Loyal To The Game [Edited]

Performer: 2Pac
Artist: G-Unit; Jadakiss; Nate Dogg; Obie Trice; Ronald Isley
Producer: Eminem; Scott Storch; Red Spyda; Raphael Saadiq
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Additional personnel: 50 Cent, Jadakiss, Lloyd Banks, Nate Dogg, Obie Trice, Ronald Isley, Sleepy Brown, Young Buck. Dozens of posthumous releases have been culled from 2Pac's archives, both by his mother, Afeni Shakur, and by more dubious sources. Eight years after the conflicted poet/thug's death comes LOYAL TO THE GAME, featuring more untapped rhymes. These recordings are the latest unearthed by Ms. Shakur, and while it might be easy to dismiss yet another new collection, two things work in the album's favor. The tapes were handed over to hip-hop icon Eminem, providing a completely unique angle on 2Pac's rhymes. More importantly, while these offerings are late in coming, that is not to say 2Pac's mother is desperately peddling the dregs of his output; the lyrics on LOYAL TO THE GAME are razor-sharp. Eminem's trademarked heavily syncopated sound provides an almost surreal sheen to the proceedings, and Em's voice graces the strong opening track, "Soldier Like Me (AKA The Return of the Soulja)." The guests run the gamut from 2Pac contemporaries Nate Dogg and members of the fallen rapper's crew, the Outlawz, to relative newcomers Jadakiss and G-Unit, but all performances are solid and requisitely reverent to the memory of Tupac Shakur. LOYAL TO THE GAME simply combines strong remaining lyrics of a late master with newer ones, and stands as one of the best posthumous 2Pac releases.

Vibe (pp.137-138) - 3 1/2 discs out of 5 - "Arguably the strongest of 2Pac's posthumous LPs..."

Beginning his career in the early 1990s as a member of the Oakland rap-funksters Digital Underground, 2Pac rose to become perhaps the single most controversial figure in rap music, easily equal in popularity and notoriety to Snoop Dogg on the West Coast and sometime rival Notorious B.I.G. out East. Taking his moniker from a South American revolutionary, 2Pac managed to embrace themes of black self-determination and social conscience without dulling the edge of his thug image. Achieving almost unrivalled popularity while alive, 2Pac had a penchant for religious and iconic motifs, ensuring his status as a rap martyr after his murder in 1996.

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