News of October 21, 2000
"Too Gangsta for Radio": Two New Tupac Songs on a Bitter Death Row Sampler
In fall 2000, Death Row released "Too Gangsta for Radio" with unreleased Tupac songs "Friends" and "Thug Nature", targeting Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
A good year after Chronic 2000, Death Row followed up with its next sampler. Too Gangsta for Radio entered the US album charts at number 171 in the Billboard week of October 21, 2000. For Tupac fans, two tracks mattered: “Friends”, produced by QDIII and Big Hutch, and “Thug Nature” by QDIII, a reinterpretation of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”.
Two Songs, Much Resentment
On November 8, 2000, RapReviews judged that both tracks were among the better new Tupac songs; “Thug Nature” would also have fit onto the Makaveli album. The rest, however, was a reckoning with everyone who had left the label. Above all, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg were mocked, with “Fuck Dre” parodying Dre’s “Forgot About Dre”. Suge Knight remained in prison; according to the liner notes, money was supposed to go into a fund for wrongfully convicted inmates.
The reviewer gave four out of ten points and took issue with Death Row exploiting Tupac’s recordings “two songs at a time”. In March 2001, MTV News counted the sampler among the many releases on which new songs by Tupac appeared scattered after his death.