2pac Still I Rise Album
Dagny Westall
The 15-track LP contained all previously unreleased and remixed material from the Outlawz. Production was handled by some of 'Pac's most trusted beatsmiths: Tony Pizarro, Daz Dillinger, Johnny "J" and more. "Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya' Head Up II)" featuring H.E.A.T. was the only single promoted from the album but other fan favorites include "Letter to the President," "Still I Rise" and "The Good Die Young."
In the wake of Shakur's death, the West Coast was flourishing thanks to acts like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and E-40. But somehow, the void left by 2Pac still couldn't be filled musically by anyone else. This explained the commercial success of Still I Rise. The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and by February of 2000, was certified platinum in sales.
Tupac Amaru Shakur, known as 2Pac, is a legend among legends, enjoying a near mythical status among rap fans and more. With each his life, his music career and his death worth a TV series, there are a lot to say about the New York City artist.
On surface, 2Pac was one of many, a black kid raised by a single mother with addictions. Afeni Shakur may have gone through a lot of difficult times, and had next to no money for most of her life, she also had strong beliefs.
Obviously, he was also surrounded by criminals, the only ones who cared about him when he needed it as he said himself. He was no angel, he knew all the codes of the thug life that he defined so well on his songs.
One of his first hits, Keep Ya Head Up, was a feminist anthem shooting at absent fathers and misogyny. Then he got his first Hot 100 top 10 single with Dear Mama, a tribute to his mother, not something to expect from a gangsta rap singer back then.
This is what made him different. Apart from his obvious bright mind and talent, 2Pac was a complex person, as we all are, who never hesitated at shown every parts of him. He made no compromise, no adjustment to look better or more gangsta, he was 100% him, day in, day out.
His songs reflected this, written with a disconcerting sincerity, using precise details of his personal life if it serves the message of his text. While these days it has become the norm, in the early 90s it made him stand out of the pack.
Hopes were gone though when Suge Knight, Death Row Records co-founder and CEO, but also a murderer who got all his deals off intimidations and violence, took 2Pac off prison by paying his bail of $1.4 million to get his signing to the label in exchange.
Amazingly prolific, he had hundreds more tracks recorded not yet released, starting with the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory that he had finished. It was released less than 2 months after his passing.
This legitimated many more posthumous releases. Until 2006, at least one major release came out every year, most of which were studio albums. If no new material came since, there are still unheard material available for release.
If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, below is a nice and short video of explanations. I fully recommend watching it before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the numbers directly.
There are two ways to understand this revolutionary concept. In the first place, there is this Scribe video posted below. If you are unaware of the CSPC method, you will get the full idea within just a pair of minutes.
As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single and a 2 to 1 ratio between one album and one EP, and a 10 to 3.5 ratio when the single got relevant releases both as a single and a maxi-single.
The monster How Do U Want It / California Love smash came out in 1996. The chart topping single cracked 2 million units shipped in the US, being the 2nd top seller of the year, only behind the iconic hit Macarena by Los Del Rio.
In the US, it peaked at #32. It may seem surprising, but it was one of the first tracks allowed to enter after the Hot 100 rules changes which allowed airplay-only songs to chart. In fact, Changes got no physical release in the US.
Streaming is made up of audio and video streams. Our CSPC methodology now includes both to better reflect the real popularity of each track. The main source of data for each avenue is respectively Spotify and YouTube.
*since 96.4% of Chinese streaming platforms are free users, that paid-for users pay less than $2 a month and that they are also used as video streaming platforms, their streams are weighted on par with YouTube streams.
All those packaging-only records do not create value, they exploit the value originating from the parent studio album of each of its tracks instead. Inevitably, when such compilations are issued, this downgrades catalog sales of the original LP.
Thus, to perfectly gauge the worth of these releases, we need to re-assign sales proportionally to its contribution of all the compilations which feature its songs. The following table explains this method.
How to understand this table? In the example of Greatest Hits, these figures mean it sold 10,870,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all the songs included on this package add for 2,954,309 equivalent album sales from streams of all types.
Thus, streaming figures tell us songs from the All Eyez On Me album are responsible for 46% of the Greatest Hits appeal. This means it generated 4,178,000 of its 10,870,000 album sales and so forth for the other records. We then apply this process to all compilations present on below table.
So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each album by 2Pac achieved? Well, at this point we hardly need to add up all of the figures defined in this article!
Thanks to our new ASR (Artist Success Rating) concept, we know that his sales represent 16.12 million times the purchase of his entire discography. Coupled with his total sales, it translates into an ASR score of 203.
c80f0f1006