About thirteen months after the last time, the shelves are once again occupied by a new double album by Tupac Shakur, who at this point has released more CDs dead than alive. After "Greatest Hits" (1998), and especially after the unexpected commercial success of the Outlawz album with 2Pac (1999), Afeni Shakur and Suge Knight have once again agreed to fill their pockets with 2Pac's work by releasing this album on their own labels, with the blessing of Interscope. The material comes from the Death Row sessions and consists of 2 CDs for a total of 29 tracks.
Production is provided by Johnny "J", Cold 187um, QDIII, LT Hutton, Mike Mosley, Tone of Trackmasterz, Frank "Nitty" Pimentel, Jim Gettums, Dareen Vegas, Crooked I, Big Simon Says, Tyrone Wrice, Jamie Jones, Jason Pennock, Martin Kember, Jamel Edgerton, Kurt "Kobane" Couthon, Ant Banks, Sonny B, 2Pac and DJ Quik. The main rapper is joined by Outlawz (Big Syke, EDI Mean, Young Noble, Napoleon, Kastro, Mopreme, Hussein Fatal, Nutt-So and Yaki Kadafi), SKG, K-Ci & JoJo, RL Huggar of Next, Lil' Mo, Above the Law, Left Eye, J. Valentine and Richard Page. The Outlawz are the main guests on the project, being credited on eight of the twenty-nine tracks: the main interpreters of Shakur's group are EDI Mean and Napoleon with five contributions each, followed by Young Noble (4), Kastro (4), Big Syke (3, once credited as a soloist), Yaki Kadafi (3) and Hussein Fatal (2).
Only now it turns out that there's nothing left in the archives of 2Pac's recorded material, Afeni and Suge have squeezed everything they can, at least as far as what the artist recorded in life after his signing with Death Row. Most of this offering is somehow cobbled together and remixed from the original: the beats all sound bland and soporific, the only good thing in these two-hour-plus of material is the emcee's voice that tears up every single tune. There's nothing really worthwhile here, the music is poor and overall this is a terrible double album. Several tracks are left off "The 7 Day Theory" ("Friendz", "When Thug'z Cry", "Niggaz Nature", and "Let 'Em Have It").
Released by Amaru, Death Row and Interscope, the album is boosted by a couple of singles that gain traction in Europe (particularly the title track), it sells almost half a million in its first week and after two months it gets its third RIAA platinum certification. The last #1 album on the Billboard 200 for Death Row Records, the product is #2 in Canada and among R&B albums in the UK, resulting in being one of the best-selling rap albums in their country and Canada of 2001. Pretty disappointing and flat, 4/10.
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