Best of 2Pac

Nine years after Greatest Hits, a second retrospective appeared, this time split across two separate CDs. Best of 2Pac divides the body of work into two facets: Part 1: Thug gathers the hard-hitting club and radio hits, Part 2: Life the reflective tracks.

Cleared Rights for the Holiday Season

By 2007, the legal rights situation was clearer than it had been in 1998. Universal had access to large parts of the archive through Interscope and its catalog division UMe; Death Row was in the midst of a sale process following the bankruptcy of founder Suge Knight. This made it possible to unite recordings from all phases on a single compilation. The release was deliberately aimed at the holiday shopping season-exactly one year after the final studio album Pac's Life.

Two Halves Between Grit and Depth

Part 1: Thug gathers the major hits of the Death Row years: 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted, California Love in its original version, How Do U Want It, I Ain't Mad at Cha, and Hail Mary, along with Changes, So Many Tears, and Trapped. New was Resist the Temptation with soul singer Amel Larrieux. The Dear Mama remix with Anthony Hamilton from Pac's Life also found its place.

Part 2: Life strikes quieter tones: Keep Ya Head Up, Brenda's Got a Baby, Ghetto Gospel, Never Call U Bitch Again, and Until the End of Time in the version with Richard Page. New were Dopefiend's Diner, originally produced by Deon "Big D" Evans, and an acoustic version of Thugz Mansion designated as "2Pac Original."

The concept was not strictly maintained: Changes landed on the "Thug" CD, while Definition of a Thug Nigga opens "Life" of all tracks. Those who already owned the regular albums bought the two discs primarily for the three first releases.

Silver in the UK, Subdued Response in the US

Commercially, both parts lagged behind Greatest Hits: No. 65 and No. 77 on the Billboard 200, and roughly 212,000 and 135,000 units sold in the US by 2011, respectively. Neither of the two parts received an RIAA certification. In the UK, both at least achieved Silver. For newcomers, the CDs offered a compact, less expensive alternative to the 1998 double CD; collectors picked them up for the three archival tracks.