Concept Albums Explained
by Saul-Newell Reaves
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
2pac (Makaveli)
1996
“In no way is this portrait an expression of disrespect for Jesus Christ”– Tupac Shakur
Sometimes all it takes to establish a powerful concept album is the cover.
For Tupac Shakur’s album “the Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory”, the cover image depicts 2pac nailed to a crucifix.
Death Row records, released this– his first posthumous album and his last authorial album– within two months of the artist’s murder, under the pseudonym Makaveli.
Upon close inspection of the cover image, it is a crucifix of geography that Pac is nailed to. On the cross, itself, appear the names of ghetto neighborhoods stretching from “SO CENTRAL” and “WATTS” all the way to “BROOKLYN”, “BRONX”, and “HARLEM”. Although this geographical cross may be understood as a representation of the so-called East Coast/ West Coast hip-hop war, I offer a different interpretation.
For the Makaveli album is truly open literature, and sustains multiple, subjective literary interpretations. No interpretation of this text can ignore, however, the primary statement of this album, that 2pac is crucified by something, just as Jesus the Nazarene was, some 1,963 years prior. So– considering the album’s multitudinous biblical references in songs such as “Hail Mary” and “Blasphemy”, along with the provocative cover art– let us see what happens when we compare and contrast the first prophesied Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, with Tupac Shakur. [read more]
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