In 2016, Mopreme Shakur, Macadoshis, and Big Syke, members of Thug Life, spoke exclusively to
VladTV about how 2Pac heavily advocated for Interscope to sign them after he formed the group. Syke explained that it took a lot of persuading from 2Pac to convince the label to sign them and added that they then faced an uphill battle with censorship on the album, revealing that due to the heavy criticism of
gangsta rap at the time, the original album wasn't what got released to the public. Speaking more about their debut project, Syke revealed that Thug Life was never supposed to be a group, it was supposed to be a movement, a compilation album represented by more rappers than what appeared on the album, one rapper being
The Notorious B.I.G. He added that the idea of making Thug Life a group was thought up by Interscope Records during their rearranging of the album's tracks. With many songs deemed by
Interscope Records too controversial to release, the album only features ten songs, with two being solo songs by 2Pac and two not featuring the rapper. Since 2Pac died in 1996, many songs removed from the album have been released on the rapper's posthumous releases. One song recorded during the album's creation and scrapped due to its theme is
Runnin', which features The Notorious B.I.G.,
Dramacydal, and
Brown Man alongside 2Pac and Stretch of Thug Life. The song was officially released in November of the following year as a single from the compilation album
One Million Strong with a different hook made by the West Coast Long Beach rapper
Radio. In 2003, a
remix of the song, with an alternate verse from 2Pac and featuring only The Notorious B.I.G., was released as a single from the
soundtrack to the Academy Award-nominated documentary film
Tupac: Resurrection. ==Singles==