After 13 years of speculation and legal wrangling, the late Tupac Shakur’s dream of musically uniting the East and West Coasts has become a reality with the release of his ambitious One Nation album.
The opus was originally conceived by Tupac in 1996, after he witnessed the media and fan fallout of his personal feud with former friend The Notorious B.I.G.
Feeling that the issue had caused unnecessary tension between entire coasts, Tupac reached out to respected Brooklyn collective Boot Camp Clik to release a joint project dispelling any media notion of a Hip-Hop civil war.
From Shakur’s California residence, the parties worked diligently on completing a full album in time for release the following year.
Because of Tupac’s unsolved September 1996 murder, tracks from the project were indefinitely shelved and remained in limbo for the next 13 years.
Now, label A.E.G. has acquired the rights for the 18-track LP, and will release One Nation as a digital-only album.
Guests assisting Tupac and Boot Camp on the project include Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Tha Outlawz, Big Daddy Kane, Greg Nice, and the Notorious B.I.G.
One Nation will be released on Friday March 20 through all major digital distributors such as iTunes and Amazon.
Tupac’s last posthumous album was 2006’s Pac’s Life.
This year, Shakur would have celebrated his 38th birthday.
