Tupac released from Clinton Correctional Facility after Death Row posts bail

Why it matters

October 12, 1995. Tupac Shakur was released from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, after Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight posted a $1.4 million appeal bond. The bond came with a contract: Tupac was now signed to Death Row for three albums, with no escape clause. Tupac had been in Clinton since February, serving 18 months to four-and-a-half years on the 1993 sexual-assault conviction. He flew directly from upstate New York to Los Angeles the day of his release and started recording All Eyez on Me that night. The album would be done in two weeks and out in February 1996. He had eleven months to live. Almost every piece of music he is famous for, and almost every move in the East/West conflict he is famous for, happens in the eleven months between the release date and his death. Suge Knight's $1.4 million bond is the move that bought those eleven months. It also bound Tupac contractually to a label he would not have left while he was alive. You can argue about whether Suge knew what he was doing. He almost certainly did.