2Pac was the first rapper to have two No. 1 albums in the same year with his album, All Eyes on Me (1996) and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996). After his release from Clinton Correctional Facility in 1995 and signing to Suge Knight‘s Death Row Records, 2Pac was spending a lot of time in the studio. In February of 1996, 2Pac released his fourth studio album All Eyez on Me—2Pac’s first release on Death Row Records—2Pac’s double-length album All Eyez on Me reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 500,000 units first week. All Eyez on Me was the first double-full-length solo hip-hop album.
After the release of All Eyez on Me, 2Pac had already started working on a new album, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. Two months after 2Pac’s murder in September 1996, Death Row Records released 2Pac’s fifth and final album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 664,000 units first week.
Two years later DMX‘s first two albums—It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (released in the same year)—debuted at No. 1 on the charts in 1998.
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