It’s been 22 years since Tupac Shakur’s death.
And now unreleased music is finally going back to where it belongs, with his estate. Shakur’s estate just settled a five-year ongoing legal battle with Entertainment One, which will pay the estate for royalties that were never paid, according to TMZ.
The biggest win for the estate, though, is the return of unreleased master recordings made by Shakur before his death in September 1996.
Legal win: The estate of Tupac Shakur, seen here with his mother Afeni in 1993, won a big legal battle with Entertainment One, winning unpaid royalties and unreleased recordings
The legal battle started in 2013, when the rapper’s mother, Afeni Shakur, who was then the administrator of his estate, sued Entertainment One.
The lawsuit claimed the estate had not received royalties to the tune of more than seven figures, some of which will be recouped with a ‘substantial six-figure amount.’
While the estate isn’t getting as much in royalties as they wanted, the real big win for the estate, though, is the return of the unreleased recordings, which are said to be worth a fortune.
The battle is over: The legal battle started in 2013, when the rapper’s mother, Afeni Shakur (seen with her son in a still from the 2003 documentary Tupac – Resurrection), who was then the administrator of his estate, sued Entertainment One
Afeni Shakur passed away in 2016 at the age of 69 after suffering a heart attack, but the lawsuit continued, until it was settled this week.
Shakur’s estate has been overseen by Tom Whalley, the head of Loma Vista Recordings who worked with the rapper while he was at Interscope.
Whalley had been overseeing the estate since 2013, and after Afeni’s death in 2016, her attorney Howard King told Billboard that Tupac’s estate will be largely unaffected by Afeni’s death.
2Pac and Jada: The estate of Tupac Shakur, seen here with childhood friend Jada Pinkett Smith in an undated photo, won back unreleased master recordings said to be worth a fortune
Now that the recordings are back with the rapper’s estate, where they belong, that could mean a new album may be coming in the future.
Shakur released four studio albums when he was alive, 1991’s 2Pacalypse, 1993’s Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z…, 1995’s Me Against the World and 1996’s All Eyez on Me.
There were also six posthumous albums released, 1996’s The Don Killuminati: The Seven-Day Theory, 1997’s R U Still Down? (Remember Me), 2001’s Until the End of Time, 2002’s Better Dayz, 2004’s Loyal to the Game and 2006’s Pac’s Life.
All Eyez on Me: Shakur released four studio albums when he was alive, 1991’s 2Pacalypse, 1993’s Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z…, 1995’s Me Against the World and 1996’s All Eyez on Me
Tupac Shakur’s life was illuminated on the big screen last year with the biopic All Eyez On Me, with Demetrius Shipp Jr. playing the late rapper.
Anthony Mackie previously played the rapper in the 2009 film Notorious, a biopic on his one-time rival Notorious B.I.G., and Marcc Rose played 2Pac in the 2015 Best Picture nominee Straight Outta Compton.
Before his death in 1996, Shakur was an accomplished actor himself, starring in Juice, Poetic Justice, Above the Rim, Gridlock’d and Gang Related.