Kurupt says Dre possibly wanted to keep the beat for himself
Dr. Dre had different plans for the “California Love” beat but that changed once 2Pac was released from prison, according to Kurupt. Recently speaking on The Art Of Dialogue, Kurupt revealed that Dre preserved the iconic instrumental in the vault for a while until Pac hopped on it.
“Dr. Dre been had that beat, he had that beat for a while,” Kurupt recounted. “He even told me once, ‘Kurupt you like this beat? Yeah, I'ma see how you sound on it.' And thought this was gonna be my chance. And then 2Pac came home… and the way we do it at Death Row, is whosever turn it is, everybody contributes. So, you know: your project freezes, everyone contributes towards the project that's at hand.
“Dr. Dre was working on that record for a while before 2Pac came home,” the Dogg Pound rapper added. “I looked at that beat like Dr. Dre's heart. Like he had a plan for it, like he was trying to figure out, ‘What am I gonna do with this beat?' 'cause it was so gruesome and bangin', but it was fun. 2Pac came home. So when he gave him ‘California Love,' I looked at it like Dr. Dre gave 2Pac his heart. ‘Cause I used to go in there when he was working on it, and that was his baby.”
