Better Dayz Appreciation + Question about Song Selection

[MOBNigga06]

Better Dayz is an underrated posthumous release. It has several virtues that don't typically get recognized:

1) It has four tracks released in what's essentially their OG form: Late Night, Who Do U Believe In, Ghetto Star, They Don't Give a Fuck.

2) It has several tracks released with beats that closely resemble the original: Better Dayz, Military Mindz, and Fame (and one might add Never Call U Bitch Again)

3) It has a few songs where the production is much superior to the original: Street Fame, Still Ballin, and Mamaz Just a Little Girl.

4) Jazze Pha is a pretty decent producer to pair with Pac, since his production seems to have been heavily influenced by Johnny J: Changed Man, Fair XChange, U Can Call, and There U Go sound like the kind of radio-friendly beats that Johnny J made for Pac during the AEOM era.

As for the song selection, another virtue of this album was that it seems to have stuck predominantly to songs from the Makaveli (and One Nation) era. But that's just my impression, since I can't tell for all of the songs.

My impression is that Street Fame, Still Ballin, When We Ride on Our Enemies, Fuck Em All, Never B Peace, Whatcha Gonna Do, Catchin Feelings, Military Mindz, Never Call U Bitch Again, Fame, TDGAFAU, Who Do U Believe In, Ghetto Star, etc., were all recorded during the sessions for Makavali and One Nation.

Late Night is an exception, since that song is known to have been intended for AEOM. I also suspect that U Can Call is an AEOM leftover.

Anybody have an idea when Thugz Mansion was recorded? The chronology of Mamaz Just a Little Girl is also unknown to me.

Anyway, if my impression is correct, then Better Dayz is dope for being something like the "second" Makaveli album. Sure, it has some terrible sins on its head: whoever decided to replace Kurupt's dope verses from Still Ballin with Trick Daddy should be shot. But on the whole, the album is a much better posthumous release than most of the others, and it did justice to a lot of Pac's best music.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

I agree with pretty much everything.

Late Night and Who Do U Believe In were easy to release in OG form, since they had already appeared on Chronic 2000.

I think it was the booklet for UTEOT where Afeni's "note" said it was the first of two albums from Pac's Makaveli era (with BD obviously being the second) that they were putting out.

BD could've been big, but at that point, Amaru wasn't really trying very hard with marketing, and they pretty much only put out one single, and it was a poor choice at that. There were plenty of songs that could've been street singles.

[MOBNigga06]

I agree with pretty much everything.

Late Night and Who Do U Believe In were easy to release in OG form, since they had already appeared on Chronic 2000.

I think it was the booklet for UTEOT where Afeni's "note" said it was the first of two albums from Pac's Makaveli era (with BD obviously being the second) that they were putting out.

BD could've been big, but at that point, Amaru wasn't really trying very hard with marketing, and they pretty much only put out one single, and it was a poor choice at that. There were plenty of songs that could've been street singles.

Interesting about that note in the UTEOT booklet. I forgot about that.

To me, UTEOT seems like more of a mixture of AEOM songs with Makaveli songs, whereas Better Dayz is more of a pure Makaveli album.

On UTEOT, there are a bunch of songs I associate with AEOM sessions: Letter 2 My Unborn, Happy Home, Good Life, UTEOT, M.O.B., and When I Get Free. Maybe I'm wrong for thinking of these as belonging to Pac's earlier period on DR. At least half of the tracks on UTEOT, though, are definitely from the Makaveli era (Niggaz Nature, Friendz, When Thugz Cry, etc.)

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Well, the soft ass remixed beats with the R&B choruses didn't help.

I see what you mean though, there are definitely a few that may have been recorded closer to AEOM.  But there's still a few that were definitely closer to Makaveli (Fuck Friendz, All Out, Fuckin wit the Wrong Nigga, Niggaz Nature, When Thugz Cry, U Don't Have 2 Worry).

[Sccit]

WE ALL THOUGHT BETTER DAYZ AND UTEOT WERE LETDOWNS WHEN THEY WERE ORIGINALLY RELEASED....THAT WAS UNTIL LOYAL TO THE GAME AND PAC'S LIFE CAME OUT. IN RETROSPECT, WE CAN APPRECIATE BETTER DAYZ AND UTEOT AS SOLID PAC ALBUMS. R U STILL DOWN IS STILL THE BEST POSTHUMOUS RELEASE FROM PAC THO (I DONT REALLY CONSIDER MAKAVELI POSTHUMOUS, SINCE IT WAS READY FOR RELEASE BEFORE HIS DEATH).

[CORREA]

1) It has four tracks released in what's essentially their OG form:  Ghetto Star,

wrong

[DeeezNuuuts83]

WE ALL THOUGHT BETTER DAYZ AND UTEOT WERE LETDOWNS WHEN THEY WERE ORIGINALLY RELEASED....THAT WAS UNTIL LOYAL TO THE GAME AND PAC'S LIFE CAME OUT. IN RETROSPECT, WE CAN APPRECIATE BETTER DAYZ AND UTEOT AS SOLID PAC ALBUMS. R U STILL DOWN IS STILL THE BEST POSTHUMOUS RELEASE FROM PAC THO (I DONT REALLY CONSIDER MAKAVELI POSTHUMOUS, SINCE IT WAS READY FOR RELEASE BEFORE HIS DEATH).

I still have the same opinion of all the posthumous releases as I did when they came out.  I was happy to have new releases.  Out of the ones you named, Better Dayz was always my favorite.

Vibe's review of R U Still Down was pretty accurate... saying that it would have been a far better single album than double, plus a lot of it was basically songs that didn't make the final cut, and they were that way for a reason, in most cases... which wasn't necessarily the case for the posthumous Death Row era releases.

And one thing that REALLY pissed me off about that was that Are U Still Down (with Jon B) came out around the same time, so I thought that song was on it for obvious reasons... and I remember listening to the album straight through multiple times and wondering where the fuck that song was.  It didn't help that local radio stations in California were even playing that song and saying it was from the new album.

[MOBNigga06]

1) It has four tracks released in what's essentially their OG form:  Ghetto Star,

wrong

Really? Nuttso himself has said in interviews that the version released on Better Dayz is basically the original version. Sure, some minor aspects of the beat have been slightly changed, and Pac's outro isn't included. But other than that it's the same as the OG.

Or do you know something that Nuttso doesn't?

[V2DHeart]

UTEOT should have been a single release. Too many duplicates and a waste of good material for it (as someone else had mentioned about lack of singles) for it to only have 1 fully promoted single, as BD had. Letter 2 My Unborn had potential, but the video was sloppy and was more or less a rehash of the UTEOT single video done in a sketched edit.

The forums had a lot of good ideas on some music videos for the likes of Happy Home, Better Dayz, & Late night, especially when featured artists were living and more options would have been available to them.

The rationale behind it at the time was that they wanted to maximize the return while 2Pac was still somewhat relevant and while CD's still sold, which is why they churned out 4 LP's in the one go rather than sit on it and his name fade away where no one would buy the stacks of material left. We see that this is where we are at today because when was the last time we saw a full 2Pac release? So there was some justification for it

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

WE ALL THOUGHT BETTER DAYZ AND UTEOT WERE LETDOWNS WHEN THEY WERE ORIGINALLY RELEASED....THAT WAS UNTIL LOYAL TO THE GAME AND PAC'S LIFE CAME OUT. IN RETROSPECT, WE CAN APPRECIATE BETTER DAYZ AND UTEOT AS SOLID PAC ALBUMS. R U STILL DOWN IS STILL THE BEST POSTHUMOUS RELEASE FROM PAC THO (I DONT REALLY CONSIDER MAKAVELI POSTHUMOUS, SINCE IT WAS READY FOR RELEASE BEFORE HIS DEATH).

I don't think so cuzz.. besides the usual complaints about the tracks not being o.g... I think most people felt UTEOT was the bomb shit when it came out.   That album really satisfied hard core Pac fans and had mainstream success.  They were able to keep most of the same cast of characters that was around Pac when he died, and there were so many great songs on there that have stood the test of time.  

Your right about Better Dayz though

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

Better Dayz is an underrated posthumous release. It has several virtues that don't typically get recognized:

1) It has four tracks released in what's essentially their OG form: Late Night, Who Do U Believe In, Ghetto Star, They Don't Give a Fuck.

2) It has several tracks released with beats that closely resemble the original: Better Dayz, Military Mindz, and Fame (and one might add Never Call U Bitch Again)

3) It has a few songs where the production is much superior to the original: Street Fame, Still Ballin, and Mamaz Just a Little Girl.

4) Jazze Pha is a pretty decent producer to pair with Pac, since his production seems to have been heavily influenced by Johnny J: Changed Man, Fair XChange, U Can Call, and There U Go sound like the kind of radio-friendly beats that Johnny J made for Pac during the AEOM era.

As for the song selection, another virtue of this album was that it seems to have stuck predominantly to songs from the Makaveli (and One Nation) era. But that's just my impression, since I can't tell for all of the songs.

My impression is that Street Fame, Still Ballin, When We Ride on Our Enemies, Fuck Em All, Never B Peace, Whatcha Gonna Do, Catchin Feelings, Military Mindz, Never Call U Bitch Again, Fame, TDGAFAU, Who Do U Believe In, Ghetto Star, etc., were all recorded during the sessions for Makavali and One Nation.

Late Night is an exception, since that song is known to have been intended for AEOM. I also suspect that U Can Call is an AEOM leftover.

Anybody have an idea when Thugz Mansion was recorded? The chronology of Mamaz Just a Little Girl is also unknown to me.

Anyway, if my impression is correct, then Better Dayz is dope for being something like the "second" Makaveli album. Sure, it has some terrible sins on its head: whoever decided to replace Kurupt's dope verses from Still Ballin with Trick Daddy should be shot. But on the whole, the album is a much better posthumous release than most of the others, and it did justice to a lot of Pac's best music.

Your right for the most part.  "Who Do You Believe In" is such a classic Pac song, one of his deepest and most spiritual.  The problem was since it was o.g. and had found it's way on so many other bootlegs and even official releases (wasn't it on a Death Row compilation)—that most of us had heard it and it wasn't fresh.

Also, tracks like "Thug Mansion" were great songs, but I was bumpin that off Nas' God Son album a lot more than Pac's album.  And the Nas version I think is a little better with the two Nas verses, and they made a video for that one.

But other than that you are right for the most part.  This has grown to be an under-rated release, and very quality material considering how long Pac had been dead, and how much material had already been released. 

There were some true gems on there that might've even made it on Pac albums if he were alive.  "Never Call You Bitch Again" is one of the greatest Pac songs ever and he even performed it at a show when he was alive.  Pac is very easy to relate to on the track, rapping not as a superstar, but just as a regular brother who goes through regular things like all of us go through.  Same with "Better Dayz", he even raps something like "Workin/ and night school".   Those two tracks were the crown jewels of the album in my opinion.

One more note—I had been a fan of the Show "My Block" since it had came out on Def Jam.  The Show soundtrack had always been my all-time fav soundtrack and documentary. So I was actually happy that they were able to remake that song into something fresh, but at the same time it couldn't compete with the O.G.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Like I said before, it was the shitty marketing approach they took to promoting the albums that made them way less successful than they could've/should've been.  Let's set aside the music itself, what was remixed vs. what was kept OG, etc.

UTEOT had a good start with the title track as the lead single and carrying the theme of sampling a popular '80s song, though the video was more of the same.  We saw a similar concept with Changes, though this one spliced in studio footage, which was cool and kept it somewhat interesting and not just the same footage constantly re-used.  Letter 2 My Unborn had a video but it was only released overseas, and it was kind of the same kind of approach they had to Changes and UTEOT.  But even Ballad of a Dead Soulja could've been a good video too, a lot of the fanmade ones were pretty good.

BD in my opinion had more potential as far as singles go (and it helped that it was less blanketed by the Outlawz and actually contained a number of artists who were fairly popular at the time and could've appeared in the video), but of course they went with a really shitty option for the first video single, and the video itself was AWFUL.  And then they just didn't follow up with another video.  They could've, easily... Still Ballin was already getting radio play (and was one of the first songs to leak from the album prior to release), Changed Man was energetic and club-ish (and I even remember it playing once at Tao in Vegas), Street Fame was a good street song, Thugz Mansion Remix (played during the BD commercial and a lot of street cats I hung out with when that song came out really fucked with that song), Never Call U Bitch Again (though admittedly it would be hard to change the title to make it appropriate for single use), U Can Call...

[Sccit]

WE ALL THOUGHT BETTER DAYZ AND UTEOT WERE LETDOWNS WHEN THEY WERE ORIGINALLY RELEASED....THAT WAS UNTIL LOYAL TO THE GAME AND PAC'S LIFE CAME OUT. IN RETROSPECT, WE CAN APPRECIATE BETTER DAYZ AND UTEOT AS SOLID PAC ALBUMS. R U STILL DOWN IS STILL THE BEST POSTHUMOUS RELEASE FROM PAC THO (I DONT REALLY CONSIDER MAKAVELI POSTHUMOUS, SINCE IT WAS READY FOR RELEASE BEFORE HIS DEATH).

I don't think so cuzz.. besides the usual complaints about the tracks not being o.g... I think most people felt UTEOT was the bomb shit when it came out.   That album really satisfied hard core Pac fans and had mainstream success.  They were able to keep most of the same cast of characters that was around Pac when he died, and there were so many great songs on there that have stood the test of time.  

Your right about Better Dayz though

Check this forum search, the proof is in the pudding

[MOBNigga06]

Yeah the marketing of Amaru has been really stupid.

When you have the biggest artist in the history of rap, it's not difficult to make a commercially successful single out of his work.

Take Happy Home for example: you could turn this song into a major hit. Put Jon B or some major (at the time) RnB singer on the chorus. Make a video with actors, splice in footage from Tupac's movies (like Poetic Justice), and it would have been impossible to for it to fail.

Still Ballin and Late Night could also have been major singles.

Doing a video for the shitty version of Thugz Mansion was a terrible move and a perfect reflection of the priorities of Amaru. Pick the most angelic song as the single for an album full of songs about riding on your enemies and fucking bitches.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Yeah the marketing of Amaru has been really stupid.

When you have the biggest artist in the history of rap, it's not difficult to make a commercially successful single out of his work.

Take Happy Home for example: you could turn this song into a major hit. Put Jon B or some major (at the time) RnB singer on the chorus. Make a video with actors, splice in footage from Tupac's movies (like Poetic Justice), and it would have been impossible to for it to fail.

Still Ballin and Late Night could also have been major singles.

Doing a video for the shitty version of Thugz Mansion was a terrible move and a perfect reflection of the priorities of Amaru. Pick the most angelic song as the single for an album full of songs about riding on your enemies and fucking bitches.

The funny thing is, Jon B did that, but on his own: