Ranking 10 Greatest Albums Made Out Of Contractual Obligation
2. 2Pac - All Eyez On Me
In October of 1995, after serving almost a year for an alleged sexual assault, Tupac Shakur was bailed out of prison by Suge Knight, the frankly terrifying head of Death Row Records. In exchange for his freedom, 2Pac now owed his next three albums to his new label.
Immediately after his release, Pac started recording All Eyez On Me -- a double-album that would sell better than anything else he made -- and according to his collaborators, Pac rattled through song after song like each one was a mad dash to some unseen finish line. Some in the studio suggested the finish line was his contract with Death Row, and he wasn't about to treat it like a marathon.
You can feel the fast and furious pace of the recording process in the songs -- all 27 of them -- which come on like a thunderstorm in the desert. Pac liked to work off the cuff in the studio, so he didn't waste time on flowery metaphors. His vocals blister, and his lyrics don't shy away from the harsh realities he experienced in jail.
All Eyez On Me is a gangsta masterpiece, chockfull of enough venom and ego to give Ice-T fits of envy.