Eminem Produces Next Tupac Album "Loyal to the Game"

On November 3, 2004, Billboard reported that Eminem had largely crafted the next Tupac album himself. For Loyal to the Game, he produced twelve songs built around previously unreleased verses. The album with 16 tracks was scheduled to be released on December 14 by Amaru and Interscope. Rolling Stone counted it as the seventh Tupac album since his death.

Guests and Producers

A final tracklist was not yet set, but the guests were: 50 Cent, Jadakiss, Lloyd Banks, Nate Dogg, Eminem’s protégé Obie Trice, the Outlawz, Sleepy Brown, Young Buck, and Ronald Isley. The remaining four tracks were produced by Raphael Saadiq, Scott Storch, and Red Spyda. Executive producers were Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur and Eminem together.

How Afeni Shakur Changed Her Mind

The collaboration had begun with “Runnin’ (Dying to Live)” for the soundtrack to Tupac: Resurrection. That song reached number 5 on the Billboard rap chart. At the time, Afeni Shakur had initially been opposed to letting Eminem near her son’s recordings. She took a risk and was glad about it, she told Rolling Stone: only when the song was finished did she understand what he had planned. Eminem’s own album Encore was released two weeks after the report, on November 16.