Shakurspeare?

[Casey]

I was reading some newspaper today at my Aunt's house. It may have been the Daily Express.

Anyway, there was a big two page spread about how artists do so well financially after they die due to a massive increase in sales. The article was mostly focused on Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, but it mentioned that the most obvious example was Tupac and how there had been X amount of albums released posthumously. It then went onto say that the next Tupac album, "Shakurspeare" would be released next year.

I never heard that title mentioned before. Did I miss something?

 

[khamla]

I was reading some newspaper today at my Aunt's house. It may have been the Daily Express.

Anyway, there was a big two page spread about how artists do so well financially after they die due to a massive increase in sales. The article was mostly focused on Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, but it mentioned that the most obvious example was Tupac and how there had been X amount of albums released posthumously. It then went onto say that the next Tupac album, "Shakurspeare" would be released next year.

I never heard that title mentioned before. Did I miss something?

It's nothing major. It's pre interscope music when Pac was just really young. Pre 1988 and its going to be released by some other company.

I'm waiting for a REAL 2Pac album to come out. This is pretty much like the Lost Scriptures album.

 

[Casey]

Cool, thanks. Yeah, I thought it might be something like that. If there was a release coming soon from Amaru/Interscope I'd have heard about it by now.

 

[Bobby Sands]

pre 1988? will it have anything unreleased or will they be tracks like Panther Power?

 

[DeeezNuuuts83]

The smart money is on it being stuff that was already released. At best, it might be some stuff that has already been bootlegged, like from that Born Busy project. I forget exactly, I wasn't too interested in it when I first heard about it.

 

[Bobby Sands]

From Wikipedia:

Shakurspeare is the upcoming posthumously released album from the late hip hop artist Tupac Shakur. It will contain some of Shakur's first songs recorded in 1988 during the so called Born Busy Sessions. Little is known about the album except it will contain older Tupac recordings in their original form. It has been rumored to be the last album or second to last [of Pre-Interscope Material] due to the fact only 13 songs of his remain in the vault (excluding freestyles & demos). The vocals for "Shakurspeare" were originally recorded in acappella form on cassette in 1988 (when he was known as New York MC) and have since been digitally mastered and paired to contemporary beats crafted by Baltimore producer Darrin Keith Bastfield. Its cover will feature a Bastfield painting portraying Shakur as Shakespeare.

 

[Bobby Sands]

Id probably get that if its released here. i havent heard many songs from that period.

 

[DeeezNuuuts83]

You know that six or so songs have been leaked, right?

 

[Kobe]

I'm not really feeling the LP title. I hope they change it.......whoa people, personal opinion

This bit right here:

It has been rumored to be the last album or second to last [of Pre-Interscope Material] due to the fact only 13 songs of his remain in the vault (excluding freestyles & demos).

.....means there is still music left of the Death Row/Interscope era right? Could anyone give a ballpark figure of how many of these tracks are left?

 

[Bobby Sands]

You know that six or so songs have been leaked, right?

what are they? i may have them already.

 

[DeeezNuuuts83]

I'm at work, but I searched online, and this is what I found from the same leak that I'm thinking of:

1. Check it Out
2. That's My Man Throwing Down
3. Freestyles
4. Babies Having Babies
5. I Saw Your Girl
6. Terror on the Tables

 

[Bobby Sands]

nah i dont have any of those

 

[masta247]

Nothing interesting. I found them on youtube and skipped each after 10 seconds.

 

[khamla]

Like i said this album is really nothing interesting and its not going to do any damage on the billboards. This is just Pac when he was a little kid doing songs for fun.

 

[Casey]

I have the Born Busy sessions. So this is just those same vocals placed on top of some random beats? Well, I'll pass on that shit.

As for your question Kobe - it's around 80-100. I remember Johnny telling me he alone had at least 20 more tracks. QD has maybe 5-10 more. Easy Mo Bee has some, Daz has some, hell even Dr. Dre has 1 or 2. There's some stuff produced by Live Squad, some stuff produced by Kurt "Kobane". Basically there's unreleased tracks by most of the producers that 'Pac worked with over the years.

Then when you take into consideration the fact, that, Amaru have been commissioning remixes by multiple people for nearly every posthumous album and picking what they liked the best (or what they thought would sell, more likely), there's really NO shortage of 'Pac material to release, if they choose to.

As I've stated before, Johnny played me mixes he'd done of "Sho Shot" with Big Daddy Kane, a version of "Play Ya Cardz Right" with Charlie Wilson (it beats the living crap out of the shitty versions that were on Pac's Life), and a few other things that I promised him I wouldn't talk about. He's not the only producer that was asked to submit tracks that ultimately weren't used. Also, Loyal To The Game album was at least 60% finished with various producers before Eminem stepped in and took over the whole album, so there's those versions too.

On top of THAT - you've got alternative mixes of posthumous releases with different collaborations. For example, my manager played me an alternative version of "International" that has the South African rapper Zola on it. He has it because he's the international co-ordinator for the South African record label that Zola is signed to, and Amaru reached out to Zola through him. What's interesting is that Zola shouts out both 'Pac AND Snoop on the song - because at one stage Snoop was supposed to be on that track as well. For whatever reason, Nipsey Hussle and Young Dre ended up on the released version.

It's unlikely that this was the only instance where something like that happened.

We're gonna be seeing new 'Pac albums being released for a LONG time.