Tupac’s Birthday Celebrated By E.D.I. With OG Songs, Stories Shared

Outlawz member E.D.I Mean took to IG Live (@edidono4l) in celebration of Tupac Shakur’s 49th birthday as he played originally recorded songs and shared stories behind the music.

Many of Tupac’s original recorded songs was never released in its original form due to sample clearance issues. As stated by E.D.I. Mean, many of the samples come with an expensive price that would surpass the budget for any album.

One of the rare songs played by E.D.I. is an alternate version of ‘One Day At A Time’ which featured Keyshia Cole. Unfortunately the song was not chosen by Jimmy Iovine, head of Interscope Records. Instead Eminem’s version was chosen for the Tupac: Resurrection movie soundtrack. “He [Eminem] so graciously allowed us to be on it. So, shout out to that,” E.D.I. said on the IG Live back on June 16th, 2020.

During the live session, E.D.I. would share many stories behind the music and Tupac. Who better to share these stories then E.D.I. who grew up with Tupac and was right by his side throughout his career. One of those stories shared by E.D.I., was the back story behind ‘Tear Drops And Closed Caskets’ which was released posthumously on ‘Still I Rise.’ On this particular day for Tupac’s 49th Birthday, E.D.I. played the original version and revealed Tupac’s vision for the song.

“Let me tell ya’ll how this song came together. Pac always wanted us to rap together and as a group, including him. He would always be on us, like ‘Yo, man we gotta do this s— together as a group. We gotta do it like Run DMC. This ni— say one line. This ni— come in with another line’. He wanted us to be cohesive like a group,” E.D.I. explains during the IG Live session.

“Cause every time we go to the studio, everybody just go in their little section and get the writing. And, he hated that. He looked at us, like we was separate,” E.D.I said. “So, he’s way of teaching us was just to go ahead and show us, instead of doing all this talking. he realized that only got so far with us, so he was like let me show ya’ll how to do it.”

Other songs that made the rare playlist was ‘Tongue Kissing,’ ‘Life So Hard,’ ‘Grab The Mic’ solo, and ‘Runnin’ From The Police’ featuring Biggie Smalls. Listen to the full audio version of the IG Live session below courtesy of Outlaw 4 Life.