In the spring of 1996 Tupac Shakur announced that he was working on a new project called 'One Nation', which was to be an East Coast/West Coast collaboration. Although the rapper certainly had his differences with other artists, this unreleased and unfinished record was intended to show the rap industry, and perhaps the world, that rappers from opposite coasts could work together. The album's inception began with a meeting between Shakur, members of his Outlawz crew, and the Brooklyn rap collective, Boot Camp Clik, who were made up of the groups Black Moon, who were spear-headed by rapper Buckshot, Smif-N-Wessun, O.G.C. (also known as Originoo Gunn Clappaz) and the newly-formed duo Heltah Skeltah. The collective had the unique position of not being signed to a major label, but instead they had formed their own label, Duckdown Records, the previous year, which many say Shakur admired as he was trying to start a label himself. Boot Camp Clik were ferried out to California to begin work on the project, staying at Shakur’s new home in Calabasas while recording his proposed new album. A familiar face also helped ease any discomfort, with Buckshot's old friend Snoop Dogg showing up at Can-Am studios, where they were eventually joined by the aforementioned Outlawz, Daz Dillinger, Nice & Smooth’s Greg Nice, The Luniz’s Numskull, and New Jersey natives Asu and Capital LS from the group Rumpletilskinz. Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel also supposedly stopped by at some point during Boot Camp Clik’s week-long stay in California. Those closest to Shakur say the media had spun the whole East Coast versus West Coast beef out of control, and the idea of the album was to not only end the animosity between them, but to show that they could actually work with the people he was beefing with just days prior. 'One Nation' was intended to be the first of a number of volumes, with Vol. 1 coming out on Shakur's label Makaveli, while Vol. 2 would appear on Duckdown Records. After the initial recording sessions, Boot Camp Clik and the rest of the non-L.A.-affiliated groups never recorded with Shakur again, although he did meet up with Buckshot in New York some months later at an awards show. No one knows for certain how much of the album was actually completed, with estimates ranging from just four or five songs to 70 percent of it being finished, and although unofficial versions of the project have been released over the past 20 years, none have been confirmed by Shakur's estate. To my ears this bootleg seems like one of the best reconstructions of the album, featuring contributions from all of the artists that we know recorded at the sessions, and so enjoy this joining together of East and West Coast rappers working together in harmony, and imagine what this could have kick-started had Shakur not been shot and killed just six months later.
Track listing
01 Lets Fight (feat. Yukmouth)
02 Tattoo Tearz
03 My Own Style (feat. Greg Nice)
04 Secrets Of War
05 Where Ever You Are (feat. Big Daddy Kane)
06 They Don't Know (feat. Snoop Dogg)
07 Struggle Continues (feat. Big Syke)
08 Brothaz At Arms
09 World Wide Dime Piece (feat. Greg Nice & Snoop Dogg)
10 Military Minds
11 Thug Nigga (feat. Greg Nice)
12 Just Watching (feat. Snoop Dogg)
13 Immortal (feat. The Outlawz)
14 How Do You Want It (feat. The Outlawz)
15 Where Will I Be (feat. The Outlawz)
16 Thug Pound (feat. Tha Dogg Pound)
17 The Money (feat. Daz Dillinger)
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