Popular music genres tend to last for about 5 to 7 years before a fresh young genre takes over. The shift away may be sudden and seismic, or it might entail a gradual decline as the audience simply tires of the old and craves something new. G-funk represented the dominant style of hip-hop in the early to mid 90’s, a laid back groove that sampled heavily from 70’s R&B and funk, and its passing was marked by the passing of one of its stars.

Though not wholly in the G-funk world, Tupac Shakur certainly drove around the neighborhood a lot, and appeared with Dr. Dre on one of the genre’s defining songs, “California Love.” Fellow Bay Area rapper Richie Rich (who had already proven highly influential on young teens Snoop Dogg and Warren G in the late 80’s and early 90’s) featured on a couple of Tupac’s tracks in 1995 and Shakur returned the favor the following year by rapping on a track from Rich’s third album.

That album dropped less than two months after Shakur’s murder, so Rich must have quickly written and recorded its penultimate track, “Do G’s Get To Go To Heaven?,” a tribute to his slain friend. Released as a single in February of 1997, “Do G’s Get To Go To Heaven?” was a question that must have been on the minds of everybody who — in the paraphrased words of Richie Rich — led a life that ain’t straight, but where they live is so crooked.

If Shakur’s death was the beginning of the end for G-funk, the shooting of Notorious B.I.G. later in 1997 was the true fin de siècle. Hip-hop would now begin to move in a new direction, both musically and lyrically.