2Pac’s Classic Double-Album All Eyez On Me Certified Diamond By RIAA
Over 18 years ago, 2Pac released his “out on bail, fresh outta jail, California-dreamin'” double-album, All Eyez On Me. Today, according to a spokesperson and e-mail from the RIAA, it has been reported that the Death Row/Interscope Records effort has now achieved diamond status, scanning over 10 million copies sold for the RIAA. Because it’s a double-disc, like OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, sales of the album count as two units. Per the RIAA’s database, the 9,000,000 benchmark was achieved 15 years ago, in June of 1998.
All Eyez… is ‘Pac’s only 2LP made during his life. Following 1995’s #1 Me Against The World album, released while Shakur was in prison. Following that incarceration, 2Pac left Clinton Correctional Facility a Death Row Records artist, the notorious label with whom ‘Pac had worked with two years prior, during Above The Rim, and a cameo role in the short Dr. Dre-co-directed film, Murder Was The Case, helped post his bail.
Recorded in a reported 14 days, All Eyez On Me featured one of music’s most esteemed ensemble casts, including the aforementioned Dre, Snoop Dogg, E-40, Tha Dogg Pound, Method Man, Redman, Rappin’ 4-Tay, B-Legit, Richie Rich, K-Ci & JoJo, C-Bo, DJ Quik, Roger Troutman, Nate Dogg, and Michel’le, among many others. The effort featured 2Pac’s latest group, Tha Outlawz, following his years with Thug Life (members of whom, also appeared). The album was a #1 debut, and the #97 in the all-decade charts for the ’90s.
The first of two 1996 albums by 2Pac, it was the artist’s last living album. It featured singles such as “California Love,” the song along with “U Can’t C Me,” was reportedly made for Ice Cube & Dr. Dre’s Helter Skelter collaborative album, which would never be completed. The release included many artists with whom Shakur communicated with and listened to during his prison sentence, as well as an extensive cast of newfound label-mates. With six singles, this remains 2Pac’s best-selling studio album, and a hallmark release, in the zeitgeist of the six months before his tragic September, 1996 murder.
The video for “Ain’t Mad At Cha,” starring Bokeem Woodbine, was ominously filmed just one week before Shakur’s murder.