A new company will release unheard recordings from Tupac Shakur as they have partnered with the rapper’s estate.
According to Billboard, the partnership marks the beginning of a “total reset of the Shakur estate,” says president of JAM Inc. Jeff Jampol. The company was brought in by Shakur’s mother, Afeni, back in 2013 and has given them access to all of her collection. The company has also worked on posthumous releases by the Doors, Otis Redding and more and has consulted with the Michael Jackson estate.
The 20th anniversary of ‘Pac’s September 1996 death is this year, and Jampol says there are various things in the works, including new apparel, collections for museum display, and a biography done by a critically acclaimed writer.
"Almost an embarrassment of riches," Jampol says of the amount of his creative work left. "Unreleased music, released music, remixes, original demos, writings, scripts, plans, video treatments, [and] poems." Despite the amount of Tupac albums that have dropped after his death, there is even more unreleased material in the vaults to put more out.
"Some of [the material] is in bits and pieces, some of it is complete; some of it is good, some of it needs work," says Tom Whalley, who signed ‘Pac to Internscope in 1991 and is working with Jampol on the project. “But I think the work that is left can be completed, and is worth his fans hearing."
Some of the initial steps are already occurring. In a recent Powerade commercial, 2Pac was featured reciting the “rose that grew form concrete” line from “Mama’s Just A Little Girl.” Another instance is Kendrick Lamar’s final track called “Mortal Man” off To Pimp a Butterfly, which was a spliced conversation between ‘Pac and Kendrick that came from a 1994 interview.
A day after this news broke, there were rumors that Jay Z and Roc Nation purchased the entire catalog of 2Pac’s unreleased music for $384 million. Billboard confirmed that the acquisition was false.
