Loyal to the Game

2Pac | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 14, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Amaru / Interscope
• ASIN: B0006IGGLS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (379 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,792 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2PAC "LOYAL TO THE GAME" Includes the lead single "Thugs Get Lonely Too" in addition to 11 other PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED songs and 4 bonus tracks.

FEATURED ARTISTS INCLUDE: 50 Cent, Jadakiss, Lloyd Banks, Nate Dogg, Obie Trice, Outlawz, Ron Isley, Sleepy Brown, and Young Buck.

Executive Producers: Afeni Shakure and EMINEM

Album Produced by EMINEM

Additional Production By: Scott Storch, Red Spyda, and Raphael Saadiq

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Loyal to who??, February 17, 2005

By 

Scott D. Gribble (Baltimore MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loyal to the Game (Audio CD)

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.

105 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WILL SUM1 SHUT JARULE69's A** UP, January 10, 2005

By 

jono "jono" (Box Hill Nth, VIC AUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loyal to the Game (Audio CD)

This review is entirely in every way from us people who are p***ed off at the reviewer "jarule69". He says that Tupac is a "wannabe thug", he also obviously dosen't know that Tupac is dead and has been for the past 9 years because "jarule69" thinks that Tupac and all of his fans are "jealous" of ja rule. He also thinks that Tupac and ja rule are enemies (how could they be, ja rule and Tupac never even met(but I'm sure if they did Tupac wouldn't like ja rule)). So every1 who has read this clown named "jarule69"'s review on this album and think that this guy is full of it, vote 4 me, to show him how many people disagree with him. o

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars bs, August 27, 2005

By 

truth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loyal to the Game (Audio CD)

This album is a total disgrace to Mr. Shakur, and i bet he's spitting in his grave. On Loyal to the Game they use clips of his voice and re-arange it to yell, and give thanks to "g-unit." What the hell? If i'm not mistaken Tupac was West Coast - STRICTLY WEST COAST. GGGay - Unit is EAST COAST, Pac was constantly feuding with ANY M.C. that was east coast. If Tupac were still with us, he'd obviously not be giving props to the new "rappers" who completely ruined rap. To make things even worse, eminem changed the tone, and pace of Pac's vocals to match his faggot ass beats. And to top it off eminem cut out over 60% of the lyrics on Ghetto Gospel. I was shocked when i heard some of the guests - Lioyd Banks, 50, Young Buck, and Jadakiss. NONE of these "rappers" are worthy enough to appear on an album with Mr. Makaveli, the only present rapper that does is The MUTHAPHUKKIN GAME! It's been almost a decade since Pac's traggic death (may he rest in peace.) But these record company's don't give a flying f--k about him. All he is to them is another way to make money, and stupid people who buy album's like this make those evil bastards ritch. I seriously cannot believe how much of a disgrace this b/s is. The man is dead, the least they coulda done is left his beautiful voice HOW IT IS. I admitt tracks 14-17 are good (being that they weren't produced by eminems bitch ass.) but please refrane from purchasing this trash. Download it / burn it / do what ever. Just don't give these thoughtless, greedy F--k's your money ... DO IT FOR TUPAC