- Unreleased Death Row album recorded in 1996-1997
- Prince Ital Joe, long time 2Pac friend and collaborator
1. No More Games feat. Snoop Dogg & Nate Dogg
2. Some Day
3. Jamming on the Radio feat. Yo-Yo
4. 2Pac Tribute feat. Kurupt, Coolio & Jewell
5. Don't Test Me (Acting Shady) feat. K-Ci & Jojo
6. Sea of Love
7. Whatcha Gonna Do feat. Daz Dillinger
8. Ras Mob
9. Stereo Type feat. WC
10. Wicked Run
11. True Love
12. It Ain't Easy feat. Low Life Gangstas
Executive producer : Daz Dillinger
The album knew an unofficial release recently
Authentic reggae singer & mainstream success with Marky 'Mark' Whalberg
In the 80's, Prince Ital released some reggae singles in a traditional Jamaican style. But he is of course mainly known for his mainstream collaborative album with Marky Mark Whalberg in 1994 (and the remix companion in 1995). The project was mixing dance music with hip hop & reggae for a huge commercial success. In this Death Row album, you can easily hear that dance vibe he is used to improve with his ragga style (in many songs like "Some Day" or "Sea of Love").
Early Hip-Hop / Reggae singer
Hip hop fans prefer to remember his contributions for 2Pac (in Makaveli, The 7th Day), Dogg Pound ("Respect" in Dogg Food in 1995). And they are not wrong because Prince Ital was doing features in the west coast hip hop before his mainstream success with the bad boy actor. In 1993, he is featured in Yo-Yo's "Givin' it Up" for her 3rd album mainly produced by Ice Cube. This has been his first significative disc appearance and maybe that's why he invited her here.
Even before that, Prince Ital Joe also recorded in 1992 a song for Dr. Dre album Chronic, "Mr. Officer" ! But Dre finally chose to remake the song with Snoop and Daz Dillinger. It became "The Day The Niggaz Took Over" and this early Prince Ital song remained unreleased...
A long time 2Pac friend & collaborator
In the early 1993, Prince Ital recorded the song "Thug
Life" with 2Pac and Big Syke, a song that was the first step of Pac 's
famous third project, but unfortunately stayed unreleased until
today...
So Ital was at the basis of Thug Life and that's probably why 2Pac invited him in the late '96 to record three songs with him and his group Outlaw Immortalz for his new project Thug Life Volume 2 : "What's Next", "Penitentiary Bound" and above all "Hit Em Up original".
Ital was not in One Nation (or eventually if "Street Life" could have been included in a west side second part), but what is funny is that another well-known hip hop contribution is to "Mirror, Mirror" published in One Million Strong in 1995, a song by Smooth B, partner of Greg Nice, heavily featured in One Nation.
Casual cursed Death Row artist
Like we saw, he missed the opportunity to shine in Chronic. In beginning of 1996, Ital recorded "Street Life" with Daz Dillinger and Val Young, promised to be a real street anthem. Daz gave his verse to Snoop for his new Doggfather album. 2Pac is added in June. But finally the song will be scrapped from Snoop album and from the Death Row compilations...
The entire Dogg Pound, augmented of Snoop and Nate Dogg were there, alongside with other west coast heavyweights (Coolio & WC, who were partners in the Maad Circle) and New Jack superstars K-Ci & Jojo to help him to record his first solo album that knew an official promo release in 1997. But because of Snoop and Kurupt leaving Death Row ? It failed to break the curse...