1/ From October 1995 to September 1996, Tupac went on an unbelievable run of creativity including:
• 2 albums
• 3 feature films
• Songs for 6 posthumous LPs
• 12 music videos
The story of his work ethic during this period is awe-inspiring.
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2/ The 11-month period of this creative explosion starts on the day Tupac is released from prison and ends on the day he dies.
The output is so prolific over this span that @SnoopDogg says Tupac "had to know" the end was coming.
3/ The story begins on October 12th, 1995.
After serving 9 months in prison, Tupac is bailed out by Death Row Record's Suge Knight for $1.4 million.
He immediately flies from NY to LA.
What does he do to celebrate his release? No clubs.
Just goes straight to the studio.
4/ Producer Dave Aron says Tupac arrived at the studio "on a mission" and "wanted to get a lot done in a short amount of time."
That night he records two songs that end up on the All Eyez On Me album ("Ambitionz Az A Ridah", "I Ain't Mad At Cha").
5/ This work pace continues non-stop until his death.
Rapper Young Noble describes working with Tupac: "We’d get up and [go to Tupac's movie set] at 6-7am, and then go to the damn studio after that. We’d get to the studio at 5-6pm, and not leave... until 3-4am.”
6/ Actor Tim Roth, who starred in Gridlock'd with Tupac, had this to say:
"[In the trailer during filming] I’d kick back and have a beer and [Tupac would] be sitting there writing...He worked at it. His success was not a fluke. He was a poet."
7/ In August 1996 (one month before his death), Tupac records Don Killuminati.
The project takes only 1 week: the lyrics are written and recorded in three days and mixing takes four days.
It's probably Tupac's darkest album and the theme of death permeates throughout.
8/ Snoop Dogg's description gives me the most chills.
He remembers how Tupac would finish a song, never listen to it & start the next one:
“To me it was like, why is he working so fast and so hard and trying to finish these records up? He had to know [he would die soon]”
9/ For Snoop Dogg, the biggest sign that Tupac DID know was the fact that he recorded the music video for "I Ain't Mad At Cha" one week before his death.
In the video, Tupac is shot and killed outside of a club.
10/ On September 7th, 1996, Tupac is riding in a car with Suge Knight on the Las Vegas strip following a Mike Tyson boxing match.
The car is targeted in a drive-by shooting and Tupac dies 6 days later from the attack on September 13th, 1996.
11/ Tupac is only 25 years old when he dies.
A generational creative talent...actor, rapper, poet, singer, writer and cultural icon.
Even with his life cut short, Tupac's stepbrother (Mopreme Shakur) says "he did everything he said he was gonna do."
never forget that episode of “Nathan For You” when he launched a fire detector product and tried to avoid import tariffs by turning it into a music device
One company that has been very good at navigating international food tariffs/regulations is Trader Joe’s. Built its dairy and wine businesses by finding workarounds.
If you are the person that did the un-aligned letters for the previous eBay logo, please contact the research app team. We are huge fans of how un-aligned the “e” is with the “y”.Bearly.AI
This article offers up reasons for popularity of simple font logos (mostly Sans Serif):
— Easier to standardize ads across mediums
— Improves readability (especially on mobile)
— The “brand” matters more than the logo velvetshark.com/why-do-brands-…
Berkshire Hathaway board member Chris Davis once asked Charlie Munger why Costco didn’t drop the membership card.
Let anyone shop and raise prices by 2% (still great value), thus making up for lost membership fees (and more).
Munger said the card is important filter:
▫️“Think about who you’re keeping out [with a membership card]. Think about the cohort that won’t give you their license and their ID and get their picture taken.
Or they aren’t organized enough to do it, or they can’t do the math to realize [the value]…that cohort will have a 100% of your shoplifters and a 100% of your thieves. Now, it’ll also have most of your small tickets.
And that cohort relative to the US population will probably be shrinking as a % of GDP relative to the people that can do the math [on Costco’s value].”▫️
I have a membership but have been guffing on the math for a few years tbh. They keep telling me to upgrade from Gold to Business but I’m too lazy (even if the 2-3% Cash Back on Business pays back after a few trips).
This is a long way of saying Costco’s membership price hike effective today — its first in 7 years — is annoying but when I decide to do the math in a few months, it’ll be worth it.
Anyway, here is something I wrote about Costco’s $9B+ clothing business my affinity for Kirkland-branded socks and Puma gym shirts. readtrung.com/p/costcos-9b-c…
Two notes:
▫️Meant “Executive” (not “Business”) membership
▫️Chris Davis was doing a pure thought experiment. Costco membership obvi high margin (on~$5B a year) and accounts for majority of Costco profits. Retail margin is tiny on ~$230B of annual sales (Costco would need like another $150B+ from letting anyone shop to make up membership profits)