
The song refers to the possibility of a black president of the United States, claiming "we ain't ready". Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party. The "Huey" that 2Pac mentions in the song ("two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead") is Huey P. Released posthumously on his album Greatest Hits, the song talks about all of the different issues that were related to Tupac's era of influence-notably racism, police brutality, drugs and gang violence. The song was a number-one hit in Norway and the Netherlands and reached the top ten in the singles charts of several other countries, including number three in the United Kingdom, which gained Tupac a broader audience. Polo G interpolated "Changes" on his 2020 song "Wishing for a Hero". Nas sampled the song for his song "Black President". The Tupac "Changes" instrumental was used by Insane Clown Posse in "Mom Song", a Mother's Day song. Bay Area rapper E-40 had interpreted the song already on his track, "Things'll Never Change", for his album Tha Hall of Game. "Changes" was further influenced by the 1972 hit " Changes" by Black Sabbath. The song is an interpretation of the 1986 hit " The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, and samples the drum loop from the 1984 song "Set It Off" by Strafe. The third chorus omits the Ice Cube sample and adds B-boy-style chant with an unknown person repeating, "Clap your hands and feel it, clap your hands and feel it!" until the song ends. The second chorus adds the Ice Cube line, "Dope dealers, you're as bad as the police", from his song, "Us". The chorus on the original track features a notable difference in a vocal sample of the line, "It's like that and that's the way it is", from Run DMC's " It's Like That", which is also played twice during the intro. The remixed version released in 1998 has notably different percussion, and a few minor changes to the musical elements. However, since his death many of the unreleased and unmastered songs have been officially released. At times Tupac re-used lines from other unreleased songs because he planned to make an updated version at a later date.


The chorus of "The Way It Is" was slightly reworded and sung by Talent and was used for this song. The song re-uses lines from " I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" which was recorded during the same year, and samples the 1986 hit " The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. "Changes" was later remixed in 1998 by Poke from Trackmasters. The song was originally recorded during his tenure at Interscope Records in 1992 and was produced by Big D The Impossible (Deon Evans). "Changes" samples Bruce Hornsby and the Range's 1986 song " The Way It Is". The song makes references to the war on drugs, the treatment of black people by the police, racism, the reconciliation between the black and white people in America, the perpetuation of poverty and its accompanying vicious-cycle value system in urban African American culture, and the difficulties of life in the ghetto. It was recorded in 1992 before being remixed and released as a single from Shakur's Greatest Hits compilation on October 13, 1998. " Changes" is a song by American rapper 2Pac featuring Talent.
