What albums was Tupac planning before his death?

[sweetdudejim]

So before Tupac died, he had quite a few things on his plate, I wanna see if I'm missing any:

• Makaveli album (RELEASED Nov. 96)
• One Nation (NEVER RELEASED)
• Album from '93 to '96 that ended up being R U Still Down (RELEASED)
  • Was this for real? Was he honestly planning on releasing this material or is this just another made up Wikipedia thing, because on there it said this was planned as his 3rd Death Row album, but I find this doubtful, as most rappers usually don't go back to the vaults for new material. They usually just keep using the newest shit. Also was material like "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" really rerecorded at DR? I just don't hear it.
• Makaveli Records Compilation (NEVER RELEASED)
  • This was mentioned in the All Eyez On Me booklet. Was there actually any work ever done on this?

Ok thats all I got for now, anybody else got anything else he was working on at the time?

[OG Hack Wilson]

that's pretty accurate

[Blasphemy]

He also had another Record during his Me Against The World Jail stint. He planned releasing it, but then Suge bailed him out and he decided 2 Work on All Eyez On Me.

Also he was going to be working on Thug Life Vol. 2 for Makaveli Records, but I don't think he ever started it.

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

damn there was a makaveli records?
whos label was that?

[Blasphemy]

damn there was a makaveli records?
whos label was that?

2pacs.. lmao

Death Row East had Barely started (logos and shit was drawn up but no offices were set up yet). Around this time Doggystyle/Death was up and Makaveli Records was going to come (with Distribution taking up via Death Row. Basically it was all at the very established basics (Makaveli had a Logo, but no building or anything else).

Basically Death Row East was to handle East Coast Acts, and Makaveli Records was to Handle niggaz only 2pac was working with. He talked about just dropping deep albums every 5 years, and do production for his artist and doing his movies (with his Movie Company lol I can't spell it correctly but it had a logo, Live 2 Tell was to be its first movie, but that never happened do 2 his death).


Basically though this was all planned, but even then wouldn't of happened. 2pac Violated his Parole, as such he would of been sent to jail for the remainder of his sentence, Death Row would crumble (though probably not as bad) chances are Makaveli or some album would of been released during his jail term, but basically the situation was fucked up both ways.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

So before Tupac died, he had quite a few things on his plate, I wanna see if I'm missing any:

• Makaveli album (RELEASED Nov. 96)
• One Nation (NEVER RELEASED)
• Album from '93 to '96 that ended up being R U Still Down (RELEASED)
  • Was this for real? Was he honestly planning on releasing this material or is this just another made up Wikipedia thing, because on there it said this was planned as his 3rd Death Row album, but I find this doubtful, as most rappers usually don't go back to the vaults for new material. They usually just keep using the newest shit. Also was material like "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" really rerecorded at DR? I just don't hear it.
• Makaveli Records Compilation (NEVER RELEASED)
  • This was mentioned in the All Eyez On Me booklet. Was there actually any work ever done on this?

Ok thats all I got for now, anybody else got anything else he was working on at the time?

That's not completely accurate.  If you look at Pac's original Death Row contract, it stated that his first album (to be titled R U Still Down) was to consist of previously unreleased tracks (some of which ended up actually being on R U Still Down) remixed by Death Row producers, primarily Dr. Dre (though of course he didn't know that Suge and Kenner were obligating him to it).  Once Pac was released from jail, he actually did end up re-recording some of them (i.e., When I Get Free, Life's So Hard, etc.) as opposed to the existing recording being revamped.  This whole thing got scrapped as Pac started churning out new material at such a fast rate.

After All Eyez on Me, Pac did have a complete album practically ready to go, which he discussed in his interview with Sway (of KMEL) and described as a positive album reminiscent of Me Against the World.  There hasn't been any information about this as far as what songs were on it, though of course everyone has their guesses, such as Happy Home.  This album was clearly put on hold.

While filming Gridlock'd, Pac was set to oversee its soundtrack, which he did start.  He obviously didn't finish since its release date wasn't going to be for a while.  His plan was to make one disc basically like a Death Row project, with artists like himself, Snoop, Tha Dogg Pound, etc. doing songs for it, which is more or less what got released (though more than likely Suge and Daz added random Death Row songs to it), while the other disc was to be of different music genres, which is reflected in the actual music used in the film, like the scene where Pac is smoking a cigarette while Tim Roth is asleep after they talk to the doctor about Cookie (Thandie Newton's character) in the hospital.  Clearly Pac didn't get around to this project.

Pac's next plan was the One Nation compilation, most of which was recorded throughout July while the Boot Camp Clik stayed with him at his house and worked with him at Can-Am Studios.

Pac ended up with the idea for the Makaveli album, which he put his energy into during August and wanted to release before One Nation, though Suge probably pushed its release ahead of schedule after Pac died to capitalize on the frenzy around Pac's death.

Of course, Pac had a bunch of side projects in the works, like the Outlawz album, offshoots of them (i.e., Fatal-N-Felony), Big Syke's solo album (though I don't think it would've ended up being a Death Row release).

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

damn so suge was serious bout doin this whole death row east deal
(as in hed been workin on it for years)
good lookin on the info

damn there was a makaveli records?
whos label was that?

2pacs.. lmao

Death Row East had Barely started (logos and shit was drawn up but no offices were set up yet). Around this time Doggystyle/Death was up and Makaveli Records was going to come (with Distribution taking up via Death Row. Basically it was all at the very established basics (Makaveli had a Logo, but no building or anything else).

Basically Death Row East was to handle East Coast Acts, and Makaveli Records was to Handle niggaz only 2pac was working with. He talked about just dropping deep albums every 5 years, and do production for his artist and doing his movies (with his Movie Company lol I can't spell it correctly but it had a logo, Live 2 Tell was to be its first movie, but that never happened do 2 his death).


Basically though this was all planned, but even then wouldn't of happened. 2pac Violated his Parole, as such he would of been sent to jail for the remainder of his sentence, Death Row would crumble (though probably not as bad) chances are Makaveli or some album would of been released during his jail term, but basically the situation was fucked up both ways.

[sweetdudejim]

Of course, Pac had a bunch of side projects in the works, like the Outlawz album, offshoots of them (i.e., Fatal-N-Felony), Big Syke's solo album (though I don't think it would've ended up being a Death Row release).

Wait so, he was supposed to release R U Still Down after he got outta jail with remixes by Dr. Dre amongst others?? Thats pretty crazy. Where is this contract that refers to all this. I'd be interested in seeing it. And is there any more info on the supposed "positive" album that he was gonna put out after All Eyez On Me? And if he had a completed album, why didn't Death Row/Afeni just respect his work and put it out as he intended?

Also, "Life's So Hard" from Gang Related was a pre Death Row song rerecorded at Death Row? I always thought it was a total Death Row era song with Snoop on it and all.

I don't know, so it seems all Tupac had ready to go was Makaveli by the time of his death. I guess he didn't have One Nation ready after all or R U Still Down for that matter. Although that Me Against The World like album woulda been cool, especially as how it seems Afeni has wanted to market Tupac as a nice guy and less of a thug since his death. I wonder if there's any info on that tracklisting.

I wonder if Wideawake has any info on these projects. They've already told us the tracklisting for Doggumentary, so maybe they have the proposed lists for the Tupac stuff.

[Jimmy H.]

There's actually a duplicate of Pac's prison contract in the book that Amaru put out a few years back and it does state that Dr. Dre would produce a project on him and that Snoop would be featured. It was likely that this was done without Dre's knowledge as I remember reading that one of Dre's complaints with Suge toward the end was that he was promising new artists who signed to the label that Dre would do their whole album and then they would show up and Dre didn't even know who some of the artists were.

[RhyanG]

was Thug Life 2 ft Master P going to happen?

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

but at what point did dre start to have beef wit pac?

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Wait so, he was supposed to release R U Still Down after he got outta jail with remixes by Dr. Dre amongst others?? Thats pretty crazy. Where is this contract that refers to all this. I'd be interested in seeing it. And is there any more info on the supposed "positive" album that he was gonna put out after All Eyez On Me? And if he had a completed album, why didn't Death Row/Afeni just respect his work and put it out as he intended?

That was the suggested title for his first Death Row album, based on his contract, and was to be released in 1995, followed by Euthanasia in 1996.  Obviously these were just proposals, as his Death Row debut album went through a lot of drafts conceptually before even getting recorded and evolving into the All Eyez on Me album as we have it today.

As I stated earlier, there isn't really any other information about the "positive" album other than what I had stated (which was based on Pac's own words from interviews from April-May 1996).  Death Row didn't put it out because they no longer had control over his unreleased recordings, and Amaru didn't put it out because they are run by a bunch of inexperienced idiots who slap together Pac albums of their own track listing.

Also, "Life's So Hard" from Gang Related was a pre Death Row song rerecorded at Death Row? I always thought it was a total Death Row era song with Snoop on it and all.

The version on the Gang Related soundtrack was obviously re-recorded on Death Row, given the Daz beat and the Snoop adlibs, along with the last verse with its references to certain Death Row artists, if I remember correctly.  The original version has a much slower-sounding, gloomy beat which I believe had a Led Zepplin sample from what I remember reading.

I don't know, so it seems all Tupac had ready to go was Makaveli by the time of his death. I guess he didn't have One Nation ready after all or R U Still Down for that matter. Although that Me Against The World like album woulda been cool, especially as how it seems Afeni has wanted to market Tupac as a nice guy and less of a thug since his death. I wonder if there's any info on that tracklisting.

I wouldn't say that One Nation wasn't "ready," seeing how many tracks we already know about that have leaked and a few that haven't.  Also, keep in mind that the plan was for the first disc to be released on Death Row/Makaveli while the second disc was to be released later through Duck Down.  The second disc might not have been completed, possibly because maybe Pac was intending to finish up the album with them on the East Coast, though there are rumors that the guys from Boot Camp have the tracks but are keeping quiet about them since they don't want the tracks to get swooped on by Amaru and remixed to hell.

I wonder if Wideawake has any info on these projects. They've already told us the tracklisting for Doggumentary, so maybe they have the proposed lists for the Tupac stuff.

The track lists might be among what was part of the Death Row acquisition, but any songs would probably be in Afeni's possession, though I'm sure there is a possibility of a track or two from the One Nation sessions that might be floating around in WideAwake's possession.  Remember, the Death Row vaults, especially Pac's material, wasn't cataloged as well as you would think.  A lot of stuff was mislabeled, not labeled at all or just lost... this explains why the Nu-Mixx of Hit 'Em Up uses the clean version's accapella rather than the explicit version, which is said to have been lost.

was Thug Life 2 ft Master P going to happen?

I never heard about that, or at least I don't remember.  I do remember rumors of a Thug Life Volume II coming out, but I don't remember Master P being involved.  The only thing that I can think of was when there was talks in 1998 or 1999 that Master P/No Limit had made an low eight-figure offer to Amaru Records for the rights to a batch of unreleased Pac songs, which was obviously rejected (thankfully).

but at what point did dre start to have beef wit pac?

Dr. Dre was already not a happy camper when Suge was in talks of signing Pac to Death Row.  After Pac came over, he put on a smile and helped him out, though Suge practically forcing Dre to give up California Love for Pac's album didn't help.  Dre's "beef" with Pac (if you want to call it that) didn't really start until around after he left the label since he was aware of Pac talking shit about him regarding the circumstances surrounding his departure from Death Row.

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

aite but what do you mean force?
get the bloods on dre? lol

[Jimmy H.]

but at what point did dre start to have beef wit pac?

Dre never really had beef with Pac. Pac didn't like Dre because Pac was riding for Death Row at a time when Dre wanted to distance himself from the label. Around 1995, Dre more or less stopped going to Can-Am because he didn't like the working environment over there and started working out of his own studio at home. When Pac arrived, he was riding with Suge and the direction of the label was beginning to shift away from Dre. When Pac got there, he was heavy into Suge's plan. Dre, at that point, was tired of it. Dre had been through the whole drama with Ruthless and I think in retrospect, you could see that there was power struggle going on before Pac even got there that Dre was destined to lose.

[Jimmy H.]

aite but what do you mean force?
get the bloods on dre? lol

Suge was running the show at that point. Dre was still a co-owner but his influence was not what it was. Not being there, we can only speculate but interviews with several artists suggest it was the "divide and conquer" situation. Suge was calling shots and Dre was somewhere making music with his own group of artists.