to Tupac’s music, to me. I thought he was so clever, and really profound, and deep.
I had never really dealt with him on a listening level. When the Greatest Hits record came out, they sent me it. Hornsby spoke of his admiration for Shakur in a 2011 interview with LA Weekly, saying: The chorus of the song samples the 1986 single “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, which was re-sung on the final cut of the song by singer, Talent. "I got nothin' to lose, It's just me against the world baby." #MeAgainstTheWorld #25YearsĪ post shared by Tupac Shakur on at 11:00am PST Source: Instagram