Ab major · Camelot 4B · 93 BPM
Keep Ya Head Up
by 2Pac
- 93
- BPM
- Ab major
- Key
- 4B
- Camelot
- 89
- Danceability
- 14
- Acousticness
In 1993, 2Pac was recording his second studio album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z..., and preparing its third single. "Keep Ya Head Up" arrived on October 28, 1993 through Interscope Records, and it went on to peak at number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Cash Box Top 100. The track features R&B singer Dave Hollister and was dedicated to Shakur's godson Elijah and to Corin, the daughter of Salt from Salt-N-Pepa, whom the rapper had met through Treach of Naughty by Nature.
The song centers on black womanhood and makes reference to Latasha Harlins, who was shot by a Korean shopkeeper in 1991, an event that heightened tensions between the Black and Korean communities of Los Angeles ahead of the 1992 riots. Its music video opens with the words "Dedicated to the memory of Latasha Harlins, it's still on." Musically, the beat sampled Zapp's "Be Alright" while the chorus drew from The Five Stairsteps' "O-o-h Child".
The video showed Shakur rapping in the middle of a circle surrounded by a crowd, at times holding a young child, with his mother Afeni Shakur and close friend Jada Pinkett Smith making cameo appearances. After his death, the track appeared in his 1998 Greatest Hits compilation, and a sequel, "Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)", followed on the posthumous album Still I Rise in 1999.
Keep Ya Head Up runs at 93 BPM, the tempo of hip-hop, R&B and reggaeton. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.58 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 645 ms. It is in Ab major, Camelot 4B, which shares its notes with F minor and mixes cleanly with Db major and Eb major.
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