- June '96 - August '96
- After Johnny J left Death Row, 2Pac tried to complete One Nation compilation
Snoop & Tupac
Brotherhood Crusade, the 15th of August 96
### This is a personal attempt to recreate this unfinished project, following the available tracklists from July / August of 96, but leaving off the tracks from the first June sessions for the Volume One and filling these second sessions with songs that could logically be included. ###
2. Toss It Up (No Diss Remix) feat. K-Ci & Jojo, Danny Boy & Aaron Hall
- in BOLD : tracks appearing in One Nation tracklists or * which could have been recorded for it.
During the recording sessions in June with Boot Camp Clik, Greg Nice & others, Tupac was thinking to make other sessions with artists like Scarface, E-40, Outkast, Grand Puba, Rakwon, Ghostface Killah... But these new guests seem to be there to complete One Nation compilation and not to create a second volume.
But it is said that then Tupac thought about making a second and even a third volume of One Nation (maybe "West" and "South"). He even thought to transform his 2Pac+Outlawz album called The Hunger / Immortalz - which was almost ready to release in late June - in the One Nation West.
It
is important to say that in June, 2Pac was trying to mix this Outlawz
album. In the very first days of the month, "Hit Em Up" was out as a
B-Side and they recorded a clean version of the hit, and a video for the
first clip-single "Made Niggaz". If you listen to the One Nation, the Sessions, you could hear 2Pac working at "Last Onez Left", "Troublesome"... Two songs recorded during One Nation
were new versions of songs from the Outlawz album : "Secretz of War",
"Never Call U Bitch Again". A new version of "U Can't Be Touched" will
as well been recorded... At last, some songs like "Untouchablez", "Thug
Luv", recorded around the time of the sessions appear in both tracklist
projects. In late Outlawz tracklists, Tupac included a solo track by
Fatal called "Hollywood, New Jersey"...
So, we can say that Outlawz LP and One Nation were deeply connected. Maybe at that point we could say that part of the songs recorded would have been for Outlawz LP and that the rest would have been completed with new songs.
Something will complicate everything. Johnny J ceased to work with Death Row in May (it is said that he was complaining - like Mopreme and Syke - about his underpaid work on All Eyez on Me). Outlawz LP was almost entirely produced by him (like 2Pac scrapped solo)... It seems that the dispute comes to 2Pac and him. Circa mid July, all Johnny J songs disappear from 2Pac projects : "When Thugz Cry" from Makaveli ; "Secretz of War" and "Never Call U Bitch Again" from One Nation. And will appear new Outlawz project called Ghetto Starz (with "Hollywood, New Jersey"). Have 2Pac scrapped the whole album because of Johnny J ?
Anyway, in the late One Nation tracklists you can see the new song "Smile 4 Me", probably the one recorded in August with Scarface. The song "Untouchable" recorded in early June appears to complete the tracklist. We can imagine that Tupac would have continued to include new combinations with guests to achieve One Nation (Spice 1, Kokane, Lil' Big, Nutt-So, recorded with him in August).
The tracklist took back old One Nation titles but also dropped "Jawz Tight" that arrived in Ghetto Starz Outlawz new project. "Frankie & Johnny" unknown song will also be included in Outlawz tracklist (as a Hussein/Noble duet).
One Nation is a special project because you can really recognize the typical sound from that session. Absolutely no other 2Pac song sounds like that. So we decided to follow the idea of a full new One Nation Part 2 including new featurings. We included "Fame", "Don't Sleep" and "One Day at A Time" recorded in August as well as "Thug Luv" (Bone Thugz announced in One Nation initial tracklists), "Reincarnation" (recorded the same day than "Untouchable").
But in One Nation, it is already east coast / west coast, isn't it ? The
central tracks of One Nation were already east/west united
(2Pac/Buckshot). In the other hand, we could answer that 2Pac and the
Outlawz come from the New Jersey... so they are east and west at the
same time... But we can also find west coast artists like Snoop, Kurupt
and Numskull from the Luniz (in fact Kurupt is also from the East coast,
Philadelphia...).
So do we really need another part of the project ? We could add the known tracks from One Nation (like "Thug Luv" and "Untouchables" appear on the various tracklists of One Nation as well as "Fright Night") and have only one bootleg. But many other tracks could also be included in One Nation : "Dumpin" sounds really the same. "Street Life" as well and it has been recorded around the same period. The same for "Fortune & Fame"... or maybe even "Toss it up"... and so on... until we have a second part of One Nation...
Anyway, the temptation to gather this west side collection was too great and the result looks really awesome, don't you think ?
DETAILED TRACKLIST
(Special thanks to Bomb1st members Filla and Dominator for samples credits)
- 1996/07/06 (?) - 07/25 (?) (new mix). Released in Greatest Hits
(1998, Death Row) with 2Pac's second verse added. The fact this
remix exists without the second verse could justify the idea of an early Aaron Hall's version, recorded in early July (the 6th of July, known REEL date reversed), initially aimed for Aaron Hall's project or - why not - for One Nation album (being from the Bronx, it would be another East-West song). Then it was remixed due to the
legal demand by Blackstreet in late July to not use the Dre beat. Aaron
Hall explained that he refused to reform Guy with Teddy Riley and to record the song "No Diggity" with them. Maybe he heard the song and after that decided to record his version with Death Row. Aaron Hall could also have given a chorus to the remix of "There U Go" for Immortalz album, probably around the same time.
- Samples :
- Bill Withers - "Grandma's Hand" (melody)
- Blackstreet, Dr. Dre & Queen Pen - "No Diggity" (vocals interpolation)
03. Smile 4 Me (Damon Thomas Remix) feat. Scarface & 816 (?) / Darryl Harper REMIXED by Damon Thomas
- 1996/08/13-17 - 10/28 (remix). Released in Death Row's Greatest Hits (1996). Remixed in Scarface's The Untouchable (1997, Rap-A-Lot). Darryl Harper produced the original unleaked version with the sample of Sara Smile's "Hail and
Oates". It is said that the very first version was from the 13th but had Kadafi & Edi instead of Scarface (the song was firstly intended to be for Outlawz LP, cf. Immortalz). Damon Thomas aka Assassin was probably asked to make a first remix because the sample was too hard to clear. Scarface was hoped for One Nation and the song "Smile 4 Me" appears in One
Nation late tracklists.
04. Ghetto Star (Ant Banks Remix) feat. Bad Azz / Ant Banks
-
1996/03 - 08-09 (?) (new mix). Released without 2Pac vocals in Bad Azz Word On Tha Streets (1998) with a slightly alternate mix. It was probably hard for Bad Azz to have the rights. It has been said that 2Pac agreed for this new version of the song with Bad Azz instead of Nutt-So (who could release it in his own album). But we ignore the date Ant Banks made his beat (probably before Pac's death, otherwise, they would have known it would be impossible to get the rights to publish it). This was the first version leaked in Makaveli bootlegs so people used to think it was the original when Nutt-So's version was published in Better Dayz.
- Samples :
- Leon Ware - "What's Your World" (melody)
05. Fortune & Fame feat. Kokane, Edi, Kadafi & Spice 1 / Hurt M Badd & Darryl Harper
- 1996/08/20. Remixed in Better Days (2002, Amaru). There is a short kind of live studio take with 2Pac singing the chorus. 2Pac wanted to work again with Above The Law (a "187" credit appears in a late Dramacydal tracklist in mid 95) after their collab in early 92 for "Call It What U Want" (cf. Featurings).
- Samples :
- Bad Bascomb - "Black Grass" (kick)
06. Untouchable feat. Kadafi, Hussein & Edi / 2Pac, Darryl Harper & Hurt-M-Badd (?) - [FIX Kadafi's verse by DJ Moey]
- 1996/06/10. Included in One Nation part 2 July tracklists, it leads to the idea that 2Pac would have made a compilation of various tracks recorded since at least early June. In most of the available leaked mixes, Kadafi's verse is not well patched. Pac's verse "after the fire comes the rain, after pleasure there's pain..." will be re-used in the "Drunken freestyle", in "War Gamez" and in "Killuminati"...
- Samples :
- Everything But The Girl - "Single" (melody)
07. Don't Stop, Keep Goin' (Edit Version) feat. Dogg Pound & Nas / Daz - PacMusic EDIT
-
1995 (with Nas) - 1996/01 (new recording with 2Pac) - 08/19 (Kurupt's 2nd verse out) - 2024 (edit with Nas). Released in Dogg Pound's 2002 (2001, Death Row). A first
version was recorded in summer of 1995 with Nas (finally released in Tha Last of Tha Pound compilation album
in 2004). Probably
because of the feud between the Dogg Pound and C-N-N & Mobb
Deep ("New York, New York" ; "L.A, L.A"), they dropped out the Nas verse
in 96 and gave a verse to 2Pac who had similar enemies (New-York, Bad Boy Records ; Napoleon too had a beef with Mobb Deep). Kurupt re-recorded his verse with small differences : "Kurupt, Daz and Nas"
becoming "Kurupt, Daz reside". He has also a second verse. Daz probably edited it out in August of '96 for their West Coast Aftershock shelved album. With the 2Pac/Nas reconciliation in August, we could imagine that Nas could have been edited in again to make a East/West song and to make true the dream of a 2Pac/Nas featuring.
- Samples :
- The Sequence - "Funk You Up" (chorus interpolation)
08. Whatcha Gonna Do feat. Storm / Duane Nettlesbey
- 1996/06/12. Remixed in Better Dayz (2002). There is no mention of the One Nation concept here. The music has been re-used a few days later for the One Nation's song "Fright Night (How Many Shots Will It Takes)" by Outlawz. Duane Nettlesbey produced many songs with Stretch & 2Pac in late 93 - beginning of 94, often under the alias of Thug Music (cf. R U Still Down Original Interscope Project).
- Samples :
- Nu Shooz - "I Can't Wait" (melody, bassline interpolation)
09. Thug Luv feat. Bizzy Bone & Silk-E-Fyne / DJ U-Neek
- 1996/06/22-26 (?). Released in Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's The Lost Archives vol. 1 (2013, Harmony Howse). Initially there were three versions of the original song. The first and real original features Bizzy Bone and a short verse from Silk E Fyne, the second with Layzie Bone instead of Sylk E-Fyne and the 3rd added verses from the other Bones. The second version is maybe just an intermediate version. The third version has been remixed for the Bone's album The Art of War (1997, Ruthless).
- Samples :
- Sly & The Family Stone - "Sing A Simple Song" (snare, kick)
10. Don't Sleep feat. Lil' Big (A.M.W.), Napoleon, Kadafi, Kastro & Nutt-So / Daz & Chicago Craig
- 1996/08/10. This song is said to have been recorded for Nutt-So solo album but it was finally not in the Betrayal released
album (four years later). There is a
remix made by GO Twice, with Edi instead of Lil'Big, its music sounds
great but it doesn't always fit well with the verses and has probably
been made circa 1997-1999. Lil' Big was a regular partner of Nutt-So and his group Street Thugs (cf. Not To Be Fucked With). But his group American Most Wanted was in itself a well known group in the West Coast, the released two albums in 90 and in 95.
11. One Day At A Time (Spice 1 Remix) feat. LP, Spice 1 & Headstrong (chorus) / Hen Gee
- 1996/08/29 - (?) (guests added). Recorded at Ice-T's home studio. It is said that the guests gave their verses after Pac's death... So the demo with Pac solo (with alternate vocals) could be the real original, awaiting for Outlawz verses or for One Nation guests : E-40 & The Click ? Outkast & The Goodie Mob ? Hen-Gee was known for his album Brothers with Evil-E in 1991. In 1996, he was producing for Ice-T and Spice 1. Spice 1 pretends to have recorded the song with Pac very few time before Las Vegas shooting. So maybe he was with 2Pac the 29th at Ice-T's home.
- Samples :
- Tara Kemp - "Hold You Tight" (inspiration, drums interpolation)
12. World Wide Stampede (Time After Time) feat. OFTB, Kurupt, Kadafi & Michel'le (chorus) / Derrell (OFTB) & Darryl Harper
- 1996/03/31. Probably recorded for OFTB shelved second album I Come Up Hard and finally released in OFTB's The Missing D.R. Files (2007, WIDEawake).
13. Street Life (String Layer Remix) feat. Prince Ital Joe, Snoop Dogg & Val Young / Daz, LT Hutton & Soopafly
- 1996/03/21 (Daz & Ital) - 04/04 (Snoop replaced Daz) - 06/11 (2Pac added). The first take by Prince Ital Joe & Daz is said to be a reference for Snoop Doggy Dogg, to help him with the writing of his new album Tha Doggfather (like Pac's "This Ain't Livin'"). 2Pac added in June like he did in "Out The Moon" to replace Lil C-Style. In September, Snoop took off both songs from his album (he said by respect for 2Pac). After that, the song eventually was planned to be included in Gridlock'd or Gang Related soundtracks.
- Samples :
- The Crusaders - "Street Life" (chorus interpolation)
- Biz Markie & T.J. Swan - "Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz" (drumline interpolation)
14. Reincarnation (My Only Fear of Death) feat. Hussein, Edi & Kastro / Darryl Harper & Hurt-M-Badd
- 1996/06/10. There is an alternate version with a speaking outro by Frank Alexander's niece Lemika, a disabled girl representing for the Make A Wish Foundation, who was invited to assist the recording sessions of the day. In this song, Tupac reuses the concept of his unreleased song recorded in late '93 (a concept he took from Syke partner Mental Illness from their group Evil Mind Gangstas.
15. Pac's Life (Rough Mix) / Darryl Harper
- 1996/07/29. Awfully remixed in Pac's Life (2006). Is it an incomplete song awaiting for Outlawz verses, or just an outro ?
- Samples :
- Prince - "Pop Life" (concept, melody interpolation)
BONUS TRACKS :
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