It’s an interesting chart sub-sub genre: the unlikely duet. A few weeks on from Tony Christie and Peter Kay, and in a grand tradition including Robbie and Nicole Kidman, Take That and Lulu, Five and Queen, and even Frank and Nancy, we come to perhaps the oddest duet of all.

Ghetto Gospel, by 2Pac (his 1^st and only #1) ft. Elton John (his 7^th of ten #1s)

3 weeks, from 26^th June – 17^th July 2005

Sir Elton John, British pop royalty, and a gangsta rap legend. A long-dead gangsta rap legend. 2Pac’s original ‘Ghetto Gospel’ verses had been recorded in 1992, though never released, while Elton’s chorus comes from his 1971 track ‘Indian Summer’. So, rather than a duet, this is basically two samples stitched together. Most of the credit should go then to the producer, one Marshall Mathers. For shortly after claiming that ‘Like Toy Soldiers’ would be Eminem’s last chart-topper for a while, I hadn’t reckoned with this record, which is better than his previous two number ones combined.

The two very different tracks, recorded two decades apart, are meshed together quite artfully, sounding like they were always supposed to be. And it is interesting to finally hear a rapper as influential as Tupac Shakur on top of the charts, nine years after his death. His rap style is much more deliberate, a little slower and more tied to the beat than 21^stcentury hip-hop. The genre wasn’t such a chart-topping force in the opening half of the nineties, but the one obvious comparison to my ears is Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’.

The lyrics of ‘Ghetto Gospel’ focus on gang warfare and social inequality, and are perhaps surprisingly clean. I do feel that, in the UK at least, where 2Pac’s biggest hits were this and ‘Changes’, he might have a reputation for being more of a conscientious rapper. Which he was, but he also recorded plenty of songs with more earthy themes, like ‘How Do U Want It’, which was one half of his only US chart-topper.

Prior to his death by shooting in September 1996, 2Pac had scored one UK Top 10 (‘California Love’). Posthumously he managed four more, of which ‘Ghetto Gospel’ was the last. His estate was famously keen on making lots of money from his name making sure the world got to hear his music, releasing seven albums under his name in the decade following his murder.

Meanwhile, Elton John scores his third #1 of the 2000s, making this his joint most successful chart decade. And perhaps it is time to crown him King of the chart-topping duet, as this is his fourth (of seven total), following on from Kiki Dee, George Michael, and Blue. And he’s not done with the odd chart-topping duets either, though we’ll have to wait a while for his final run of number ones.