- Thug Life Original second sessions (May 93 - Oct. 93).
- It is said that the album was more or less finished in October of 93.
- "Nothing 2 Lose" is an alternate title for a clean version of the album.
- Shelved probably because of Pac's troubles with justice.
9. Dear Lord (Hell Razor TL Original) feat. Stretch & Y?N-Vee - remake
Bonus Tracks :
15. Thug 4 Life feat. Stretch - og unfinished / acapella / remake
16. Nothing 2 Lose (Radio Version) feat. Natasha Walker - snippet
17. I Get Around (Thug Life Party Live) feat. Stretch
A totally vanished project
No official tracklist has been leaked yet, but most of the tracks have been confirmed (except for "Just Like Me") by Banned from Bomb1st forum, who is in possession of a sequence of the album, and who leaked snippets. "Uppercut" could be just a b-side for a planned single, with also the clean version of "Nothing To Lose". So it could give space for another totally unknown song like "Looking 4 Me in the Whirlwind" (probably not recorded) or "Nothing Like Niggaz". But it could also be "Thug 4 Life" (maybe more a b-side for Thug Life Original), or "Ghost" (probably recorded earlier in late 92). Either "Uppercut" was among the 14 tracks... Nothing says if "If I Wasn't High" and "Who Do U Luv" are really different from the leaked versions (mix and featured artists).
It seems we have acapellas of parts of the album : "Open Fire", "Uppercut", that lead us to think that "Thug 4 Life" could be also for that project.
Start of a new project...
This is a rare "Thug Life Original" concept album tracklist where appears "Do U Love The Thug Life", a concept title which probably turned into "Who Do U Luv ?". But the song itself seems to have not being recorded yet.
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Copy of an early incomplete tracklist for Nothing 2 Lose / Mr. Middle Finger, and lyrics for "Mr. Middle Finger" song. The track #7 "All I Got Is Niggaz" is unknown.
Thug Life 1 (West Coast) / Thug Life 2 (East Coast)
The original first Thug Life album was produced by west coast producers Warren G & Johnny J, with west side guests like Big Syke, Rated R, Richie Rich, Spice 1, Nate Dogg... This second project is clearly a more east coast vibe, mainly produced by Stretch of the Live Squad, with a strong presence of the singer Natasha Walker of the Y?N-Vee.
Probably the beginning of the Easy Mo Bee sessions were an attempt to complete/modify this project. It seems that Tupac has been early concerned by his dual music influence in him due to his New Jersey origin. He will again try to achieve this west/east project in the late One Nation (that was supposed to have an East and a West part, cf. One Nation part 2).
"Thug Life" was not the name of a group, but a state of mind
In
this second volume, Thug Life is even less a group album, but more a 2Pac solo
with some regular guests. Here it is mainly Natasha Walker and the
Y?N-Vee and Stretch of the Live Squad (featuring and producing).
So what is "thug life" ? Then it was more like a state of mind, a violent one, that can be also expressed by "mister middle finger" and "nothing to lose". But it is not just a non-sense aggressive gesture, it is like the black raised fist from Tommie Smith and John Carlos - with a sort of modernization -, like a clear symbol of radical rebellion, a "fuck everybody" feeling. Like Tupac said, after the fail of the Black Panthers to change the American system of oppression, the police brutality, the white supremacy ideology, the right-thinking classes... The next and only move that last to the youth is to raise the middle finger, to fuck the whole world ! That led us to the post acronym : The Hate U Gave Little Infants Fuck Everybody.
Halloween night in Atlanta, Manhattan nightclub... led 2Pac to shelve the album
The
night of Halloween, October the 31st of '93, Tupac was driving in Atlanta in his car (with
some friends) when he saw two white men harassing a black kid (no
witness). Tupac stopped and confronted them. They were two drunk
brothers, off duty police officers. The altercation grew up. It is said that racist slurs have been heard. Tupac and his friends probably showed their weapons. One
of the policemen has been charged of firing at 2Pac's Mercedes Benz.
They said they felt "threaten" when Tupac and his colleagues went out of
their car. Tupac replied. The two police officers fled and were touched
in the buttocks and in the back abdomen...
A few days later, Tupac with two other men (record executive Haitian Jack and road manager Charles Fuller) were charged in New York for "sodomizing a woman in Shakur's Hotel room". After that, Tupac had to be very careful to what he will release in the perspective of the process. Many of the songs in the two Thug Life sessions were very violent, especially insulting and threatening against the police... Tupac was risking many years of prison... That's probably the main reason for totally remake the album... that will turn into Out on Bail.
and started to record new songs (the Easy Mo Bee sessions) for a new project
- 1993/07-09 (?). The sentence "I live the Thug Life, baby I'm hopeless" sounds like an anthem for the group. The original version is still unleaked and is known to be longer with more speaking and a scratched sentence of Cypress Hill. It is closer to the version they were playing live during Thug Life Party tour (Live in Maryland, Oct. 93). The leaked second version should have been made in Nov.-Dec. 93, either for Out on Bail album with the other remade songs, or for Thug Life Volume One sessions.
- Samples :
- Millie Jackson - "I Cry" (melody, bassline)
- Cypress Hill - "Cock The Hammer" (vocals : "cock the hammer, it's time for some action")
- 1993/07-09 (?). This first version has different lyrics than the retail version released in R U Still Down (1997). The known leaked version could be really softer and could have been recorded right after Mr. Middle Finger original album being shelved circa October of 93, opening the Street Fame / Out on Bail sessions.
- Samples :
- Mica Paris - "I Wanna Hold on to You" (drumline/melody)
- Ice Cube - "Summer Vacation" (vocals : "my homie got shot he's a goner, black")
- Ice Cube - "Us" (vocals : "That's why I got gang related rhymes")
- The D.O.C. & N.W.A. - "The Grand Finale" (vocals : "I got robbed when I came to Cali)
- Dr. Dre - "Chronic Intro" (sampling Gylan Kain of the (Original) Last Poets - "The Shalimar") (vocals : "like we always do about this time")
- 1993/07-09 (?). Solo version of the Thug Life song released in Thug Life : Volume 1 (1994, Interscope). It firstly appeared as a solo track in Mr. Middle Finger tracklists before 2Pac started to incorporate the group version to his solo album in Street Fame/Out on Bail tracklists (also included in Cradle 2 the Grave demo tape). It has been said 2Pac recorded both versions around the same date, circa beginning of September, not long after Mopreme birthday, the 17th of August (which he refers in his verse), but this first solo version could have been made earlier in July (like first songs appearing in the first tracklists). The solo version reappears in Original R U Still Down Project tracklist in early 94, in a slightly different mix (with no breaks).
- Samples :
- The Isley Brothers - "For The Love of You" (melody)
- The Meters - "Groovy Lady" (drumline)
- 1993/07-09 (?). Totally different music and lyrics than the released song in Me Against The World (1995). The "It Ain't Easy" interlude included in Stay True mixtape is said extracted from this song.
- Samples :
- The Commodores - "Assembly Line" (melody)
- 1993/08 (~). Awfully remixed in Loyal To The Game (2004, Amaru) with a Nate Dogg chorus instead of the Prince sampled voice, with a Pac's pitched voice to make it more mature. Supposed to be published in R U Still Down (1997) in an edited version with Tech9ne instead of the Pac's third verse. This long version with speaking intro and outro - the first leaked in early Makaveli bootlegs - is probably the very first version recorded for Mr. Middle Finger following the written lyrics, version he was singing in live (saying "best friends at your WIFE's house trying to mack her"). At the same time, the outro saying "so you remember that next time you sweatin' me when I'm on the road, baby, thugs get lonely too, we ain't gotta go through all this bullshittin' ass problems" could be understood as referring to the rape case... But that could be as well a good reason to re-record the song without it circa November for the new project album (cf. Out On Bail).
- Samples :
- Prince - "If I Was Your Girlfriend (Sign 'O' The Times Tour, 1987)" (melody, vocals)
- 2Pac - "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z." (vocals interpolation)
- 1993/07-09 (?). Nothing is known about that song, even if the song has really been recorded...
- 1993/08-09 (?). Nothing is known about that song except that we can hear this line taken from it in "Uppercut" acapella : "Start A Riot If The Guards Can't Stop The Niggaz". In the tracklist, the next song is said "All I Got is Niggaz", what could be an anticipated concept for "R U Still Down".
- 1993/07-09
(~). Does it also feature Natasha Walker at the chorus ? Is it the exact
same chorus than the released Thug Life : Volume 1 version ? Does 2Pac record solo and group versions at the same time
like "Bury Me A G" ? Maybe he gave the song to the group around the same time, circa October of 93. Some Shit Don't Stop single versions credit Mike Mosley as co-producer of the Thug Life track (the other simply credit Thug Music). A piece of the can be heard erased in the Cradle2TheGrave tape, so the song could have been leftover around that time.
- Samples :
- Parliament - "Aqua Boogie" (melody, bassline, vocals)
- 1993/07-09 (?). This original could have an unheard first verse and could have more or less the same beat and background vocals than Sweet Sable's "Old Times' Sake" released in Above The Rim soundtrack (produced by Nikke Nicole). Maybe it does not have Stretch at the chorus but a female chorus saying sometimes "You gotta be the special one". The song was probably re-recorded circa December '93 for R U Still Down original project.
- 1993/07-09 (?). Released in Me Against The World with a lighter chorus. The first recorded version of the song, known as "If I Wasn't High", could be the Brian G version with many adlibs by Natasha Walker and the Y?N-Vee, which was included in Cradle2TheGrave demo tape. But there also could be a Stretch unleaked version, even why not with an alternate Tupac's vocals take. The song will be remixed and lighted in its chorus for Original R U Still Down project in early 94, remixed by Tony Pizarro and then by Moe-Z before 2Pac/Interscope finally chose the original Brian G arrangement but with the light chorus.
- 1993/06-09 (?). Awfully remixed in Loyal To The Game (2004, Amaru) with an alternate vocals take than the usual leaked OG. "Do You Love The Thug Life ?" was a planned title for Thug Life Original album, and maybe for the anticipated song "Who Du U Luv ?". (which could also be titled "Thug in Me" So that song could be the first recorded song of Mr. Middle Finger sessions (circa june-july of 93). The unleaked first version could be different from the leaked one, maybe with a Stretch production, maybe without Stretch. The song remained in Street Fame / Out on Bail until late '93 before totally disappearing (maybe replaced in Pac's mind by "Temptations" that plays around the same concept).
- Samples :
- The Gap Band – "Jam The Motha" (melody)
- 1993/08-09 (?). Remixed in Loyal To The Game (2004, Amaru). The name of the female rapper was difficult to guess for a long time. People talked about Yonnie (Thug Life member, cf. Honor Among Thugz) or Sister Soulja (from Public Enemy, Tupac still wanted to record with her in '95 for All Eyez on Me, cf. When I Get Free). Y?N-Vee started to work with Johnny J (appearing in his solo album I Gotta Be Me recorded in 93). You can hear Nic.Nam or Yesz rapping with this voice on many tracks of the Y?N-Vee album released the 18th of October 1994. For a long time, the only known version was the acapella and a Dante's OG vibe. The unused remix (probably made for Resurrection OST) is known to be close to the original version.
- Samples :
- LL Cool J - "Mama said Knock You Out" (vocals : "I'm knock you out", "heyy", "gangsta boogie")
- 1993/08-09 (?). Published in R U Still Down (1997, Amaru) without major changes (without some adlibs and the laughing end). Akshun also produced "Guess Who's Back" on Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. album. The original version is said to use the leaked acapella with many adlibs in the background. The music could be also slightly different.
- 1993/09 (?). Re-recorded for Me Against The World (cf. When I Get Free). This first version has a slightly different mix from the usual leaked version included in Out on Bail and Pre-Death Row compilation. The song will be also re-recorded in early '94 over a Led Zeppelin sample with a different take and altered chorus saying "why they call you B-I-T-C-H", cf. Thug Life Volume 1 sessions.
15. Nothing 2 Lose (Clean Version) feat. Natasha Walker (chorus) / Live Squad - SNIPPET
- 1993/09 (?). This version has altered soft lyrics "the realest black brother you ever saw". Probably aimed for the first single of the album.
- 1993.
It has been said that there could be a studio version of this song. But
Stretch probably wrote his verse for replacing Digital Underground
during the Thug Life concerts.
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