Twenty-six years ago on this date, 2Pac’s classic double CD “All Eyez on Me” was officially released by Death Row Records.
2Pac's Double Album ‘All Eyez On Me’ Turns 26 Years Old
On October 11, 1995, Tupac Shakur, rap music’s preeminent provocateur, was sprung from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York after eleven months in bondage on a sex abuse charge. He climbed into a white limousine parked outside the prison’s walls and got on a cross-country flight to Los Angeles, anxious to connect with the members of his new musical family, Death Row Records. He started recording almost immediately and four months later, on February 13, 1996, Death Row unleashed Tupac’s fourth solo album, All Eyez On Me. This article written in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of that historic album attempts to place it within the context of Tupac’s catalogue, relate the story of its creation, and highlight some of the more important facets of this, Tupac’s best-selling and arguably most important album.
On February 14, 1995. he began serving a sentence of 1.5 to 4.5 years in prison due to the sexual assault case.
It was eight months later, in October 1995, that Tupac signed a deal with Death Row Records. The deal was for three albums for a total of $3.5 million. It also allowed Pac to escape Riker’s Island and post $1.4 million bail to continue his life and career.
Pac ready to release all of the anger and aggression that has been building for months as he gained information on the people he claimed set him up on the sexual assault case — as well as the shooting at Quad Studios.
Arriving on February 13, 1996, All Eyez on Me debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, his second album to achieve that feat, with over 566,000 copies sold in its first week. The first double-disc rap album released on a major label, All Eyez on Me would be widely successful, spawning several singles and amassing millions of units sold within months of its release. The album ultimately attained diamond certification, putting it on the shortlist of albums to do so, and being universally hailed as an undisputed classic and one of the greatest albums of all-time.
All Eyez on Me continues to inspire and resonate with listeners across the globe, 26 years later and counting.
Let's celebrate today by jammin' PAC's ‘All Eyez On Me’: Stream
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