Makaveli — The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory

In February 1996, 2Pac released the double album "All Eyez on Me" and came close to a resolution with Death Row Records, the label of Suge Knight that had bailed him out of prison last October, having completed in one fell swoop two of the three albums that the boy who grew up in Oaktown had committed to with Death Row. It was quite a move.

Driven by an extraordinary advertising campaign, the product sold over two million copies in the space of two months and at the end of April 1996 the RIAA certified it platinum for the third time. Suge Knight, however, was not happy. By the following summer, Shakur had recorded so much material that he could have gotten out of the label at any time. Nevertheless, not only would the boy not be able to get out of Death Row, but his name would remain linked to the label forever.

On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was hit by four bullets fired from a car that had pulled alongside the car in which he and Suge Knight were traveling in Las Vegas, after attending a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Sheldon. Taken to the hospital in serious condition, 2Pac died on September 13, 1996. Suge Knight was released from the hospital after being injured in the shooting and as soon as he recovered, he looked for a way to make the most of all this free publicity.

In the first days of the previous August, the rapper recorded about twenty tracks in three days and a good part of these were put together in a sort of mixtape entitled "The 3 Day Theory". After a few more days to mix all the material, the title changed to "The 7 Day Theory". It was originally not supposed to be released and was scheduled for a 1997 release, but in their haste to capitalize on the moment, the executives decided to release the material and messed up both the title and the new moniker of the artist: the final title was supposed to be "Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" by Makaveli the Don, Shakur's new pseudonym, while Death Row released the album as "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" by Makaveli. The album isn't really an album, it doesn't have a real cover, it doesn't have big producers, it doesn't have big guests, it doesn't have anything to market it properly and it doesn't need to, because right now people just want to buy something new from the emcee, Death Row knows it and they're packaging this stuff up as fast as they can.

The music is provided by Makaveli himself, QDIII, who produces only one track, and unknown guys like Darryl "Big D" Harper, Hurt-M-Badd, Demetrius Ship and Reggie Moore. The guests are the rapper's friends Outlawz, Bad Azz, Aaron Hall, Danny Boy, K-Ci & JoJo, Val Young and Hurt-M-Badd (credited as Tyrone Wrice), as well as uncredited singers Viginya Slim, Prince Ital Joe, JMJ and Bo-Roc.

1. "Bomb First (My Second Reply)" (ft. Outlawz)

Traffic noises as a background sound for Shakur's intro where the boy takes it out on all his rivals and enemies, in a diss track sequel to "Hit 'Em Up". Pretty cheap production, poor samples, jagged bass lines not good, even the loop of rattling and rusty piano keys sound bad or at least worse than how it should sound in a 2Pac album, who pulls out a hardcore verse with a good flow and saves the cut for what it can do. Mediocre track, boring and forgettable, especially because of the rhythm created by Makaveli himself together with Big D the Impossible; Young Noble and EDI Mean are fine, both rappers from the Outlawz, in particular Young Noble is making his debut in the industry.

2. "Hail Mary" (ft. Outlawz)

Dark production of a totally different quality than the previous one. Thundering bass, powerful, heavy, tough, whispered intro by 2Pac mixed with his screams, melodic hook sung, church bell sounds, dry dusty drum midtempo, wonderful samples that faithfully accompany the slow and hard delivery of Makaveli, great velvety flow. Hurt-M-Badd did a fantastic job behind the keys, adding a noisy synth line to support the second verse, which the author recites with a sing-song style. Hook by Shakur, then the Outlawz come to light up the cut, inside Kastro, Young Noble, a bridge by Yaki Kadafi and Prince Ital Joe who recites the final hook together with the main rapper.

This is one of the best tracks on the album and one of the best in 2Pac's discography.

3. "Toss It Up" (ft. Aaron Hall, Danny Boy & K-Ci & JoJo, all uncredited) 

Intro, then comes a fat synth line, muffled bass in the background, modest drum, fluid synth line, pop hook sung by four different rnb singers, sing-song execution by Makaveli in this sexual cut for women produced by Demetrius Ship and Reggie Moore. The rhythm isn't exactly among the best in his discography and the original tune is a diss to Dr. Dre that is mainly based on his hit with Blackstreet Boys "No Diggity", which he parodies, but Blackstreet Boys prevent Death Row from publishing the original song due to copyright infringement.

4. "To Live & Die in LA" (ft. Val Young)

Another classic, thanks to a sublime, delightfully sunny, melodic, amazing production, made by QDIII. Skit about 2Pac making noise about the feud between West Coast and East Coast, powerful, thundering, excellent bass line, great female backing vocals, dusty, dirty, midtempo, perfect drum, fantastic samples, superlative delivery by Tupac, wonderful silky flow. Val Young kills the hook, beautifully. The emcee returns for a second and third verse and Val Young continues to send this track into the firmament of hip-hop, exceptional contribution from the singer. As Shakur states in the outro this is a sort of sequel to "California Love" — ​​which I remember is one of the songs Suge Knight stole from Dr. Dre to compile the double album of 2Pac released a few months before this, placing a verse of Shakur on it — another indirect blow to the enemy Dr. Dre.

5. "Blasphemy" (ft. Prince Ital Joe & JMJ, both uncredited)

Haunting intro. Then comes a thumping bass line, lively drums, excellent samples, great production by Hurt-M-Badd to support 2Pac's hardcore delivery on this dark and brooding track. Good hook by Prince Ital Joe, while a voice keeps coming back in the background making the mood dark.

6. "Life of an Outlaw" (ft. Outlawz)

One of the worst productions ever on a 2Pac album. Squeezed bass line, terrible, horrible downtempo drum, unnecessarily loud hi-hat, plucked acoustic guitar that is urgent for whatever reason. On this terrible rhythm invented by Big D the Impossible and Shakur himself, the author decides to get his friends Outlawz to join him on one of the most messy, loud, grumpy and messed up beats of his discography: inside there are a few minutes of glory for Young Noble, EDI Mean, Kastro and Napoleon.

7. "Just Like Daddy" (ft. Outlawz)

Splendid electric guitar riff with amplifier, deep thundering bass line in the background, hard midtempo drum, phenomenal beat, nice work by Hurt-M-Badd behind the keyboards. Makaveli delivers sex bars in another choice for women for a few minutes with his loyal friends from the Outlawz, here represented by EDI Mean, who has the honor of opening a cut by Tupac, Yaki Kadafi and Young Noble, while the hook is performed by Val Young together with Shakur.

8. "Krazy" (ft. Bad Azz)

Thundering bass line, excellent slow heavy piano keys, precise midtempo dry hard drum, beautiful samples, electric guitar riff with excellent amplifier to support the heavy hook of 2Pac, here supported by Bad Azz of Snoop Dogg's group LBC Crew on rapping, the only guest outside the Outlawz in this project. Good slow dry flow of the main emcee on one of the rare well-executed works by producer Big D.

9. "White Man'z World" (ft. Danny Boy, uncredited)

Homage to the James Brown song. Deep bass line in the background, thundering, correct, fat drum, good samples, the rhythm isn't excellent, in fact it is a bit bad, created by Big D the Impossible. The emcee for once delivers alone, while the hook is sung by Danny Boy, uncredited in this song.

10. "Me & My Girlfriend" (ft. Virginya Slim)

Almost improvising, Hurt-M-Badd invents this beat from scratch for 2Pac, who's credited on keyboards with him and Darryl "Big D the Impossible" Harper. Minimal heavy hard dry drum, chunky fat bass line, sick guitar loop. Intro by Virginya Slim, uncredited, Shakur delivers hardcore on the first verse with an aggressive style on solid production. Angry interlude by Virginya Slim amid gunfire, Pac returns, hardcore again on a track clearly inspired by Nas' "I Gave You Power" and also clearly referencing Biggie Smalls' "Me and My Bitch". Brilliant and inspired hook from the emcee, who also drops a third and fourth verse maintaining an anthology-like narrative, then goes into a long outro that brings the track over five minutes.

11. "Hold Ya Head" (ft. Hurt-M-Badd)

Hurt-M-Badd does a wonderful job in production. Gorgeous rough bass line, sublime flute, elegant piano keys a little dark, guitar riff, female vocal sample, dry dry drum midtempo, rich rhythm, excellent. Intro by Makaveli with Tyrone Wrice (aka Hurt-M-Badd) where the author changes Nas' "One Love" to "One Thug", then delivers hardcore giving a strong and interesting contrast for the track. Room for the beat and Wrice's voice on the chorus. Shakur shows off some of his best, silkiest, smoothest flows for the second verse, realizing one of his most beautiful conscious tracks.

12. "Against All Odds"

Exquisite and dark production made by Tupac together with Hurt-M-Badd. Obscure and sad violins, dry skeletal downtempo drums, robust bass line in the background, solid rhythm to support this heavy track. The album closes with a historic diss track against half the East Coast, Nas, Mobb Deep, Biggie Smalls, Puff Daddy, Q-Tip and even Dr. Dre. In the intro the author begins to make references to Nas, then Tupac delivers three verses against his rivals, including those who framed him and sent him to prison a few years earlier, placing a dig also against Stretch in the outro. Classic cut. After meeting a couple of times, 2Pac agrees with Nas to remove the track after a further meeting that should take place in Las Vegas in the following weeks, however, Shakur is killed in the shooting before this meeting can take place and the diss remains within the final tracklist.

Final Thoughts

The production takes on the West Coast sound typical of the nineties, with a series of rhythms inspired by g-funk, atmospheric, fun, minimal, fluid, sometimes plaintive and that rely heavily on the synthesizer. Created by unknown beatmakers, the set of this tape sounds simply functional to the lyrics proposed by the emcee and ends up sounding cheap and poor, resulting in some of the worst beats you can hear in the discography of the rapper raised in Oakland, although there are also tracks that can boast noteworthy and excellent musical backgrounds. The album alternates between bad rhythms and other excellent ones, which makes the listening irregular, incoherent and jumping, from a musical point of view.

Lyrically, Tupac Shakur stays on topics already covered in his previous albums including depression, stress, murder, violence, death, religion, love, socio-conscious, street life, drugs, poverty, sex and racism. In this reflective effort, the author throws down a lot of emotions, dark emotions, from anger to suicidal thoughts, and presents himself in his most paranoid and aggressive form. Thematically, the album finds the darkness of his last work with Interscope, released while he was in prison and several tracks are dedicated to those who the author considers his rivals and sworn enemies, from Nas to the boy who sold him milk at a higher price. The artist in fact goes heavily against other emcees, including Jay-Z, Mobb Deep, Stretch, Biggie, Puff Daddy, Lil Kim, Junior MAFIA, Q-Tip, Dr. Dre and even Chino XL, in addition to a few bars against Xzibit by the Outlawz. Tupac and Nas clash at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, and in the following days they make peace, Nas should be a guest in this same effort and Pac is also willing to remove the bars directed against Esco, but a few days later he gets entangled in the final shootout.

The rapping is as tight as the beats, sometime the rapper sounds as good as he ever was, but throughout the album he seems to be reciting his own writing on autopilot, giving a lot of space to his friends in the Outlawz, who still sound unnecessary on this project. The end result is that he produces excellent tracks when he's blessed with a good beat and is in shape ("Hail Mary", "To Live & Die in L.A.", "Hold Ya Head") and terrible cuts when the rhythm doesn't hit or there are weak hooks. He doesn't collaborate with any of the guys who have produced songs for him in the past, with the exception of QDIII. The rest of the beats are created by the emerging beatmaker Tyrone "Hurt-M-Badd" Wrice and the rnb producer Darryl "Big D" Harper, who did not have a good reputation within the Death Row Records label. Nevertheless, Makaveli calls both of them to record the songs with their rhythms. Even in terms of guests, this project is totally distant from Shakur's previous work and does not feature any rap stars to join him at the mic. The New York-born emcee allows himself to plant friends from his hip-hop group Outlawz everywhere on this project — Young Noble is the main guest on the artist's first posthumous LP — and the only external guest is Bad Azz, a Long Beach rapper affiliated with Snoop Dogg (he also recorded his new album at Can-Am Studios in Tarzana, Los Angeles, releasing it the week after the release of "The 7 Day Theory"), a member of Snoop's group LBC Crew and the Dogg Pound Gangsta Crips.

Two weeks after the artist's violent death, Suge Knight's Death Row released the first promotional single of Tupac Shakur's first posthumous album, unfortunately the first of an endless series, and also the only one officially published under the new pseudonym Makaveli, in reference to the Italian writer Niccolò Machiavelli, whose writings the author had read during his imprisonment. Two months after the murder, the album, which would be the fifth solo studio album for 2Pac, is also released by The New and "Untouchable" Death Row Records, Interscope Records and Shakur's newly formed label Makaveli Records (a Death Row subsidiary), distributed by UNI, despite having been finished and completed before his death. The cover art features Tupac Shakur on the cross in a remake of a Renaissance-style illustration of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The image is complex, illuminated by the reflection of moonlight in a dark atmosphere with red hues. The project was greeted controversially by fans and with mixed reviews from music critics and only in retrospect considered one of his best works and a "classic" album, sometimes also considered the best in the young rapper's artistic career, even if it still struggles to enter the hearts of specialized reviewers even decades after its release.

Planned as a mixtape, the album spawned three singles, "Toss It Up", "To Live & Die in L.A." and "Hail Mary", all of which ended up in the charts, and in its first week sold 664,000 physical copies, debuting at the top of the Billboard 200, obtaining comforting sales results all over the world and becoming a great commercial success: it entered the charts of three continents, was in the top ten of rnb albums in the UK and reached the top of the Billboard 200. By the end of 1996, it was the fourth best-selling rap album in the country, behind the Fugees' debut, "The Score", his double album "All Eyez on Me" and Nas' "It Was Written", while the following year it rose to second place as the best-selling rap album of 1997, behind only the posthumous album of another emcee, his rival The Notorious B.I.G. with "Life After Death". The RIAA certified it three times platinum in April 1997, and two years later it achieved fourth platinum. In the weeks and months following the CD's release, "To Live & Die in L.A." and "Hail Mary" were also released as singles, both of which were praised by critics and considered among 2Pac's best cuts ever.

The album was created with the sole purpose of fulfilling the requirements of his contract with Death Row Records and continuing his career in the industry alone with his own record label, which is why it is full of imperfections, hastily recorded, poorly edited, quickly mixed, sounds urgent at all times, and the material released is of lower quality than his previous efforts. Many tracks recorded for the album were later released on several posthumous albums. Symbolically considered the last album of the golden age of hip-hop, this project is more important from a historical point of view in hip-hop and for the legacy it still holds today rather than for the actual value of the music it preserves.

Rating: 7.5/10.