Dave East has put his spin on a classic 2Pac song on his new Stacy Barthe-assisted track “So Much Changed.”
The Harlem native travels West on the new cut, sampling the late rapper’s “Pain,” a standout from the 1994 Above the Rim soundtrack.
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East taps into the same sample as ‘Pac while shouting out the departed legend by mirroring some of his bars.
“They’ll never take me alive/ From where the skinny n-ggas slide/ Songs with Mary J. Blige/ Seen ’em die over they pride,” he spits.
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On the original, ‘Pac rapped: “They’ll never take me alive, I’m gettin’ high with my four-five/ Cocked on these suckas, time to die.”
The accompanying video, directed by Watch the Screen, also includes several homages to the All Eyez On Me MC, including Dave rocking a bandana and sepia-laced shots that evoke classic ‘Pac clips like “So Many Tears.”
Check out the track below.
“So Much Changed” serves as the first single from Dave East’s newly-announced joint album with producers Mike & Keys titled APT 6E
The West Coast production duo are best known for their work with the late, great Nipsey Hussle, and also previously contributed to East’s 2023 album Fortune Favors the Bold.
That may not be the only new release on the horizon from the 35-year-old.
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Snoop Dogg revealed earlier this year that he has a whole unreleased album with Dave East but it was shelved due to label politics.
The revelation came during a conversation with Benny The Butcher on Snoop’s YouTube series GGN back in January.
During the interview, The Doggfather admitted there were a few beats he wishes he “murked” during his heyday, mentioning Pharrell and Swizz Beatz instrumentals that were given to the likes of JAY-Z, Nas and DMX.
After Benny joked about pressing Harry Fraud, who produced his 2021 project The Plugs I Met 2, about beats he gave to Dave East, Snoop let the cat out of the bag regarding his scrapped album with the Harlem rapper.
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“I’m a product of Hip Hop so that’s the Hip Hop that I’m more drawn to. It was years ago when I went to New York to fuck with Dave East, before I was in the Def Jam building, just because I love how he get down,” he said.
“We went through Harlem and I was fuckin’ with him. We did a whole project that was just like the shit that [Griselda] do. And then the label stepped in and was like, ‘Nah, we’re gonna do [this instead].”
