'California Love': Mad Max in the Year 2095

Original: “Mad Maxin’ With the Money” · outlet not recorded · Elizabeth Kolsky · early 1996

Gold mines, movies, beaches: Elizabeth Kolsky opened with the myth of California and saw Death Row as its latest chapter. Full of provocateurs, the label stoked the feud between the East and West Coasts. In early 1996, Kolsky celebrated the video for California Love—Tupac’s first single following his release from prison, recorded with Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman.

Post-Apocalypse in the Year 2095: Williams Sends Tupac into the Desert

Director Hype Williams set the scene in the year 2095: a post-apocalyptic California desert under a deep blue sky. There rules “Monster,” a leather-clad warlord who knows: whoever controls the dance floor controls the people. Dr. Dre and Tupac sneak in, kidnap his dancers, and keep partying in their own glowing dome. Monster’s warriors give chase, and in the end, everything burns. Then Tupac wakes up: it was all just a dream, “to be continued.”

Stolen from “Mad Max”: Kolsky Defends the Remix

Kolsky conceded that Williams openly lifts from Mad Max, and defended it: that is how hip-hop works-you take something existing and make a remix out of it. The envious shouldn’t complain about the reported $600,000 budget. Her verdict: gorgeous, sexy, magnificent costumes—“it’s going to sell a lot of records.”

Number 1 on the Charts and a Shoot in El Mirage

The prediction came true. California Love was released on December 3, 1995, and in 1996 spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 as a double A-side alongside How Do U Want It.

The video was shot from November 10 to 13, 1995, in El Mirage in the California desert. The Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome concept came from Tupac’s friend Jada Pinkett, who was originally slated to direct. “Monster” was played by Clifton Powell, while Chris Tucker had a role as his MC. The dream ending leads into a second video for the remix version on All Eyez on Me.

Roger Troutman, whose talk box carries the chorus, was shot dead on April 25, 1999; police presumed it was carried out by his brother Larry, who killed himself afterward.

Note: The archived text contained a duplicated, corrupted sentence; the outlet of the first publication is not documented.