.

James Brown and 2Pac, 'Unchained (The Payback/Untouchable)' – Song Premiere

Funk master, rapper get mashed up for 'Django Unchained'

James Brown/Tupac Shakur
KMazur/WireImage for Universal Music Group; Steve Eichner/Getty Images
December 10, 2012 8:00 AM ET

Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Django Unchained boasts a bold, flashy theme song to match the slick gunplay from Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz. For "Unchained," James Brown and Tupac Shakur get mashed up hard, banging like Django's six-shooter as 2Pac's hook from "Untouchable" stomps over the bright, brassy funk of Brown's "The Payback." The result – mixed by Tupac's engineer Claudio Cueni – is a victorious anthem that feels like emerging from a gunfight unscathed.

The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time

Django Unchained opens December 25th, and the soundtrack is due December 18th.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
New and Hot Next

blog comments powered by Disqus
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

More Song Stories entries »