2Pac‘s charting success has extended way past his lifetime as his music continues to break records over two decades after his untimely demise.
On Tuesday (September 12), a day before the 27th anniversary of his passing, ‘Pac’s 1998 Greatest Hits compilation made history by bagging a spot among Billboard’s longest-charting albums of all time.
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With a total of 491 weeks to its credit, the 25-track album has surpassed The Beatles’ Abbey Road by one week and is now among the ranks of classics Hip Hop albums such as Kendrick Lamar‘s Good Kid m.A.A.d City (567 weeks) and Eminem’s Curtain Call (648 weeks).
As of now, the peak position of 2Pac’s Greatest Hits on the Billboard 200 chart has been No. 3.
Kendrick Lamar has long done his part to keep 2Pac’s memory alive, and that was especially true last week as the Hip Hop community observed a fateful date in the late rapper’s life.
On Thursday (September 7), the Compton kingpin took to his personal ‘burner’ Instagram account, which fans discovered earlier this year, to share a photo and video dump from his recent trip to Tokyo.
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Among the slideshow is a photo of K-Dot rocking a vintage ‘Pac shirt featuring the late rap icon holding both of his middle fingers up, which was taken from an iconic 1994 photoshoot by the photographer Mike Miller.
While Kendrick’s post didn’t come with a caption, its timing felt significant considering it was posted on the same day that ‘Pac was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas 27 years prior. Less than a week after the incident, the Death Row Records signee died from his injuries in a hospital, cutting short the life and career of one of Hip Hop’s most influential figures.
Kendrick Lamar has made no secret of his admiration of 2Pac over the years. In a particularly memorable interview with Home Grown Radio in 2011, the former TDE rapper detailed ‘Pac visiting him in a dream and urging him to continue his legacy.
“It’s a crazy true story, actually. You know one of them things when you really delirious in your sleep? I was sleeping one night and a silhouette [came] and he said, ‘Keep doing what you doing, don’t let my music die,’” he recalled.
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“The shit scared the shit out of me! Just off the fact that prior to that, a day before, my mom bringing up, ‘You know, you and 2Pac, y’all like days apart, y’all birthdays.’ I never knew that shit, that’s some wild shit.
“Once she said that shit — and I’m really big on shit like that — somebody comes in your dreams and relays a message, you gotta listen to it because I’ve got past family relatives that’s been coming to my dreams forever and been talking to me.”
