Shakurspeare

New York, NY-"Before California, before the fame he formed Born Busy, and MC New York was his name" is what reads on the cover of the upcoming Shakurspeare album that was produced by Born Busy Records (www.bornbusyrecords.com) CEO Darrin Keith Bastfield, author of Back in the Day: My life and times with Tupac Shakur (first published by One World/Ballantine in2002 and in paperback form by DaCapo Press in 2003).

The albumfeatures digitally mastered never-before-released recordings with Shakur that dates back to 1988 which are the first recordings that Shakur ever created when he was a member of the rap group Born Busy with Bastfield while living in Baltimore Maryland.

The album commemorates the 13th year since late rapper/actor Tupac Shakur’s untimely death on September 13, 1996. It gives a rare glimpse of a young and talented 16-year-old Tupac Shakur back then known as MC New York. "I was there when Tupac heard himself for the first time rapping on a recording. As he sat in the cafeteria of the Baltimore School fore the Arts it was as if he couldn’t believe that he was listening to himself. Just as Tupac was quietly amazed by hearing himself, I want people to hear Tupac as a young artist in his very first recordings ever having fun, rapping about issues that concerned us, and most importantly giving a cautionary and timely "Message of Peace" in his own voice as if he was already a big rap star with a reputation to uphold.
Shakurspeare with it’s album cover also derived from the oil painting titled "Shakurspeare" also created by Bastfield depicts the young Shakur in likeness to the famous Playwright, Shakespeare. The concept was based on the 17 year old Tupac Shakur sharing with Bastfield his dream and desire to one day become an accomplished Shakespearean actor as told in Chapter 13 of Back in the Day:My life and times with Tupac Shakur . Bastfield will be releasing "Shakurspeare" the painting as a limited edition along with the 13 Spiritual Vibrations that he received from Shakurspeare that were edited from the book on the Born Busy Records website.

"This project was a very spiritual undertaking for me, but most importantly it is about creating art and being educational. The vocals to the songs we wrote were all recorded accapella in 1988 on a cassette tape. Through technology the vocals were able be extracted, digitally mastered, and put to contemporary music that was produced in 2008. I wanted to keep the recordings as close to the vein of our ideas from back in the day. As far as new material to assist with the concept of the album as being like an audio documentary, I chose to work with producers and artists in my own backyard which are native of Baltimore Maryland which includes International Jazz recording artist Maysa. My life and times with Tupac Shakur all happened in Baltimore, so I wanted the spirit of the Shakurspeare album, just as the book, to stay consistent", Bastfield quips.Shakurspeare will be launched Tupac Shakur’s birthday on June 16th 2009 by Born Busy Records and distributed through Ditto Music to the top online retailers around the world. For more info go to www.bornbusyrecords.com.

Source: http://www.bornbusyrecords.com/


Darrin Keith Bastfield featuring Tupac Shakur and Maysa - Back in the Day
http://www.zshare.net/audio/618467366782ed98/