When two of the biggest hip-hop records of all time were released on the same day
One of the great things about the CD era was the gifting convenience of packaging one of those famously “compact” jewel cases alongside a vase of flowers or a box of chocolates; a nice little soundtrack to pair with a special occasion.
Maybe that’s why Interscope and Columbia Records both opted to release their most anticipated albums of 1996 on the same day: February 13th, Valentine’s Eve. As it turns out, it would become an occasion that changed culture forever.
You might not naturally think of 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me or Fugees’ The Score as particularly “romantic” records, but they do offer a couple all-time classic singles suited for your choice of either a pure-of-heart Valentine’s Day (Fugees’ cover of ‘Killing Me Softly’) or a dirty, sex-stravaganza sort of Valentine’s (2Pac’s ‘How Do You Want It’).
Romance aside, it’s hard to overstate just how massive both of these albums remained across the entirety of ‘96, organically becoming the musical backdrops for countless courtships, break-ups, graduations, beach holidays, house parties, and road trips.
Tupac Shakur was the most famous and controversial rapper on the planet when All Eyez On Me raced immediately to the number one spot on the US Billboard chart that first week after its release. This was in the darkest days of the East Coast v. West Coast rap wars, when the stakes felt disturbingly high, and no beef or call-out could be casually laughed off. Shakur was a lightning rod not just as the leading voice of the West Coast stable, but as one of the more critically respected MCs in the game.
All Eyez On Me, even in its own moment, felt like an inflexion point. Would Tupac use his intellect to make constructive use of the spotlight, as he had at times on his previous album Me Against the World, or would he lean into the misogynistic and violent messaging that felt almost required as a soldier in Suge Knight’s army?
The answer proved to be “both,” essentially, as Shakur balanced a lot of gangster posturing with undeniable, almost frustrating proof of his softer, more introspective side, particularly on the single ‘I Ain’t Mad at Cha.’
The album’s biggest hit, ‘California Love’, and its Mad Max-inspired video, kept All Eyez On Me near the top of the charts for months, but it was Shakur’s murder in September of 1996 that permanently changed the narrative and transformed the album into a tragic final statement from a great artist. Thirty years later, All Eyez On Me is one of the rare rap albums with “Diamond” status in America; well over 5million units sold.
That’s about a million or so shy of what the Fugees’ sophomore album managed to pull off, however.
In what also proved to be the last studio album by the troubled trio, The Score became the fifth biggest-selling record of 1996 in America, in any genre, and it had far greater international success than 2Pac’s album, as well, hitting number one in at least 12 countries and number two in the UK. ‘Killing Me Softly’ was the biggest-selling single of the year in the UK, with the Enya-sampling ‘Ready or Not’ also among the top 25-selling singles of that year.
“I’m surprised at the speed with which it took off,” Fugees breakout star Lauryn Hill said at the time. “We thought we’d have underground success and that it would take a minute [for people] to realise what it was.”
The Score was, in some ways, a push back against the very gangsta rap tropes that 2Pac had become entrenched in. It was soulful and mellow, carrying notes of Aretha Franklin and the everyday scenes that became a cornerstone of the whole Motown soundtrack.
“It became popular to be stupid, to be violent… and that’s bad,” Hill said. “When people stop being who they are naturally and start pretending to be something negative or not real, that’s no good.” So, The Score adroitly swerved that trend.
Unfortunately for the legacy of the Fugees, some of its members eventually proved that their true colours weren’t necessarily the best either. Hill has long had a reputation as a bit of antagonistic character, but larger problems plagued Wyclef Jean, whose Haitian support charity came under investigation for a suspicious mismanagement of funds, and Pras, who was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison for illegal fundraising and a criminal conspiracy with a Malaysian financier.
A planned Fugees reunion was cancelled due to the pandemic in 2022, and there seems little hope for another one anytime in the future, with the hubbub turning to stony silence. Alas, there’s no doubting their place in history, and perhaps its most pivotal chapter came to the fore on one fateful Valentine’s Eve. It was a great day for CDs.
