8. 2pac's "Changes" Samples "The Way It Is" By Bruce Hornsby & The Range
The West Coast rap icon may have died 19 years ago but he left more music behind than some artists release in their entire career, enabling new generations of fans to hear his music and one of his biggest posthumous hits was a song called Changes. Released in 1998, it wasn't the aggressive, violence threatening 2pac track some fans had become accustomed too. It was more along the lines of his softer, more contemplative songs like Do For Love and Dear Mama. In fact, for a dude who had 'Thug Life' tattooed on his belly, it's a pretty peaceful song. To be fair to Deon Evans, the producer of the song, you can imagine it'd be pretty difficult to make a gangster hip hop record when you're sampling The Way It Is by bluegrass artist Bruce Hornsby and The Range, although it would've been interesting to see him try. Instead, they created an uplifting track that most people who grew up watching music channels still know the words too to this day. Lastly, it was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 1996 Grammy's and is the only song from a dead artist to be nominated in this category to this day. The really depressing thing is that it was somehow beaten by Coolio's outrageously overrated hit Gangsta's Paradise. Hip hop lovers weeped. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nay31hvEvrY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeKidp-iWo
