2Pac’s ‘Ambitionz Az A Ridah’ Joins The Spotify Billions Club
The single came from his fourth album, ‘All Eyez On Me.’
30 years after its release, 2Pac’s “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” has reached one billion streams on Spotify, joining the platform’s Billions Club.
“Ambitionz Az A Ridah” is a track from the rapper’s fourth studio album, All Eyez On Me. Upon its February 1996 release the record charted at number one on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Only seven months later, Tupac Shakur was murdered in a drive-by shooting. The album was posthumously nominated for Best Rap Album at the 1997 Grammy Awards and has gone on to be certified Diamond by the RIAA.
The lyrics to “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” were written by Shakur while he was in prison on sexual assault charges in 1995. In 2015, those original pages were auctioned by Sotheby’s, who estimated they would go for between $47,000 and $78,000.
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The same year, a collection of 2Pac collaborators spoke with XXL about the making of All Eyez On Me’s tracks. Discussing “Ridah,” producer Dave Aron said: “The day he got out of jail, he didn’t go to the clubs. He didn’t go try to meet women. He went straight to the studio like he was on a mission, and he recorded ‘Ambitionz Az A Ridah’ and ‘I Ain’t Mad At Cha.’”
Aron continued: “He was ready to go. He was very hyped, very focused, a lot of energy – mad energy. And you could tell he was really on a mission. He really had a real vision of what was going on, and he wanted to get a lot done in that short amount of time.”
Fellow producer Daz Dillinger shared a surprising detail about the song’s creation: “The idea came from me sampling Pee Wee Herman. So if you listen to Pee Wee Herman [the Champs’ ‘Tequila’], I just put the gangsta twist on it. I gave it to ‘Pac. Came back to the studio, and it was done.”
