2Pac — Greatest Hits

Two years after the murder of Tupac Shakur, a compilation of the artist's best tracks recorded during his short and intense career in the recording industry is released.

Usually, a compilation of this kind should contain only the best of an artist or follow a concept and unfortunately this is not the case. The project is a joint effort between Amaru Entertainment founded by 2Pac's mother Afeni Shakur in 1997, after the death of her son, to which Interscope Records granted the rights to publish the recordings made during his time with the label, mainly the songs included in the albums released with them, and Death Row Records owned by Suge Knight with which he released his last album in life and his first posthumous.

For these reasons, the tracklist is compiled in such a way that each track released by Interscope and whose rights fall to Amaru Entertainment is followed by a song released by Death Row, with some exceptions for what concerns the few unreleased tracks. The collection features 25 tracks from his six studio albums, plus some previously mentioned unreleased tracks and remixes, making it another double album from 2Pac.

Production is realized by DJ Daryl, Dat Nigga Daz, Easy Mo Bee, 2Pac, Hurt-M-Badd, Johnny "J", D-Flizno Production Squad aka D-Flow Production Squad, The Underground Rallroad, Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, Warren G, Reggie Moore, DF Master Tee, Moses, Tony Pizarro, QDIII and David Blake. Tupac is joined by Snoop Doggy Dogg, Stretch, Outlawz, Prince Ital Joe, Dramacydal, KC and JoJo, Nanci Fletcher, Shock G, Danny Boy, Digital Underground, Talent, Dr. Dre, Roger Troutman, Big Syke, CPO, Thug Life, Nate Dogg, Dru Down, Top Dogg, Hussein Fatal, Yaki Kadafi and Val Young, as well as The Black Angel, Puff Johnson, Dank Playa, Wiz, Stacey Smaillie, Dave Hollister, Roniece Levias, Money-B, Shockalock, Aaron Hall, Danny Boy, Reggie Green and Sweet Franklin.

The album is practically perfect except for several less than flawless tracks ("How Do U Want It", "Trapped", "Troublesome '96" and the remix of "All About U"). Two of the four unreleased tracks by 2Pac were chosen as singles, "Changes" and "Unconditional Love": the latter is a track written by Shakur for his friend MC Hammer, while the former achieved worldwide success — except in his homeland, where it stopped outside the top ten among hip-hop songs — and is universally recognized as one of the artist's best songs ever.

Released in late 1998 by Amaru, Death Row, Interscope and Jive, the album sold 268,000 physical copies in its first week, reaching number three on the Billboard 200 in January 1999 and number one on the hip-hop albums chart. Distributed worldwide, it peaked at number one in the Netherlands and was among the best-selling albums of 1999 on three continents, earning certifications everywhere, including platinum in Australia (1999), Canada (1999), the Netherlands (1999), the United Kingdom (2002), Denmark (2023), New Zealand and the United States, where, with over five million physical copies sold, it's one of the few hip-hop albums to achieve diamond certification from the RIAA, in 2011. Good starting point for anyone who wants to start listening to 2Pac.