Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988–1991

Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988–1991 is a compilation album consisting of unreleased recordings of American rapper Tupac Shakur. The album was originally released on April 18, 2000, in bootleg form under the title The Lost Tapes: Circa 1989, but the selling was quickly halted due to not receiving approval from then head of the Tupac estate, Afeni Shakur. The track "Panther Power" was issued on the Resurrection soundtrack before finally receiving the blessing of Afeni Shakur and being reissued in 2007, under Koch and Amaru Entertainment.

Produced by Digital Underground and Strictly Dope member Chopmaster J, Beginnings... is a collection of the rapper's earliest songs, created before Shakur began working on his first studio album, 2Pacalypse Now.

Background
The songs featured on Beginnings... were originally created by Tupac Shakur and his early crew, Strictly Dope, between 1988 and 1991. While these songs led to 2Pac joining a concert tour with Digital Underground as a roadie for Chopmaster J and a dancer and crew member for Digital Underground, most of them were not heard by the general public (with the exception of "Panther Power", "The Case of the Misplaced Mic" and "Static"). One song was loosely inspired by the 1931 "Minnie the Moocher", originally written and performed by Cab Calloway, though with radically different lyrics.

In the year 2000, Chopmaster J rediscovered the recordings in his mother's basement, after he believed them to be destroyed in 1991 and compiled them into an album.

Critical reception
CD Universe noted that Shakur's "flow and lyrical content are more reminiscent of late-1980s/early-1990s icons like Big Daddy Kane and Rakim" than of the later songs of 2Pac himself. Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic agreed that the rapper sounds "inspired here, no doubt, but nonetheless a bit clumsy and imitative". Birchmeier also commented that "there's little more here than skeletal drum machine beats for production". It also seems much of the political content of the songs has been overlooked.