"Ghetto Gospel" is a song by rapper Tupac Shakur, which was remixed and released as the second single on his 2004 album Loyal to the Game. The song was written by Tupac Shakur and produced by Eminem. The song samples the Elton John song Indian Sunset from his 1971 album Madman Across the Water. The released version is a remix of the original version, which contained four verses by 2Pac. Eminem removed part of 2Pac's first verse ("We never really went through that, 'cause we were born B.C., you and me before crack...".)
"Ghetto Gospel" was the only song on Loyal to the Game with an accompanying music video. At the very end of the video there is a message from his mother, Afeni Shakur, saying "Remember to keep yourself alive, there is nothing more important than that".
The words "Lord, can you hear me speak." and "and pay the price of being hellbound." at the end of the song are originally from the 4th verse.
There are also parts of it which sound like Tupac's voice with a digitally added, lower toned voice, singing with him: "before its ruined" from the end of the first verse and "I set goals, take control" and "Before we find world peace" from the second verse. The sudden change of tone in his voice when these words are spoken are possibly the result of multiple layers of time/pitch stretched vocals. Despite its high sales in the UK, many die hard Tupac fans have discredited the song "Ghetto Gospel" because of the obvious tampering with the original voice of Tupac. It is claimed that the producer, Eminem edited Tupac's voice to suit his beats. Also as noted above 2 verses were removed. The first of the removed verses spoke about his grand mother "I remember Grandmas hand used to hold me, mold me, never forget the things she told me." and how the young are cold to those older than them. "And how could you be so cold? You'll get your turn, soon as you turn old". The second of the removed verses begins with "I was a stone cold gangsta man." It is quite obvious these verses, as well as the quotes above were removed to try and quell.
The original Elton John songs ended with the lines " Peace to this young warrior, comes with a bullet hole. " When sampled, the final line is replaced by " without the sound of guns," which occurred slightly earlier in the original song. The lyrics "Those who wish to follow me, I welcome with my hands " actually appear much earlier in the song, and are only sung once. As such, it is not the case that it was simply a case of sampling the chorus. In sampling these lines, Eminem has in effect used various lines from a ballad to create a chorus.
