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Releases
Early Tupac demos to be released
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 30 July 2009
You know, I was just saying the other day that there really haven’t been enough posthumous Tupac Shakur albums. Luckily, someone has dredged up some early demos recorded on cassette in 1988 and added new music to them.
The new album, entitled ‘Shakurspeare’ (named, apparently, in relation to Shakur’s desire to be a Shakespearean actor), has been put together by childhood friend, Darrin Keith Bastfield. He and Shakur formed a duo called Born Busy while still at school, aged 16. Tupac made the recordings a year later, under the name MC New York. This is Bastfield’s second Tupac-related project, having previously published a book remembering his time spent with the rapper.
Bastfield told AllHipHop: “I was there when Tupac heard himself for the first time rapping on a recording. As he sat in the cafeteria of the Baltimore School For The Arts it was as if he couldn’t believe that he was listening to himself. Just as Tupac was quietly amazed by hearing himself, I want people to hear Tupac as a young artist in his very first recordings ever having fun, rapping about issues that concerned us, and most importantly giving a cautionary and timely ‘Message Of Peace’ in his own voice as if he was already a big rap star with a reputation to uphold”.
He added that this project is a labour of love and definitely not a cash-in, saying: “This project was a very spiritual undertaking for me, but most importantly it is about creating art and being educational. The vocals to the songs we wrote were all recorded a cappella in 1988 on a cassette tape. Through technology the vocals were able be extracted, digitally mastered, and put to contemporary music that was produced in 2008. I wanted to keep the recordings as close to the vein of our ideas from back in the day. As far as new material to assist with the concept of the album as being like an audio documentary, I chose to work with producers and artists in my own backyard which are native of Baltimore, Maryland which includes International Jazz recording artist Maysa. My life and times with Tupac Shakur all happened in Baltimore, so I wanted the spirit of the ‘Shakurspeare’ album, just as the book, to stay consistent”.
‘Shakurspeare’ is set for release via digital stores on 13 Sep through Bastfield’s own Born Busy Records label.
