Disco de 2Pac: “Loyal to the Game [Edited]”

Don't waste your time arguing weather or not Eminem, 50, G-Unit or anybody else on here deserves to be on a track with Pac. Fact is that that for the past couple of years, the integrity of 2Pac's music has been thrown out the window. So, the listener pretty much just has to accept this the way it is if they want to have any chance of enjoying 2Pac's new music at all. "Loyal to The Game" is already released so just take it for what it is.

Eminem's work on Resurrection was really good and he normally does a decent effort at worst with his production. So, when it was announced that he was handling most of the production on here, this album defiantly had a lot of potential. Starting off "Soldier Like Me" has nothing really wrong with the track that I can think of though. Although, it is painfully obvious that there's something wrong with the recording of Tupac's voice. It is slightly distorted and sounds slowed down to fit the beat. Eminem here only offers what is now becoming a typical Em chorus with the singing and all. None the less a decent song with solid production.

"The Uppercut" sounds more pure than most of the other tracks, the production here is really solid. Both Tupac's verses are clear and sound as if he could have actually recorded over the beat. The chorus sounds a bit distorted though, and is almost too obviously pieced from a different song. The second verse is all to short as well. It's refreshing to here The Outlawz on here, even if it's not EDI or Noble's best effort. Again it ends up being a decent track.

"Out on Bail" has another great beat, here it's more fast-paced. Tupac flows on here nicely. The chorus even sounds like something that you would have herd on Me Against the World, so it fits quite well. The content of the track is almost exactly like "When I Get Free" from R U Still Down, so it's not something mind-blowin' or new. Still it's great track complete with Tupac ad-libs toward the end of the track.

"Ghetto Gospel" Ok, so I really do like the production on this song. But, it's just not 2Pac at all, it just doesn't work all that well. But I could still get over that if it wasn't for his voice sounding painfully sped up or something to fit the beat, he sounds like he's 15. It sounds really weird I don't know what exactly they were thinking. It just doesn't work very well at all.

"Black Cotton" once again has some sick production, but 2Pac sounds great over it with his fast paced flow. Pac's opening verse here is the first time on the album that it made me close my and really miss him. Everything works great and he drops another reminder of why he's revered as the best. Unfortunately it's the only verse on the song. Eminem's chorus is typical but works well, and the Tupac samples work well. Although Kastro sounds like he's lost a couple of steps, Noble delivers a nice complementary verse. Although the track's lack of actual Pac are painfully filled it, it's a pretty good track.

"Loyal To The Game" is a major problem for me. Em's production here is really nice, yet we have another example of Pac's vocals being distorted (here it just sounds like bad masters or something). I even know for a fact that this time it's sped up to fit the production (the original "Loyal To the Game" featured Treach & Riddler on the Above the Rim Soundtrack and is much slower). It sounds like a G-Unit song with a random Pac verse thrown on obviously out of place. It just sounds like two different songs.

"Thugs Get Lonely" once again brings two things that I'm seeing throughout the album: great production and distorted vocals. The Nate Dogg chorus is pretty nice, Pac's verses is defiantly slowed down. The content isn't particularly captivating either, so while many of the elements of this song are great it ends up sounding merely ok.

"Who Do You Love?" is another great beat but another example of slightly distorted vocals. This does sound like a complete song and flows really well with the production despite the distorted vocals. Only two verses, but still one of the album highlights.

"Crooked N**" also has sped up 2Pac vocals over the track, the third verse it becomes even more obvious just how sped up it is (Don't believe me just listen to the Bonus track of the same title and compare). It's almost too much alteration for me to get into. Same old story again from "Don't You Trust Me" and again on "Thug 4 Life" and earlier on "N.I.G.G.A."

The production for "Hennessey" sounds great but it sounds really akward as it's so far removed from the style that Pac normally flows over. Nevertheless it ends up working out well (excluding the silly unnecessary pasting of Pac throughout Trice's verse).

The "Bonus" tracks are the first time we get a break from Em's production. These producers do something that Em should have done waaay back at the beginning of the album. They take the speed of Pac's original vocals and create a new beat around those. The results are overwhelmingly refreshing: Pac's vocals are crystal clear, the pacing is perfect and they all sound like complete tracks! Sure I like the original unreleased "Cause I Had To" over the remake "Po Nigga Blue" and the Original "Loyal to The Game" with Treach over the Bonus Remix... but both still are really great tracks on here and work really well. "Hennessey" & "Crooked" remixes sound light years better that the previous encounters on the album simply because Pac's verse are left ALONE! What a crazy concept. The last part of the album actually becomes the highlight of it as you are left to just enjoy Pac's flow.

I haven't minded on previous posthumous releases. Producers have added new production to a Tupac song or have even added an extra guest verse to complete a song, and it works reasonably well at times. While in some cases the original unreleased tracks are better, the songs still work and have continuity to it, because it's not too far off from Pac's original intention for a full song. What everyone should have a problem with on "Loyal to The Game" more than anything else is that now songs are being pieced together from random vocals here and there, making new choruses from his vocals, mixing verses and parts of songs around, changing the speed of the vocals to fit the production (why wouldn't Em just make his production fit Pac's vocals??), cutting up vocals to say "50", "G-Unit", or "Jada" "Trice!" (I mean really, what's the point?) .... It's all just too much. It makes you feel a little bit sick, like Pac's vocal's have just become a big cut and paste session to put out anything. Eminem just takes creative license too far here and as a result it doesn't work very well on the album, despite some great beats & rhymes.

Even off the whole nostalgic note, there are defiantly a couple of tracks that makes it worth it for the Tupac fanatic, but otherwise it's a disappointing effort.