2Pac – Outlaw Immortalz feat. Hussein Fatal, Yaki Kadafi, E.D.I. Mean & Big Syke (Oct. 1996)

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“Outlaw Immortalz” is a song by 2Pac featuring Hussein Fatal, Yaki Kadafi, E.D.I. Mean and Big Syke, produced by Sam Sneed and recorded between October 19-23, 1995. It was the first 2Pac song on Death Row to feature E.D.I. Mean and the first song with Big Syke being a part of the Outlaw Immortalz group. The song title was first penned on a tracklist 2Pac wrote in October 1995 just days before getting out. On the next tracklist he wrote “Outlaw Immortalz” was replaced with “When We Ride”. It’s an interesting fact, because the song titles were hypothetical at the time, and it looks like during the All Eyez on Me sessions “When We Ride” was the song that replaced “Outlaw Immortalz”, having been recorded a few days later in a course of a a few (2-3) sessions between October 27-30, 1995. The song later appeared on a mid-December (December 11 most likely) Outlaw Immortalz tracklist for an album that never materialised.

2Pac reused his 4 opening bars on “Can’t C Me”, that was recorded not long after that (November 1-2, 1995).

The song appears on 2 handwritten tracklists circa October 23, 1995.

It is fair to assume that E.D.I. Mean recorded his verse a few days later, since Syke, Fatal and Kadafi were the ones who were recording with Pac on Death Row almost since day 1 and the other guys joined later towards the end of October 1995 (“When We Ride” was the first song for most of them). E.D.I. Mean is the only rapper who Pac didn’t mention in the intro either.

Another indicator of the song having been recorded a few days before “When We Ride” and before the Outlaw Immortalz formed as a group is the fact that 2Pac calls Hussein “Fatal Komani” – he would become Hussein Fatal just days after that and Mopreme would receive the alias Komani.

The song first surfaced because a certain member of THC contacted Sam Sneed and acquired a Pro Tools session CD which contained the layers from the 2″ Master reel (and was referred to simply as “Immortal”). Later an original 1995 mix leaked from a DAT via the Wideawake server leak.

The song samples Outkast’s “Funky Ride” or maybe both songs used the same sample from some kind of library record or whatever.

Lyrically, the song was an introduction to the Outlaw Immortalz group (obviously until “When We Ride”, the superior track and a more inclusive one, replaced it).