Released on February 13, 1996, just 7 months before his death by Death Row and Interscope Records with distribution handled by Polygram, the album features guest appearances from Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Redman, Method Man, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, E-40, K-Ci & JoJo, and the Outlawz, among others.

The album includes the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "How Do U Want It" (featuring K-Ci and JoJo) and "California Love" (with Dr. Dre, featuring Roger Troutman) and the hip-hop ballad "I Ain't Mad at Cha", along with the Snoop Doggy Dogg collaboration "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" as a promotional single.

Moreover, All Eyez on Me made history as the first ever double-full-length hip-hop solo studio album released for mass consumption globally.

In October 1995, Suge Knight and Jimmy Iovine paid the $1.4 million bail necessary to get Shakur released from Clinton Corrrectional Facility, on charges of sexual abuse.

DJ Quik also produced, mixed and made an appearance on the album, but had to use his real name on the credits because his contract with Profile Records prevented him from using his stage name.

With songs like "Can't C Me" and "All Eyez on Me", 2Pac makes it known that he feels the presence of surveillance, most notably by the police and those wishing to do him harm.

[20] It was paired with "California Love" as a double A-side single, with 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted and the non-album track, Hit 'Em Up serving as the B-sides.

The video portrays a wild sex party with Jacuzzi, mechanical bull riding, cage dancing and pole stripping.

The adult-material video also features numerous porn stars, including Nina Hartley, Heather Hunter, and Angel Kelly.

There are cameo appearances by K-Ci & JoJo, and fellow group member of Digital Underground Shock G both in the concert and studio segments.

[23] "I Ain't Mad at Cha" featuring singer Danny Boy, was released in Europe and parts of Oceania shortly after Shakur's death as the final single from the album, on September 15, 1996.

Spin magazine gave it 7 out of 10 and said: "As long as you don't expect philanthropy from Tupac, you'll find honesty and some pleasurably twisted scenarios.

Whatever the case, 2Pac re-emerged hardened and hungry with All Eyez on Me, the first double-disc album of original material in hip-hop history.

[26] In the Los Angeles Times, Cheo Hodari Coker praised the album: "All Eyez on Me, a 27-song, 133-minute gangster's paradise, finds the rapper even more venomous than he was before his 11-month incarceration for sexual abuse.

"[28] Jon Pareles of The New York Times considered the album typical gangsta-rap fare, but with superior production.

"Standard images of ghetto desperation turn up...but far more of 2Pac's rhymes are about living in luxury: driving a plush car, drinking cognac, smoking weed and having all the women he wants."

"[38] "It's like a Cali thug-life version of Pink Floyd's The Wall – pure gangsta ego run amok over two CDs," complained Rolling Stone.

Civil rights activist and fierce rap critic C. Delores Tucker sued 2Pac's estate in federal court, claiming that lyrics in "How Do U Want It" and "Wonda Why They Call U Bitch" inflicted emotional distress, were slanderous, and invaded her privacy.

[61] Notes Most of the songs on the list were remixed on posthumous 2Pac albums Still I Rise, Until the End of Time, Better Dayz and Pac’s Life.