I've uncovered some interesting information that may just change the attitudes people have about amaru's alterations of Pac's music...
When listening to a very old CD today, When Thugz Cry came on. It had a couple more seconds of loop at the beginning, but I paid it no mind... That is until the first verse ended and the hook kicked in. There were no Pac vocals in the hooks except for the "When thugz cry!" shout every couple bars, just as in the widely leaked version. Being that the "battle scars and closed caskets..." chorus isn't present, a couple interesting points are raised... The hooks in this take seem to focus on the sung content, and not Pac, and therefore this illustrates that the song was composed in multiple sessions. It doesn't end here though... The outro, just like the hooks, focuses on the singer only. Once again, the Nas diss that is so popular in the OG isn't present at all.
What does this mean? It's actually a big deal. It's well known to people who know their stuff that a lot of songs were completed in stages spanning several different studio sessions. In fact, this is how Pac started beefing with David Kenner, as Kenner blocked his access to already recorded songs one evening when Pac was trying to go back and add some refinements. Anyway, it all means that such was the case with When Thugz Cry.
When Amaru released When Thugz Cry, a lot of people complained about the missing content, myself included. The Pac hooks and outro were part of the dopeness of the song, and their absence subtracted from the rest of the remix. Well, now knowing that the song was completed in steps, it's likely that the added layer with the hooks and outro was dropped onto a different session DAT, and subsequently lost, stolen, or otherwise not handed over to amaru. In fact, such is the case with a large number of unreleased tracks that had leaked out from sessions at Death Row.
Anyway, I thought I'd spread some knowledge. No, I'm not going to upload it; and yes, I speak the truth.
When listening to a very old CD today, When Thugz Cry came on. It had a couple more seconds of loop at the beginning, but I paid it no mind... That is until the first verse ended and the hook kicked in. There were no Pac vocals in the hooks except for the "When thugz cry!" shout every couple bars, just as in the widely leaked version. Being that the "battle scars and closed caskets..." chorus isn't present, a couple interesting points are raised... The hooks in this take seem to focus on the sung content, and not Pac, and therefore this illustrates that the song was composed in multiple sessions. It doesn't end here though... The outro, just like the hooks, focuses on the singer only. Once again, the Nas diss that is so popular in the OG isn't present at all.
What does this mean? It's actually a big deal. It's well known to people who know their stuff that a lot of songs were completed in stages spanning several different studio sessions. In fact, this is how Pac started beefing with David Kenner, as Kenner blocked his access to already recorded songs one evening when Pac was trying to go back and add some refinements. Anyway, it all means that such was the case with When Thugz Cry.
When Amaru released When Thugz Cry, a lot of people complained about the missing content, myself included. The Pac hooks and outro were part of the dopeness of the song, and their absence subtracted from the rest of the remix. Well, now knowing that the song was completed in steps, it's likely that the added layer with the hooks and outro was dropped onto a different session DAT, and subsequently lost, stolen, or otherwise not handed over to amaru. In fact, such is the case with a large number of unreleased tracks that had leaked out from sessions at Death Row.
Anyway, I thought I'd spread some knowledge. No, I'm not going to upload it; and yes, I speak the truth.
