Who were the key players behind each of Pac's albums since his death?

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

Still I Rise -  Everyone was satisfied with this one as well.  The remixes only made the album better, in my opinion.  The Outlawz must of made a fortune off this one.  I know Suge signed them at some point, I wonder if it was for the purpose of their work on this album and other Pac posthumous albums.  They were already on a lot of tracks, and when you add them to other Pac tracks it makes it sound authentic since they were his crew when he was alive.   I think Death Row was responsible for this one.

Until The End of Time -  Again, everyone was satisfied with this album, I know I was.  I couldn't believe that 4 years after his Death they were still able to compile a double album of his material that was as good or better than anything else coming out at the time.  I think Johnny J deserves a lot of credit for Pac's posthumous work.  Again, the remixes only made the album sound better... aside from Lil Mo', I think most everybody used on the album was someone Pac would of worked with while he was alive.  They stayed true to Pac's vision, it was like a real Pac album.   Not sure if Death Row or Amaru was responsible for this?

Death Row manage and market this projects. Still I Rise contains Death Row remixes and some songs arranged/remixed by the late Johnny J. Suge got the rights of every songs while The Outlawz were signed on Death Row when the project was made. But Interscope recorded it without the Death Row imprint. Then, Afeni Shakur wanted Cold 187Um as supervisor for Until The End Of Time, that's why a lot of tracks where produced by Death Row staff (Damon Thomas, Cold 187Um, Darren Vages, Jim Gettum, Crooked I) while Cold 187Um, Death Row VP, mixed 50% of the album. It wasn't the same thang with "Better Dayz" handled by Amaru, without any Tha Row remixes (then Tha Row Hitters worked on Greatest Hits: Nu Mixes For The Streets, released as Nu-Mixx Klazzics)

More interesting info... I wasn't aware that Cold 187um was such a player in all this?   

[TidyKris]

I think the posthumous problems were inevitable as everyone has their own opinions and ways of remembering Pac.  We were never going to get "classic" albums because there wasn't a cohesive artistic mind behind it.  If Pac were alive in 2001-02, he wouldn't be putting out albums full of random songs he recorded in 1994-96, his subject matter would have evolved to him addressing newer things. He did have a great deal of gems in the vault but they were never going to equal "albums". They would be "collections".

I THINK "Until The End of Time" was the first time I can recall just being disappointed with the process because having been privy to the bootlegged material that they ended up remixing for the album, some of them songs just sounded terrible and still do. I actually remember making my own solo disc of songs I liked off that project, just so I didn't have to sit through listening to what they did to songs like "When We Ride on Our Enemies".

Yes i agree, Until The End Of Time was the first time i remember being disappointed too, there was some good stuff on there but a lot of ruined tracks....although i do remember being disappointed when hearing that they had remixed "Black Jesus" on Still I Rise. I know a lot of people liked that one but i much preferred
the OG beat

[V2DHeart]

Until The End of Time could have been reduced to one disc, much like Better Dayz. I'm sure we all have our preferences as to which tracks could fit one disc, but the problem was that there were too many tracks, meaning that there was a greater room for quality error.

No question that R U Still Down was the best because it "sounded" like a real 2Pac album, was kept close to OG, and enhanced. Still I Rise is where it went down hill. Verses chopped, new vocals, entirely different beats that sounded NOTHING like the original, and a very weak outro song from the Outlawz. Some remixes were nice (Still I Rise, Killuminati, U Can Be Touched) but it was from there it was a "remix" collection, it just so happened to have "less" tracks, so therefore there were "less" mess on this album, which is why it's regarded as one of the better of the posthumous albums.

Had Still I Rise been a DOUBLE album, we'd be thinking of it as an entirely weak album

[Sccit]

i wonder why they released all his posthumous work as double discs? imagine, they coulda split all those into 2 releases instead of 1, which woulda seemed even more impressive.

[Mo-D]

This is a really great discussion. I like the way everyone has stayed on point. Very rare these days.

Being an insanely huge Pac fan growing up (and still am), I remember how excited I got at these releases. I remember getting R U Still Down and initially being a disappointed 14 year old as it had no disses to Biggie or Bad Boy (No joke). I obviously still bumped it and I would say it is one of my favourite albums of all time now. I skip maybe 1 or 2 tracks over both discs at most.

I remember calling my friend and discussing the RIP Biggie Smalls quote on God Bless The Dead when Greatest Hits dropped (and the hideous Top Dogg verse!). Troublesome, while awesome, I had already heard on the Trapp bootleg.

Still I Rise to me was OK. I always thought Outlawz polluted Pac tracks a bit and I preferred his solo efforts, but the album still sold like 5 mil and had some great tracks as mentioned. Teardrops and Closed Caskets, Killuminati and Baby Dont Cry were all classic and made the album. I didn't like that Napolean took Pac's verse from U Can be Touched (something I didn't realise until the OG leaked a while later).

Until the End of Time was the album though. I remember listening to this so much in my discman that the CD eventually scratched. Take away Lil Mo track and the horribly offbeat Everything they Owe and I thought it was remarkeable. Probably because it had so many unleaked tracks. Ballad, Last Ones Left, MOB etc

The same for Better Dayz. For me, just hearing Mama's just a Little Girl, Better Dayz and Fame was enough to certify this a classic. It didn't leave my car for months and months.

Loyal to The game I actually bumped quite a lot. I thought there was some classics on it. Quik's remix was fire. Dont you Trust me was amazing. The OG is corny in comparison. Obviously a lot of tracks were butchered but I just took the positives, I would prefer some tracks than none being released.

Pac's life I don't listen to much at all. That was for me, where it ended. Nothing from Pac released since (yes due to Label politics as mentioned above) but probably because these days record sales count for nothing. Live shows is where money is made. A tour could pull an artist like Drake around $30-40m, that would require 10 million album sales. Not even Bieber does those numbers.

That is why we won't see any more Pac albums. No money to be made. If you think it is, or was ever to get Pac's message out, you're kidding yourself.

I would love to hear one more album with Road to Glory, Watch Yo Mouth and others in original form, but it is really unlikely. I can't believe it has been 6 years since Pac's life! wow.

[Hack Wilson - real]

i wonder why they released all his posthumous work as double discs? imagine, they coulda split all those into 2 releases instead of 1, which woulda seemed even more impressive.

very true but R U Still Down was worthy of being a double disc CD.  That was one of the most amazing Pac albums and I actually prefer it to Strictly 4 My Niggaz.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

i wonder why they released all his posthumous work as double discs? imagine, they coulda split all those into 2 releases instead of 1, which woulda seemed even more impressive.

Probably because it reduced their overhead costs compared to if they had just released a bunch of single-disc albums, and tended to sell more anyway, even if you didn't double the sales figures the way that they do for RIAA certifications.  Amaru Records was cheap as fuck anyway, so it made sense that they'd go for the double albums with those first few releases.

very true but R U Still Down was worthy of being a double disc CD.  That was one of the most amazing Pac albums and I actually prefer it to Strictly 4 My Niggaz.

I actually feel differently.  It could've been a better single-disc album.  I remember that even when VIBE reviewed it (and I think part of it was reprinted in the VIBE biography of Pac), they even said something similar (something about how it "would've been a better EP than LP-squared").  Not saying that UTEOT and BD were such jam-packed double-albums, but a lot of why people didn't like them wasn't because of the material as much as it was about how the material was presented in retail format... meaning that the remixes were more miss than hit, though the songs were still good, hence why most people always say that if the album had all original beats, that it would've been even better.

But one thing that always pissed me off was that Are U Still Down (which I was always a big fan of) came out on the radio around the same time as when RUSD was being released... and I assumed that the song was on the album.  I remember even one of the radio stations in the Ventura County area (Q1047 or Q105, depending on what name they went by at that time) had a radio ad for the album but with Are U Still Down playing in the background, so it was confusing.  I remember listening to the album straight through a few times listening for the song and being disappointed that it wasn't on there.

[jmix]

darren vegas and edi have been good players

[Blood$]

solid thread here... I'd rank those albums this way:

Better Dayz
Still I Rise
Until The End Of Time
R U Still Down
Pac's Life
Loyal To The Game

[Fresh Bone]

That is why we won't see any more Pac albums. No money to be made.

Only thing left to do is release the original versions in CDQ. That may well be the smartest move in hip hop music for the last few years as the sales would go through the roof. I can imagine a big boxset with all untouched originals selling into the millions.

[BabyBird]

solid thread here... I'd rank those albums this way:

Better Dayz
Still I Rise
Until The End Of Time
R U Still Down
Pac's Life
Loyal To The Game

good list but pacs life was a little to short. but the songs fit well together so to say

[Blood$]

That is why we won't see any more Pac albums. No money to be made.

Only thing left to do is release the original versions in CDQ. That may well be the smartest move in hip hop music for the last few years as the sales would go through the roof. I can imagine a big boxset with all untouched originals selling into the millions.

or throw it up on iTunes for like $50-100 like they did with The Beatles

if it was all the original sessions mastered and not fucked with I'd probably drop the bag for it

[o g s u e s o n e]

I didn't like any of Pac's stuff being remixed, however, i thought they did a decent job on everything up to and including "Still I Rise".  I was mad when "Secretz of War" came out remixed on that album though.  Their formula used to be to remix a few songs and touch up the rest, leaving them close to OG.

As soon as UNTIL THE END OF TIME came out, that's when everything went south, beginning with the title track with the sampled "Broken Wings" beat in which Pac's voice was horribly offbeat, it all went downhill after that.  From that album on, it was "remix everything, maybe leave one or two songs close to OG" instead of the other way around.

As much as i liked "Changes" I do think it was detrimental in that Afeni felt everything needed to be remixed because she found success ONE TIME remixing a song like this.  It worked once, all the other remixes since then were worse for the most part. 

I´m rollin wit dat. I got like 300 Death Row CDs/Tapes/12"s at home but I never went to the store to buy 2pac Remix CDs. Still I Rise was decent but yea after that it went downhill with 2pacs music.

[Sccit]

solid thread here... I'd rank those albums this way:

Better Dayz
Still I Rise
Until The End Of Time
R U Still Down
Pac's Life
Loyal To The Game

"better dayz" and "until the end of time" over "r u still down"?

[Blood$]

solid thread here... I'd rank those albums this way:

Better Dayz
Still I Rise
Until The End Of Time
R U Still Down
Pac's Life
Loyal To The Game

"better dayz" and "until the end of time" over "r u still down"?

I honestly enjoy those albums more but I guess it's more of a personal thing ya dig? Better Dayz especially, that's my favorite posthumous Pac album after Makaveli

I liked R U Still Down don't get me wrong but I felt it could have been structured better and some songs did have that "leftover" feel like they were supposed to be on other albums, plus some lyrics were recycled like "Still Ballin'" with "I'm Getting Money" (which is actually the OG?)... it has classic songs on it though and of course Spice 1 is on there  

I wish I still had my copy of that though I do regret selling it