Loyal To The Game is 2Pac’s ninth studio album and fifth posthumous release, issued on December 14, 2004 through Amaru Entertainment and Interscope. It is the first posthumous album overseen entirely by Afeni Shakur without Death Row Records or Suge Knight, and was produced primarily by Eminem, who personally wrote to Afeni offering to work on a Tupac project and agreed to waive his usual fee out of respect for Pac. Rather than presenting untouched vault recordings, the album consists of remixes of previously unreleased vocals recorded between 1991 and 1994—before the height of the East Coast/West Coast feud—making it a companion to the earlier archival release R U Still Down? (Remember Me). Loyal To The Game debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with more than 330,000 first‑week sales and was certified platinum by the RIAA in early 2005.Eminem’s production gives the core 13 tracks a distinctly Shady/Aftermath flavor, often modifying the pace and pitch of 2Pac’s voice and cutting/pasting phrases so that Pac appears to reference “2005,” “G‑Unit,” “Obie Trice,” and “Em,” aligning the lyrics with the then‑current rap landscape. Songs like “Soldier Like Me (Return of the Soulja),” “The Uppercut,” “Out on Bail,” “N.I.G.G.A. (Never Ignorant About Getting Goals Accomplished)” and “Crooked Nigga Too” are built around tight, drum‑heavy beats that lock in with Pac’s rhythm, aiming—successfully in some critics’ view—to make his presence felt rather than merely conjure his ghost. The title track “Loyal to the Game,” originally found only on the cassette version of the Above the Rim soundtrack, appears here in a G‑Unit remix featuring 50 Cent, Young Buck, and Lloyd Banks, while Nate Dogg helps carry the melodic hook on lead single “Thugs Get Lonely Too” and Obie Trice guests on “Hennessey.”
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