Oct 31, 1997512 words · 2 min
Tupac Back on the Radio: “I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto”
Fall 1997: Kurt Loder announces a new single on MTV, “I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto” heralds the double album “R U Still Down?”.
Original: “Tupac Has A New Single” · MTV News · Kurt Loder (anchor) · October 31, 1997
Back on the Radio “This Week”: The First Single from the Estate
On October 31, 1997, Kurt Loder went on the air at MTV News with a brief report: Tupac Shakur was back on the radio “this week” with a new single. It came from a double album scheduled for release on November 25 on his mother Afeni Shakur’s label. The album contained previously unreleased recordings Tupac had made for Interscope Records in the early nineties. Title of the album: R U Still Down? (Remember Me); first single: I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto.
There was nothing more to the report. It was more of a cue than a story, and revealing for that very reason: it showed how routine new Tupac music had already become just over a year after his death.
From the Interscope Archive, Not Death Row
Loder was more accurate on one point than an MTV report a few days earlier: he cited Interscope as the source of the recordings. On October 28, MTV had initially claimed the songs came from Death Row’s vaults, correcting this the following day. According to the correction, the material was recorded between 1991 and 1994.
Inaccurate, on the other hand, was the timeframe given at the beginning: Tupac was said to be back on the radio “nearly a year” after his death. Tupac had been shot in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, and died on September 13. By the time the segment aired in late October 1997, more than a year had already passed.
No. 67 on the Hot 100: More Calling Card than Hit
I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto was more calling card than hit. On the Billboard Hot 100, the track entered at No. 73 in December 1997 and reached No. 67 a week later. The second single fared significantly better: Do For Love, featuring Eric Williams, reached No. 21 on the Hot 100 in March 1998 and No. 2 on the rap charts.
Over 150 Finished Songs: An Archive for Ten Years
That such singles were possible at all came down to Tupac’s way of working. He recorded a vast number of songs in short periods of time, far more than could fit on his albums. According to his former production partner Johnny Jackson, more than 150 finished tracks existed, as MTV reported in January 1997, citing the Los Angeles Times.
Afeni Shakur described it this way in an MTV segment in late November 1997: “Tupac worked like a demon to make sure that he had probably about 10 years worth of music to put out after he left.”
With R U Still Down?, the family began managing this archive themselves. The single was the first greeting from this vault, arriving even before the album itself.
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