Tupac's Work Ethic

Tupac, Rapper/Actor died at just 25 years old; a quarter through life, but what he accomplished in those years, especially in his early 20s is just incredible. He was murdered after a Tyson fight in Las Vegas (Sept of 96), but 8 posthumous albums have dropped since then. Adding that to the 5 he had before his death (the 5th was released shortly after his death), that would make it 13 albums. He was the highest selling rapper of all time, until Eminem took over that title recently. His 13 albums have sold a cumulative 75 million copies worldwide. All this achievements show how "second to none" his work ethic was.



A lot of people close to him said he kept talking about death, sort of like he knew he was going to die soon. I guess that's what made him put in so much and achieve that much in such a short time. In between Rapping, he also stared in a couple of movies; Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), and Above The Rim (1994), all before his death in 1996. And Bullet (1996, a month after his death), Gridlock'd (1997) and Gang Related (1997). WOW! Did this man ever take a break?


I was inspired to write this article after i watched a documentary on mycomeup.com which showed a couple of interviews of Studio Engineers, and other entertainment industry people that worked closely with Tupac. One of the people interviewed was a studio engineer at Track Records Studios in L.A, where Tupac recorded a song for the Mike Tyson fight the Friday before he was brutally shot. Scot said they got a call on Wednesday that Tupac would be coming in to record the song, and that they were to work on the beat, and make sure they had everything ready before he worked in.  He said after Tupac recorded the Tyson song, he asked him- "Okay, is that it"? and he told Pac that they were just asked to do one track. Pac asked him how long they had the studio for, and he said they still had it for another 10 hours. Pac then said since he wasn't going off to Las Vegas for another 6 hours or so, he might as well make good use of the time. They ended up recording two more songs...that were finished and ready for radio.


The story above just shows you how much of a workaholic Tupac was. It also makes people understand where all those songs from his posthumous albums came from.  Another studio engineer that was interviewed narrated the first experience he had recording with Tupac and how he had under-estimated his work ethics. He said he had taken a small break off after recording one song with Pac, and when he got back in the studio Pac was vexed and he threw his rhyme book at him, and shouted out- "You m****f****r, don't you ever leave this studio again."


I think there would never be another Tupac. I think you can measure his work ethic by comparing how much more of his albums dropped after his death compared to other rappers that passed away like The Notorious B.I.G and Big Pun. To even think he recorded the last album he worked on before his death, The Don Killuminati; The 7 Day theory in just 8 days is incredible. As they say, you can build on the strength of your brain, just like you can build your muscles; i think Tupac really stretched the mark. His creativity was unmatched. That is why he is legendary. That is why he is being studied in so many Universities; and that's why he would forever live on. R.I.P Tupac Amaru Shakur.