I understand he wrote JM's album and was on tour in 95 but c'mon Pac was realeased from Jail in Oct of 95, between Oct - Dec of 95 he went on tour too, did various interviews, shot the Cali Love videos and he completed All Eyes on Me (with leftover tracks), and thats just his first two months realeased. From Jan - Sep 96 he recorded Makaveli (shot three videos for it) and which he helped to produce, One Nation album, ghostwrote the tracks for MC Hammer's album (unrealeased), did movie soundtracks and shot videos for the soundtrack, realeased the Hit Em single (shot a video for it), he did about 11 videos that year, recorded over 250 songs, started a record label and production company, juggling legal cases, finished two movies while starting another one (Baby Boy), traveled overseas, dide concerts, did over 25 interviews, went to almost every award show, getting enganged, opened a restaruant with atlantis morrisette, consistently volunteering his time at this community center for children that he started (a member of this site used to go there in 96, he posted alot of pics), doing guest appearances on other peoples albums and videos and he still found time to be family man, still participating in activism and live life. Plus, keep in mind, this was all in the midst of juggling various legal cases from 92-96, being on probabation, being watched by the feds, the stress of being on a record label, and knowing people are still tryna kill you lol.
Big was an incredible rapper but I just dont see what excuse he could've had for the gap between Ready to Die and Life After Death. He started recording Life After in 1995 and finished in Jan 1997. He was only recovering from the wreck between Sep - Nov 96 so LAD wasn't gonna come out in Oct regardless. In this video below Puff even talks about his work ethic and Big basically says "i have alot on my mind", this vid took place in 1996 while Pac was still alive. And back on topic, LAD and Makaveli are both great albums, its just Makaveli was a personal favorite of mine but I like how well put together Big's album is (pretty much the greatest double album in hip hop imo)