“B efore we even get out the limo the first person we see is Snoop ,” General Steele of Smif-N-Wessun says.
A familiar face also helped ease any discomfort. From there the newly acquainted parties would head for Shakur’s new home in Calabasas where they stayed while recording his proposed new album. “Leave the bags,” he yells in video captured of Buckshot and his team getting out of the limousine ‘Pac had sent for them. “I was like, ‘Seriously?’ He said, ‘No bullshittin’.’ I went to the phone and sure enough it was ‘Pac. He said, ‘Yo, B, I want y’all to come out to California and work on this project with me One Nation.’” Dru Ha, Duckdown Records president, adds, “Two days later he sent the plane tickets and we went out there.”Īs soon as the crew touched down in L.A., Tupac was out in front, greeting them with the biggest grin on his face. He said that ‘Pac was on the phone and I was like, ‘Get out of here.’ I didn’t believe him,” Buckshot recalls. “We was in the studio and my boy called me. It was an initial correspondence that was almost written off as a prank. Then came the phone call that would rock Buckshot (of Black Moon), Smif-N-Wessun and all of their cohorts to this very day. We was bumping that at the time so it was like, let’s reach out to Buckshot and the whole Boot Camp, and specifically Smif-N-Wessun. ‘Pac was like, ‘Oh hell yeah. “On top of that, we were fans of Boot Camp.
had to be independent and self-sufficient in their own where they didn’t have to worry about offending nobody,” E.D.I. “Whoever we reached out felt conflicted because they didn’t want to disrespect Biggie and Bad Boy. They also had formed their own label, Duckdown Records, a year prior, which many say ‘Pac admired as he was trying to start a label himself. The backpacks and Timberland boots they brandished in the videos for their highly successful underground singles “I Got Cha Opin,” “Bucktown” and “Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka” were about as New York as you could get. (also known as Originoo Gunn Clappaz) and the newly-formed duo Heltah Skeltah, Boot Camp had the unique position of not being signed to a major label. His initial aim was to show he still had love for the East Coast, and his target was the Brooklyn rap collective, Boot Camp Clik.Ĭomprised of the groups Black Moon, Smif-N-Wessun, O.G.C. 1 to a lot of rap factions in New York and New Jersey, as most of the East Coast sided with Bad Boy during the label’s meteoric rise. One Nation’s inception began with a meeting that hosted Tupac, members of his Outlawz crew and other trusted friends and advisors. “Even though he was trying to explain to her that that’s not what he was doing, I believe some of that got through to him.” Mean of Tupac’s affiliate group The Outlawz remembers.
“ was saying was reminding her of the tactics that COINTELPRO used,” E.D.I. She was also pregnant with ‘Pac while behind bars. Perhaps the album was set in motion by his mother, Afeni Shakur, and her contributions to the Civil Rights movement. She combated the divide-and-conquer strategies of COINTELPRO, a program used by the FBI to survey, infiltrate and stifle the Black Panther Party, among other leftist groups, during its rise around the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Looking back on One Nation, many of Tupac’s associates feel it had the potential to be his most acclaimed work. Those who were there during its initial recording sessions recall just how potent its message was shaping up to be.
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