The whole "Better Dayz" double CD was handled quite tastefully compared to other posthumous releases and as a result it's one of my favorites. And this track, actually wasn't remixed musically at all. Ron wasn't originally on the song but the music was the same. Produced by my friend, the late Johnny J. RIP Johnny and Pac......

It's a cool story behind that song. That song was recorded during the "All Eyez On Me" sessions, actually one of the early sessions. The song originally came from Big Syke, if I recall. It was a Big Syke song. 2Pac recorded his 3 verses and then Big Syke along with OFTB got on the song. If I can recall, that version was later mixed by Johnny J in 1997. The remix that appears on the Better Dayz album is not the way the remix was submitted for that album originally. The team over at Amaru Entertainment touch the mix of the one Johnny J submitted and what you hear on the Better Dayz album was the result. In my opinion, they ruined that song. Here's the remix by Johnny J, the one that was suppose to go on the album, before the Amaru team got their hands on it, and it's un-touched:

[Edited 9/16/11 18:33pm]

Militant said:

The whole "Better Dayz" double CD was handled quite tastefully compared to other posthumous releases and as a result it's one of my favorites. And this track, actually wasn't remixed musically at all. Ron wasn't originally on the song but the music was the same. Produced by my friend, the late Johnny J. RIP Johnny and Pac......

Thanks mane...

sms130 said:

It's a cool story behind that song. That song was recorded during the "All Eyez On Me" sessions, actually one of the early sessions. The song originally came from Big Syke, if I recall. It was a Big Syke song. 2Pac recorded his 3 verses and then Big Syke along with OFTB got on the song. If I can recall, that version was later mixed by Johnny J in 1997. The remix that appears on the Better Dayz album is not the way the remix was submitted for that album originally. The team over at Amaru Entertainment touch the mix of the one Johnny J submitted and what you hear on the Better Dayz album was the result. In my opinion, they ruined that song. Here's the remix by Johnny J, the one that was suppose to go on the album, before the Amaru team got their hands on it, and it's un-touched:

[Edited 9/16/11 18:33pm]

This is tight as well...

This is semi-related. 2Pac and Thug Life with an Isley Brothers sample.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

This is semi-related. 2Pac and Thug Life with an Isley Brothers sample.

Yeah I was actually surprised 2Pac had Isley Brothers samples when I first heard this eight years ago lol

Here's the solo version (which I dig better):

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

This is semi-related. 2Pac and Thug Life with an Isley Brothers sample.

Yeah I was actually surprised 2Pac had Isley Brothers samples when I first heard this eight years ago lol

Here's the solo version (which I dig better):

Oh yeah, I bet it is better. You don't have to hear the other members of Thug Life and the Outlawz (who only got to do anything cause they knew Pac.)

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Timmy84 said:

Yeah I was actually surprised 2Pac had Isley Brothers samples when I first heard this eight years ago lol

Here's the solo version (which I dig better):

Oh yeah, I bet it is better. You don't have to hear the other members of Thug Life and the Outlawz (who only got to do anything cause they knew Pac.)

I think dude was TOO generous with both groups to be honest! He had the hardest, realest verses on their songs anyfuckinways!

Kadafi was the only Outlaw that was REALLY dope, followed closely by Fatal. Tragically Kadafi was murdered just a few months after 'Pac

Militant said:

Kadafi was the only Outlaw that was REALLY dope, followed closely by Fatal. Tragically Kadafi was murdered just a few months after 'Pac

Yeah that was a mess.

I'm a fan of the Outlawz. They all were dope rappers in a sense, as a whole the group is tight along with Thug Life. I love how 2Pac was originally gonna turn them into like a super-group as The Outlaw Immortalz, including Mopreme and Big Syke from Thug Life. The Outlawz was his super-group of sort.

sms130 said:

I'm a fan of the Outlawz. They all were dope rappers in a sense, as a whole the group is tight along with Thug Life. I love how 2Pac was originally gonna turn them into like a super-group as The Outlaw Immortalz, including Mopreme and Big Syke from Thug Life. The Outlawz was his super-group of sort.

He had big plans for them when he died. I wonder what would've happened had he made Atlanta instead of Las Vegas on that fateful night (September 7, 1996).

Timmy84 said:

sms130 said:

I'm a fan of the Outlawz. They all were dope rappers in a sense, as a whole the group is tight along with Thug Life. I love how 2Pac was originally gonna turn them into like a super-group as The Outlaw Immortalz, including Mopreme and Big Syke from Thug Life. The Outlawz was his super-group of sort.

He had big plans for them when he died. I wonder what would've happened had he made Atlanta instead of Las Vegas on that fateful night (September 7, 1996).

I know but, the great thing about it now is that 2Pac's impact is forever felt. He left so much music that now his legacy is extended. I think his musical catalog is gonna do what Hendrix musical catalog is doing with all of the bootlegging and relaunching of the catalog. He has enough material now to go another 15 years, as far as remixes, alternate takes, and unreleased originals.

sms130 said:

Timmy84 said:

He had big plans for them when he died. I wonder what would've happened had he made Atlanta instead of Las Vegas on that fateful night (September 7, 1996).

I know but, the great thing about it now is that 2Pac's impact is forever felt. He left so much music that now his legacy is extended. I think his musical catalog is gonna do what Hendrix musical catalog is doing with all of the bootlegging and relaunching of the catalog. He has enough material now to go another 15 years, as far as remixes, alternate takes, and unreleased originals.

I do agree with that, the posthumous releases have made him the legend he would've been anyways.

sms130 said:

Timmy84 said:

He had big plans for them when he died. I wonder what would've happened had he made Atlanta instead of Las Vegas on that fateful night (September 7, 1996).

I know but, the great thing about it now is that 2Pac's impact is forever felt. He left so much music that now his legacy is extended. I think his musical catalog is gonna do what Hendrix musical catalog is doing with all of the bootlegging and relaunching of the catalog. He has enough material now to go another 15 years, as far as remixes, alternate takes, and unreleased originals.

Don't know about another 15 years. He has albums comin out left and right after he passed for about an 8 year run. They haven't released a Pac album of unreleased material in a while. I don't think it's that muich left. It's been more material released after he passed then when he was alive.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

sms130 said:

I know but, the great thing about it now is that 2Pac's impact is forever felt. He left so much music that now his legacy is extended. I think his musical catalog is gonna do what Hendrix musical catalog is doing with all of the bootlegging and relaunching of the catalog. He has enough material now to go another 15 years, as far as remixes, alternate takes, and unreleased originals.

Don't know about another 15 years. He has albums comin out left and right after he passed for about an 8 year run. They haven't released a Pac album of unreleased material in a while. I don't think it's that muich left. It's been more material released after he passed then when he was alive.

/\ That's more to do with legal drama at both Amaru and Death Row. There was supposed to be an album 2 years ago but drama at Death Row killed the project. As it stands, it's been 5 years since "Pac's Life" came out, which I had some minor insider involvement in.

Before my friend Johnny J passed, he played me another 5 songs he did with 'Pac that have yet to be released, and they haven't been leaked either. He told me he had another 10 on top of that. I know QD3 has 2 or 3. Daz has about 10. Then there's 40-50 others from various producers like DJ Quik, Mike Mosley, Assassin, Shock G, Rick Rock, Live Squad, Hurt M Badd, Go Twice, Tony Pizarro, Easy Mo Bee, Moe-Z..... even Dr. Dre has at least 1 more and possibly 2. Kurupt was getting into production while at Death Row and even he produced a couple of beats that Pac laced.

I could compile 4 discs right now of unheard stuff purely from what's been bootlegged. And there's material there that hasn't been leaked too.

For a while I've been questioning whether or not 2Pac and Suge were really that tight. I mean I could see it in some levels (2Pac on the phone telling Suge to send, I guess his nephew (Suge's) home because he was too young to be around him and him cracking up on Suge's responses) but in other levels it seem like he really didn't like being in Death Row as he had a contract that binded him to three albums and he released "All Eyez on Me" as a double album, then "Makaveli" was supposed to come out in either late 1996 or early 1997 and that was it as far as any more Death Row releases. It seems as if Suge always had some agenda with most of the artists he signed so it wouldn't surprise me if 2Pac felt some way about Suge prior to September 7, 1996 and why now Death Row is very much sabotaging their end of their deal as far as posthumous releases go.

Really starting to get into more of the late Johnny J's productions the last few months. I didn't even realize that a good chunk of my favorite 2Pac tracks were produced by him. Details (or lack thereof) of his passing seem to be a little sketchy as well imo, which is very unfortunate.

scorp84 said:

Really starting to get into more of the late Johnny J's productions the last few months. I didn't even realize that a good chunk of my favorite 2Pac tracks were produced by him. Details (or lack thereof) of his passing seem to be a little sketchy as well imo, which is very unfortunate.

Why do a lot of deaths concerning people associated with rap and hip-hop don't get investigated? I don't get that shit...

scorp84 said:

Really starting to get into more of the late Johnny J's productions the last few months. I didn't even realize that a good chunk of my favorite 2Pac tracks were produced by him. Details (or lack thereof) of his passing seem to be a little sketchy as well imo, which is very unfortunate.

I made a documentary about his passing.

Hope you enjoy it. It was hard to make but it gave me a little bit of closure too, to know that I did my part to honor my friend. Johnny was a real good dude. I still talk to his wife Coppe and his daughter Zhani from time to time.

YES!

Militant said:

scorp84 said:

Really starting to get into more of the late Johnny J's productions the last few months. I didn't even realize that a good chunk of my favorite 2Pac tracks were produced by him. Details (or lack thereof) of his passing seem to be a little sketchy as well imo, which is very unfortunate.

I made a documentary about his passing.

Hope you enjoy it. It was hard to make but it gave me a little bit of closure too, to know that I did my part to honor my friend. Johnny was a real good dude. I still talk to his wife Coppe and his daughter Zhani from time to time.

Militant, I've been looking for you on some of this 2Pac fan site/forums. I gotta send a salute on those video clips. That was a great piece homie.

sms130 said:

Militant said:

I made a documentary about his passing.

Hope you enjoy it. It was hard to make but it gave me a little bit of closure too, to know that I did my part to honor my friend. Johnny was a real good dude. I still talk to his wife Coppe and his daughter Zhani from time to time.

Militant, I've been looking for you on some of this 2Pac fan site/forums. I gotta send a salute on those video clips. That was a great piece homie.

Thanks. I used to be pretty active on HitEmUp.com back in the day which is actually making a comeback soon. There was a few other sites as well but most of them don't exist any more and most of the new forums are just full of kids these days and for those of us who were active in the Pac community back in the day don't much feel like discussing the same things over and over again.

Timmy84 said:

For a while I've been questioning whether or not 2Pac and Suge were really that tight. I mean I could see it in some levels (2Pac on the phone telling Suge to send, I guess his nephew (Suge's) home because he was too young to be around him and him cracking up on Suge's responses) but in other levels it seem like he really didn't like being in Death Row as he had a contract that binded him to three albums and he released "All Eyez on Me" as a double album, then "Makaveli" was supposed to come out in either late 1996 or early 1997 and that was it as far as any more Death Row releases. It seems as if Suge always had some agenda with most of the artists he signed so it wouldn't surprise me if 2Pac felt some way about Suge prior to September 7, 1996 and why now Death Row is very much sabotaging their end of their deal as far as posthumous releases go.

People fail to accept that Suge and 2Pac was closer than what's been put out here. They were real close friends, the best of friends back in 1996. Suge and 2Pac was in the process of during business together beyond 2Pac just being signed to Death Row. It's hard to say where things would have went, if 2Pac was alive because he was learning alot and in the process of finishing up a few things like the Makaveli album. 2Pac was in the process of having his own company. Suge was helping 2Pac out with Makaveli Records. There was alot going on with 2Pac and surrounding him.

As far is Johnny J, he helped keep 2Pac's musical legacy alive and actually extended 2Pac's vault. For those who didn't know, Johnny and 2Pac had their own production company: Non-Stop Production. Johnny was set to be apart of all of 2Pac's future music projects that were in the works (at that time) like the Makaveli album and the One Nation project. In the last 15 years with all of the posthumous albums being released, their were alot of remixes that didn't make those albums and some of them were Johnny's. He was one of the original musical keepers to 2Pac's music along with QD3, Daz, DJ Quik, Mike Mosley, Assassin, Shock G, Rick Rock, Live Squad, Hurt M Badd, Go Twice, Tony Pizarro, Easy Mo Bee, Moe-Z, LT Hutton, etc. Those were the original people who recorded with 2Pac when he was alive. Since then, there's been new producers to remixed some of those original recordings/songs. Alot of them original recordings (mostly the Death Row recorded stuff) were produced by Johnny. That became an issue. Some of those remixes by other producers worked but, some did not because in the words of the late Johnny J: "the chemistry doesn't work". There's alot of remixes, some unreleased songs, and of course alot of original recordings that remains in the vault. All of those songs/tracks that was originally produced by Johnny J and was remixed by another producer and appeared on those postumous albums, 9/10 there's a remix by Johnny that's in the vault and was rejected by Amaru. For example: "Play Ya Cardz Right" was originally produced by Johnny J and the version with Keyshia Cole that appears on 2Pac's Pac's Life and Keyshia Cole's A Different Me album was remixed by LT Hutton. Johnny did a remix to "Play Ya Cardz Right" with Charlie Wilson that was rejected by Amaru and remains in the vault. He has beats to create new remixes of his unreleased material with 2Pac. Johnny and 2Pac did over 100 songs before Pac passed so, enough said. That's just Johnny's material. Like I've said previously, they can do this for another 15 years. They (Amaru Entertainment) can do what Experience Hendrix are doing with Jimi Hendrix, still put out great material.

[Edited 9/24/11 12:33pm]

Militant, I know those remixes that he played for you are great! I can't wait for them to be officially released.