Released only eight weeks after
Tupac Shakur died from gunshot wounds, Death Row released this posthumous album,
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, under the name of
Makaveli, a pseudonym derived from the Italian politician Niccolo Machiavelli, who faked his own death and reappeared seven days later to take revenge on his enemies. Naturally, the appearance of
Don Killuminati so shortly after
Tupac's death led many conspiracy theorists to surmise the rapper was still alive, but it was all part of a calculated marketing strategy by Death Row.
All Eyez on Me proved that
Tupac was continuing to grow as a musician and a human being, but
Don Killuminati doesn't improve upon that image; instead it concentrates on G-funk beats and East Coast/West Coast rivalries. If
Tupac had survived to complete
Don Killuminati, it is likely that the record would have been even better. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine