News of March 27, 2015
A 'Total Reset' for Tupac's Estate
JAM Inc. announces a 'total reset' for Tupac's estate, along with unreleased music. The alleged purchase by Roc Nation was merely a rumor.
Tupac’s voice speaks lines from “Mama’s Just a Little Girl” as a Powerade commercial featuring Derrick Rose plays: Jeff Jampol cited this appearance in late March 2015 as the kickoff. Speaking to Billboard, he explained that Tupac’s estate was getting a “total reset.”
A Fresh Start on Behalf of Afeni Shakur
His company, JAM Inc., says it has managed the estate since early 2013 on behalf of Afeni Shakur, together with Tom Whalley, who brought Tupac to Interscope in 1991. Jampol also oversees the estates of the Doors, Rick James, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding.
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of his death in September 2016, plans include new apparel, exhibitions like the one at the Grammy Museum, and a biography by a “very serious writer.” First in line is the work itself: unreleased music, remixes, demos, writings, scripts, and poems-an “embarrassment of riches.”
Roc Nation Denies the $384 Million Rumor
On March 28, Billboard confirmed that an alleged purchase of the unreleased catalog by Jay Z and Roc Nation for $384 million was not true; Roc Nation denied it. The alleged album And Now I Rise was likewise a rumor.