Length 64:56 Release date 14 December 2004 | Artist Tupac Shakur | |
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Released December 12, 2004 (2004-12-12) Recorded 1991–1994
(2Pac's vocals)
2003–2004
(Production, guest vocals, and mixing) Loyal to the Game
(2004) The Rose, Vol. 2
(2005) Label Insomniac/Interscope Records Genres Hip hop music, Gangsta rap, West Coast hip hop Producers Afeni Shakur (exec.), Eminem (also exec.), Scott Storch, Red Spyda, Raphael Saadiq, DJ Quik, Luis Resto Similar Tupac Shakur albums, West Coast hip hop albums | ||
2pac soldier like me feat eminem
Loyal to the Game is the ninth studio album and fifth posthumous studio album by Tupac Shakur. It contains remixes of previously unreleased music recorded by Shakur before his death in 1996. Released in the United States on December 14, 2004 (December 12 in the United Kingdom), Loyal to the Game was produced by Eminem.
Contents
Background
According to an interview with MTV, Eminem was so moved by Tupac's life and work that he wrote a letter to Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, asking her to consider letting him produce the album. Shakur agreed, giving Eminem the go ahead. The album featured two singles: "Thugs Get Lonely Too" featuring Nate Dogg and "Ghetto Gospel".
Production
Eminem used various unusual production techniques during the creation of this album, namely modifying the pace and pitch of Tupac's voice to better suit the beats produced. There were also various uses of the cutting and pasting of vocals to produce new words synonymous with rap culture at the time, such as saying "G-Unit", "Obie Trice" and "Em" instead of "LG", the original producer of "Out On Bail".
The original title track was recorded in 1993 by 2Pac, Treach and Riddler for the film Above The Rim (1994) and was produced by Reginald Heard. DJ Quik made a remix, the tempo of which is the same as the original, that was added as a bonus track; DJ Quik also suggested to Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, that the title track be known as "Loyal to the Game".
The original versions of the songs were originally recorded for 2Pac's debut album 2Pacalypse Now (1991), for his second album 'Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z (1993), for Thug Life: Volume 1 (1994, with his group Thug Life) and for Me Against The World (1995), but were cut. In 1993 2Pac recorded a track named "Po Nigga Blues"" with a rapper named The Governor. Later 2Pac's producer Shock-G produced a remix of the song, which is still unreleased. However Scott Storch made a remix of the song, which was added as a bonus track.
Commercial reception
Loyal to the Game debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number one with sales of over 330,000 copies in its first week. It was later certified platinum in the US.
It has sold 1,204,124 copies in the United States of America as of 2011.
Track listing
Unused Tracks
Songs
1Soldier Like Me (Return of the Soulja)Eminem3:50
2The UppercutEDI Mean - Young Noble3:50
3Out on Bail3:55