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The album "All Eyez on Me" was the fourth and last studio album by the American rapper 2Pac to be released during his lifetime. It was released on February 13, 1996, by Death Row and Interscope Records and features guest appearances from a variety of artists such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Nate Dogg, among others.
The album was produced by Shakur and other producers, including DJ Quik, Johnny "J", and Dr. Dre. It is a gangsta rap album, featuring 2Pac rapping about his experiences of living in poverty and luxury. The album includes hit singles such as "How Do U Want It" and "California Love" and was the first-ever double-full-length hip-hop solo studio album released globally.
Upon its release, "All Eyez on Me" was critically acclaimed and has been ranked by critics as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. The album charted at number one on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, selling 566,000 copies in the first week. Despite its success, 2Pac was fatally shot seven months later.
The album won the 1997 Soul Train Music Award for Rap Album of the Year posthumously, and was also posthumously nominated for Best Rap Album at the 39th Grammy Awards in 1997. It has since been certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2014, with shipments of over 5 million copies. In 2020, it was ranked 436th on Rolling Stone's updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The album "All Eyez on Me" by Tupac received praise from various sources. Spin magazine gave it a rating of 7 out of 10 and stated that it was honest and had some interesting scenarios. Entertainment Weekly ranked it as the third-best album of 1996. AllMusic noted that the album was an embrace of the gangsta lifestyle and was a monumental achievement. Cheo Hodari Coker from the Los Angeles Times praised the album's production and noted that Tupac's creative fire burned even hotter after his incarceration. Jon Pareles of the New York Times thought that while the album contained typical gangsta-rap themes, it had superior production. The Guardian gave it a lower rating and found it to be consumed by self-justifying rants, and Rolling Stone criticized the album's length and tone but still included it in their essential recordings of the 1990s.
