Many people may not realize this, but Friday is not the full name of that particular day of the week. The full name is 2Pac Friday–or 2Pac Fridays, when pluralizing.

While this may initially come as a surprise to some, think about your own name–-you probably have a first and last name. Even fake people like John Doe or Jane Doe have first and last names. New Year’s Eve Day has four words in its name. 2Pac Fridays makes sense.

For too long, people have been leaving the “2Pac” out of 2Pac Fridays. This is bad because it leads to people forgetting to listen to 2Pac on Fridays.

Here, through our revolutionary SLP Calendar system, we aim to prevent such tragedies. “You can’t save every life,” the saying goes. “But you can listen to 2Pac every Friday.”

2Pac Shakur, the greatest rapper of all-time, has inspired many people. He once said, “I'm not saying I'm gonna rule the world or I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee you that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”

In addition to inspiring the brain of that person that will change the world, 2Pac also inspired Jerry Foxhoven.

Jerry Foxhoven is not your run-of-the-mill bureaucrat.

Why?

Because he is an ex-bureaucrat. Fired for being a 2Pac fan.

It is not just respectful internets and websites like sweetlivinproductions.com saying this; take a look at this article from CBS News, “Iowa official forced to resign one day after sending mass email with Tupac lyrics,” that opens:

“The director of Iowa's social services agency was a huge fan of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, and he frequently let his subordinates know it. Emails obtained by The Associated Press show that Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven routinely sent messages to employees lauding Shakur's music and lyrics even after at least one complained to lawmakers.

Then last month, he sent another such email to all 4,300 agency employees. He was abruptly ousted from his job the next work day.”

Coincidence?

“I think it’s a coincidence,” the ever-respected Foxhoven, Iowa’s greatest visionary since Kevin Costner, said in The New York Times article “Iowa Official, 66, Says His Love of Tupac Wasn’t What Got Him Fired.”

But we can all read between the lines and see he was taking the high road–which is a legitimate possibility because, in addition to our hoping that Foxhoven actually became a political martyr for his 2Pac support, there is real reason to believe that is why he was fired. The governor’s office provided no other justification for his firing and a “disgruntled employee” did report Foxhoven’s “2pac references to state legislators.” Foxhoven himself wondered if he would have been fired had he cited another pop star’s birthday instead of 2Pac’s. The governor’s office also gave no reason for his firing. Foxhoven’s ongoing legal battle with the governor over his firing centers more on what he felt was unethical or illegal funding of an employee through Medicare funding. We should trust Foxhoven’s judgment here because 2Pac was required reading when he taught ethics at Drake University, a course the Iowa Governor obviously never took, further demonstrating the importance of education.

While political analysts–and the non-political analyst portion of society who are actually interesting people and might listen to 2Pac–may debate the level of Foxhoven’s political martyrdom for decades, what is not debatable is his love for 2Pac, which he spread throughout the previously-wayward Iowa DHS through inspirational 2Pac quotes in agency-wide emails, cookies decorated with the “Thug Life” phrase 2Pac has tattooed prominently across his chest, and 2Pac Fridays in his office.

It is not known if Foxhoven provided gluten free options of those Thug Life cookies, nor is it exactly clear what the 2Pac Fridays entailed. And unfortunately we cannot celebrate the original version of 2Pac Fridays by pilgrimaging to Iowa every Friday to crowd into Foxhoven’s Office of Dreams–because he no longer has an office.

But what we can do, as decent human beings who respect time, freedom, and the democratic process, is listen to 2Pac every Friday.

Ideally a whole 2Pac album.

But “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” as they say, and neither will proper observation of 2Pac Fridays. Sure, it will be built on one day of the week–Friday–but it will take multiple Fridays. People will eventually gravitate to such a one-day workweek, a radical win for laborers that would make Marx look fascist in comparison.

We try (though often fail) to be realistic here at Sweet Livin’ Productions.

So rather than demanding people listen to 2Pac nonstop on Fridays or get Thug Life tattooed on their chest, each 2Pac Friday we simply recommend a 2Pac song appropriate for that particular Friday (while recognizing that any 2pac song is appropriate for any Friday).

This is not unlike a wine connoisseur or sommelier saying non-comprehensible things about wine in explaining why a certain Chardonnay is perfect for a certain occasion. You can count on us, 2pac connoisseurs and sommeliers of the highest level, to say equally strange things about why a certain 2Pac song pairs with a certain 2Pac Friday.

One day we hope to live in the political world Foxhoven may have envisioned where the great minds from around the country and globe–2Pac connoisseurs and sommeliers of the highest order–convene in Iowa for 2Pac Friday Caucuses to debate and vote on what 2Pac songs should be featured each Friday, what 2Pac songs should run our country–or at least set the tone for the weekend. Until such a utopia is achieved, we hope you take our humble suggestions.

And if that leads to you listening to the whole 2Pacalypse Now album on a given Friday or getting Thug Life tattoos (even just a small one on your wrist), so be it. But if that simply leads to a better, sweeter Friday, also so be it.

It will lead to a better, sweeter Friday. We guarantee it*.

*This statement has not been–and will not be–vetted by the current Iowa DHS administration.

The Inaugural SLP 2Pac Friday: June 16th, 2023.