2Pac Friday
20 October 2023
When I think of 2Pac’s “Me and My Girlfriend,” I think of the old and the new. And I think of a great song.
Why do I think of the old and the new?
In a way, this is kind of a mixture of early 2Pac and late 2Pac, with both the underground feel and layered meaning of an extended metaphor (the “girlfriend” being “2Pac’s gun”) as elements more associated with his earlier years and the harder nature of the song being more associated with his later years.
In a way his music often seemed to get “harder” as his career evolved (though there are exceptions of course), at least after moving to Death Row Records. This is not a complete pivot or a clearcut black-and-white situation, but it did seem like his music went in that direction. With generally less texture or layered meaning in his songs, they became more direct and straightforward.
That may seem like I am criticizing his later music and am biased towards 2Pac’s earlier music–but that is not the case. Songs obviously can appeal in different ways and that is simply the case here–as all 2Pac songs are appealing in one way or another. There is a greater pop appeal, generally speaking, as 2Pac’s music evolved and accompanied more-polished production, even before Death Row, with Me Against the World where every song on the album features very smooth and developed production. Whereas his first two solo albums–plus Thug Life Volume I under his group Thug Life–have a few polished singles that have pop appeal with the majority of the songs having a raw, underground feel. Me Against the World seems to be the transitional album in that sense, bridging everything from the early days of 2Pacalpyse Now, to the late day of Don Kilumanati: The 7 Day Theory, which is often referred to simply as Makaveli even though Makaveli was the alias 2Pac released the album under, so technically it is Don Kilumanati: The 7 Day Theory by Makaveli.
But for simplicity’s sake, we will also refer to that album as it is commonly referred to: Makaveli. Even though Makaveli was was technically a posthumous release in that the album came out two months after 2Pac was murdered, I like to look at it as his last standard, regular studio album because he was alive and well when the project was put together, which I think is the important distinction.
George “Papa G” Pryce, former head of Death Row publicity, said: “Makavelli, which we did sort of tongue-in-cheek and it was not really to come out, And then after 2Pac was murdered, it did come out. But before that it was going to be just sort of an underground thing.” This can be found 6 minutes and 50 seconds into this clip.
So maybe that is why it kind of feels like the old and the new to me. It was on his latest project when he was still alive, but it was meant to be an underground project, more like his earlier years.
So “Me and My Girlfriend,” in my mind, feels like it mixes the old and the new. That is just the feeling the song gives me; I am not sure if there is anything concrete to support that other than what I mentioned or if what I mentioned even constitutes concrete support. But on 2Pac Fridays, we don’t need concrete support, and whatever logic or feelings we wish to put forth will rise–or push through–the cracks in the concrete just like 2Pac’s rose.
Jay Z did a cover called “‘03 Bonnie & Clyde,” which became a big hit, reaching number 4 on the Billboard 100.
On one hand you can call this ironic because 2Pac starts off Makavelli by lambasting Jay Z and others, including Nas whose song “I Gave You Power” also ironically inspired 2Pac’s Me and My Girlfriend.”. But on a more positive hand, you could look at this “‘03 Bonnie & Clyde,” being another form of Tupac: Resurrection, with 2003 being 7 years after 2Pac’s 1996 death (even though the Jay Z song came out in 2002).
Now here where are in 2023, 27 years after 2Pac’s death, and so on this 2Pac Friday we celebrate the “‘23 Bonnie & Clyde”with the original 2Pac “Me and My Girlfriend.”