on me against the world, his first #1 album, the only guest stars are his young disciples (dramacydal) and his homeboy (richie rich). that's it.
on all eyez on me, his biggest album and the one that had the potential to be the most corporately fucked up because of interscope's involvement with it--all death row. the only non-death row people he invited were his homeboys from the bay area he felt needed to get love, like the click, richie rich, rappin 4-tay; and then otherwise the only exceptions were the blunt brothers (who werent even in the studio with pac when the song was recorded) and k-ci and jojo (again, weren't even in teh studio with pac).
on a 27-song album, corporate interests prevailed only twice. that's pretty impressive.
daz, kurupt, snoop, dre, nate, danny boy were all death row. and of course the outlawz. everything was about 2pac and the people he knew and worked with. not about who was hot and who was selling. if that were the case he would have had the beastie boys and michael jackson all over that bitch.
once the attention faded away, on makaveli it was back to "only my homeboyz." Other than the Outlawz, he stoops down to give the spotlight to this up and coming nobody (Bad Azz) and brings back only the backing melodies of Danny Boy and Jodeci for one song.
2Pac was never, ever, ever about trying to get big by having more famous people on his album. he did the opposite, he let his buddies guest on his album so others would notice them.
unfortunately, it never worked. no one has any idea who kadafi was, no one knows who richie rich is, shock g gets no love...it's just sad all around. and to see it made even worse by the fact that amaru is now replacing these artists that 2pac worked tirelessly to promote is not only depriving these people of the work they made and deserve to receive compensation for, but also deprives people to hear the songs the way they were supposed to be heard.