The 7 day theory

The 7 Day Theory
By David Powers III

This is most certainly the hardest album review intro that I have done. The album is The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory by Makaveli better known as 2Pac. During this review I am going to go in depth on everything that surrounds this famous album, from the rabbit hole it had with the multiple meanings, to the songs, with some lyrics. Let us first start with the name of this famous artist Makaveli, 2Pac came up with the name from the philosopher Nicolo Machiavelli who is a 16-century writer. He is most famous for his book titled “The Prince”. This book explains how to rule over a state and control it for several years to come. The book also demonstrates how to take advantage of any talk or situation. You may ask why this is relevant to the whole story, and 2Pac read this book in 1995, and while in jail he changed his legal name to Makaveli. He felt that the ideology of Machiavelli was in the right spot, and he felt that “he took from his people” as 2Pac put it. He took on the name to show what that power could do and what a name can do in the rap game. That is where this name of the artist comes from, but we’ll look back to this name later in a different part of the review.

He calls himself Makaveli the Don, a Don is the head of a mob family. Biggie called himself the Don of New York, and 2Pac wanted that name for himself. When he dropped “Hit ‘em Up,” (most of the people who worked on it dying shortly after), he felt he won the name The Don from Biggie. So, he calls himself Makaveli the Don. The Killuminati is his play on the Illuminati and his version of it. This pertains to his group the Outlawz and how he’s the general and the leader of the Killuminati. That is why it’s called The Don Killuminati.

The 7 Day part is from the Bible and how long it took him to make the album, but it originally was done in 3 days. The album is the last one to have his creative intent on it. The album goes down many rabbit holes that I will try to make sense for you to understand. I will mention and talk about the rabbit holes a bit later because it revolves around the picture on the cover. We’ll move to his death before we talk about that.

He was shot September 7th, 1996, in LA. He was rushed to the hospital to receive treatment and while there, he had his right lung removed, along with one of his fingers, due to the damage he had sustained. He did die 7 days later the 14th of September. He was cremated so there is nobody left. The odd part is that the only people who saw him were his family and the leader of Death Row Records, Suge Knight. No one can find the doctors who worked on 2Pac, or the person who did the autopsy on him. That builds the structure for the rumor going around that he’s still living to some people with some people even saying Suge said about 2Pac claiming he’s still living and well.

Let us now move on to the cover of the album. It depicts him being crucified like Jesus, the cross he is crucified on being a map with a compass on the top with the cross breaking showing the dark, gloomy, dismal, sullen background with no moon or sun, just black and red. At the bottom of the cross it looks like a swamp with a red sea showing another reference to the Bible. Long flowing grass lays at the feet of 2Pac, who has cuffs that are spikes, a reverse bandana on his head that is black, with spikes referencing the thorn crown that Jesus had on his head. His Thug Life, his 50 AK tattoo are all glowing green. He has a stab wound under his pec that could have meanings of being shot/stabbed there in his robbery in 1994. The cross has several names of cities, on the left of the west coast it has cities in California including Oakland, Hollywood, SO. Central, Los Angeles, Watts, Compton, and Long Beach. On the right it shows east coast cities like Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Harlem, Bronx, and East Orange. At the top of the cross there are 2 different cities, Detroit and Chicago. At the bottom in the south, he has 3 cities, New Orleans, Alanta, Houston. The picture dwells with a dark, gloomy atmosphere to set the tone for the album. His name MAKAVELI is in big letters that have chunks or are broken apart it’s also in a white font.” The Don Killuminati The 7 Day Theory “is broken apart as well but smaller and in a red font referencing blood. The 7-day theory part is at the bottom and The Don Killuminati part is at the top of the picture. With the rest of the album besides the picture is this dark yellow sand like crumbled paper. On the back of the album cover it shows 3 fingers like fingerprints with an ink spatter at the bottom right. It has the saying “WAR TIME!, worldwide, citywide, real brothers do real thingz.” With the line that is most known off the album EXIT-2Pac ENTER-MAKAVELI. At the top of the back, on the back it shows all the tracks and who made/ produced them. With the song list going Bomb first (my second reply). Hail Mary, toss it up, to live and die in L.A., Blasphemy, life of an outlaw, just like daddy, Krazy, white man’z world, hold ya head, me and my girlfriend, and finally Against all odds. The way this album was produced made it feel like he knew he was going to die before this was going to come out. He overlaps his voice to make it sound like a ghost and symbolizing his own reflection and his inner self. Now let us get into the rabbit hole that revolves around this album. Let us start with his death and its impact on the album 2Pac was shot September 7th, 1996, he died on the 14th of September, this is his last album with his creative mind on it. The album people think it is a way of saying he is still alive and well due to the fact of him be depicted as Jesus on the cover. With the 7-day theory being a part of the title, Jesus rose on the 7th day after being crucified and dead. 2Pac died 7 days after being shot. No one saw 2Pac die or his body after his passing, besides his mom and Suge Knight. There is no record of the doctors who worked on him or names, same as the person who conducted his autopsy in 96. This death has had a profound heavy impact on rap and the east/west war, Biggie was shot dead in CA a couple of months later due to Suge Knight putting a hit out so he could be even with Diddy. The FBI suspected Diddy of putting the hit out for a million dollars but had no proof because the person never got the money for the killing of 2Pac. The only person who got a good look at the shooter was a fellow Outlawz member, he was going to testify and share who did the killing but tragically he was found dead a day before he could tell. This all adds up to the grim reminder that this album gives off due to all the deaths around this album, more on the fact that people think he is living is due to Suge saying he is alive and doing fine. Both accounts from official 2Pac books and his mother’s and Suge accounts all say he was recovering extremely well during those 7 days and on the 7th, he just passed away out the clear blue. People think he is living because his name Makaveli.

Makaveli is a play on words of Machiavelli who faked his death to run away leaving his life behind. This is the only album that uses Makaveli as the artist. So, people tie that in with him being alive and well. There have been multiple accounts of people who knew 2Pac say they cannot confirm he is dead or alive for “reasons”. This adds fuel to the fire that he is still living for some people, it comes down to personal preference on that topic. Some people think this album is cursed due to the fact of the vocals, imagery, and his death before its release. The songs on the album I am going to do a full breakdown of, or most of the lyrics that appeal to me and add to the overall feel of the album so you can get a feel of each dark part of the album. The album starts with bomb first (my second reply). Uses a fake news intro with a faint voice saying Suge shot me then a church bell can be heard. The news report is about how it wiped out the market in record sales and it pokes fun at Biggie, Diddy, Nas, Mob Deepp, Jay Z. Then the news report has a segment from 2Pac that kicks off him talking, he calls all of them cockroaches and he’s the Raid, the bug killer, to deal with them. Then he intro’s the track with a “allow me to intro duce first, Makaveli the Don. Historical, spiritual lyrics like the holy Qur’an” the Qur’an is the primary religious text of Islam. After his death he had a signed Qur’an in his belongings. The lyrics might mean you can preach or even as informative as a historical book. And his lyrics can guide a person. “I hit the scene; they duck from my guillotine stare” he’s saying that people look away from him when he looks at them because it’s like a guillotine. That’s pretty much it from this song due to the fact it’s a diss track song not one that usually has a deeper meaning like some other ones off the album. The next song is “Hail Mary”, this song is one of his most popular forgotten songs and it has a lot of deeper meanings compared to the last. “And God said he should send his one son to lead the wild into the ways of a man” the phrase Begotten son comes from the bible John 3:16. 2Pac says to lead the wild into the ways of a man and it means he is going to corrupt a man and turn him evil. Another line he said is “follow me! Eat my flesh, flesh of my flesh” which means a verse from the Bible, John 6:53-55. Another part of the song is “picture paragraphs unloaded, wise words being quoted” meaning to visualize his verses (paragraphs) being fired at his enemies, the alliteration of the letter ‘P’ comes rapidly, like the repeated ‘pop’ it shows his vocal prowess as it’s a tongue twister. He’s used this alliteration before on a song called If I die 2nite. “In these killing fields, Hail Mary, catch me if I go” He describes the Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and the killing fields that they had, and the Hail Mary pass in football. “penitentiaries is packed with promise makers never realized the precious time that you wastin’ institutionalized, I live my life a product made to crumble” this is a reference to 2pac when he was in prison, he would meet jailhouse prophets and promise-makers who had gotten so accustomed to prison life that they were no longer cognizant, he also uses skillfull alliteration of the P again like if I die 2nite. “bail ‘til I reach, I ain’t scared” which means that he thinks we live in a world that is so bad that even 2pac thinks it is and its worse than any other physical places or realms. That’s about it for this song the rest of it has deeper meanings but not any that tie to the story of this album. The next song is Toss It Up, toss it up doesn’t have meanings that go deep into the album but he does drop lines aimed at Dr. Dre. To Live and Die in L.A. is one of his most popular song, it has meanings in the song such as the title of the song. He was shot and died in L.A. so that’s a meaning on its own. He says it’s California love part 2 without Dre. In the first part of the song, you can hear him say “all my angels sing” which could be that he’s talking about angels from the bible or girls in L.A. since girls sing the chorus part of the song. Blasphemy is the next song, this has a lot in it, blasphemy meaning is the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk. The song starts out with a clip from a TV show called this week in bible prophecy the voice speaking sounds devilish and not solemn like a normal preacher which gives the skit a ironic meaning, if you listen closely in the headphones you can hear a evil voice and the other side the original voice of the TV show. That’s mainly ties to the album the rest is explaining the rules of the game to the listener. 2pac and his whole family at the end of the song recite “The Lords Prayer.” Life of an outlaw is a fast pace one for him, not much to it just explaining being a outlaw and his life as one. Krazy is next the chorus resembles like this “time goes by, puffin’ on lies hopin’ that it gets me high”. It could mean that all he’s being told are lies and media tells lies about him and he’s at the point where he thinks he’s getting high off it. Next song is white manz world it’s him explaining the past of the USA and slavery and him seeing no point in morning someone death, he begs god to bless him and keep people safe from the violence and unfairness that was going on around that time in history. Me and My girlfriend is next it’s a song about his weapons that he has and how they never leave him and he sees them as his girlfriends he even named a few as a result in a interview. The next one is hold ya head. He starts saying he’s with anyone who’s in jail and asking how people fantasizing pictures of a young brother buried. He continues saying he scares those same people when he talks about them, he says he honors the dead and he wants the same for him. He talks about his death saying “don’t rush me through the gates of heaven let me picture for a while how I lived from my days as a child” saying he truly doesn’t want to go to heaven but he knows it’s coming soon. “these felonies be like prophecies begging me to stop” saying that the crimes committed by people are like prophecies of their fate and people beg them to stop. He asked himself if this is his fate and he doesn’t care at the point he’s at. He continues to beg God to bless him and his unborn child. The final song Against all odds. This song by far is up there due to it being a diss track me makes fun of Dr. Dre and Nas, saying Nas wants to be him and become him lying about stuff that never happened. He tells Mobb Deep to close their mouths because the grown folks are talking. He calls puffy out for fearing him and Suge. He describes the person who set him up in 1994 that put him in jail, he was part of the CIA, which was found out later down the line and brings up equality due to the fact it was the same crimes different trials but he got off scott free while 2pac didn’t. He promises to bring war to the east side and promises payback for all they’ve done to him.

This concludes the album and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves rap. It’s beyond a 10/10 due to all the layers of each song and the cover.