Patti LaBelle Learned How to Crip Walk After Hearing Tupac’s ‘California Love’
Legendary musician Patti LaBelle has seen countless artists rise to stardom in the music industry after her. In the 1990s, she was a fan of iconic rapper Tupac Shakur — so much so that she learned to Crip walk because of him.
Patti LaBelle is a music icon
Patti LaBelle first burst onto the scene as a part of the group Labelle in the early 1970s. Their biggest hit was “Lady Marmalade,” which went on to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song, of course, was remade and introduced to a new generation in 2001 by P!nk, Mýa, Lil’ Kim, and Christina Aguilera.
LaBelle’s smash self-titled debut album contained her hit song “You Are My Friend,” which went on to become one of the singer’s signature songs. In the 1980s, she continued to achieve more success with the release of the singles “If Only You Knew,” “Love, Need, and Want You,” “New Attitude,” and “Stir It Up.”
Her duet with Michael McDonald, “On My Own,” from her No. 1 1986 album Winner in You, became LaBelle’s second No. 1 single after reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Lady Marmalade.”
Later, she earned her first Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her 1991 album Burnin’, which contained hit songs like “Somebody Loves You Baby (You Know Who It Is),” “Feels Like Another One,” and “When You’ve Been Blessed (Feels Like Heaven).”
LaBelle’s Burnin’ album is also noteworthy for another reason. It contains her only collaboration with a rapper: “Feels Like Another One,” which featured a rap by legendary rapper Big Daddy Kane. Many rappers, including The Notorious B.I.G., looked up to Big Daddy Kane and acknowledged his impact on the early days of hip-hop.
Patti LaBelle learned how to Crip Walk after hearing ‘California Love’ by Tupac Shakur
LaBelle reflected on her first immersion into the world of hip-hop in a 2022 interview on Drink Champs. The “New Attitude” singer said “I guess it was Tupac” when asked how she got into rap as a genre after her collab with Big Daddy Kane. She specifically loved Pac and Dr. Dre’s hit 1994 single “California Love” — so much so that it got her to learn how to Crip Walk.
“I started moving to ‘California Love,’” LaBelle said. “That’s when I started learning [how to] Crip Walk,” she added.
For a time, Tupac was affiliated with the Rolling 20s Crip gang in Los Angeles, the same set that Snoop Dogg repped.
The Crip Walk was featured in the Super Bowl halftime show
Though Tupac died in 1996, his legacy has continued to live on in the years since then. In 2022, his friend and producer Dr. Dre performed at the Super Bowl halftime show alongside fellow LA native Snoop Dogg and hip-hop icons Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar.
At one point during the show, Dre and Snoop launched into a performance of “California Love,” while Snoop Dogg, coincidentally (or not) dressed in blue, Crip Walked across the stage.
