Me Against the World

Liked pretty much all of the songs, but didn’t really have any that stood out that much, kinda disappointing given how much I liked the last one

3

Hard but actually jazzy. Tied Gfunk with old school boom bap and sampledelia.

If anything a little to one note - but like Biggie that flow and attitude are unmatched.

east v. west beef wasnt even close

Extremely overrated - people write about him like he was the first rapper to ever have a feeling, but he's overserious, self-absorbed and despite the credit he gets, it's more self-pitying than actually reflexive. The songs are all a verse and a minute too lond and the album could be great at 20 minutes shorter. He has a very compelling flow though, a distinctive voice, and the beats are high-end g-funk with 90s RnB touches and its makes for some great fun at times, the reggae toasting on Heavy in the Game especially.

I came into this project knowing that hip-hop was hit or miss for me. Through this project, I’ve learned that the misses are almost always gangsta rap, so I was pleasantly surprised listening to 2PAC this morning. This has the west coast flow, which I like, but 2PAC feels like he has something to say rather than sticking with the standard gangsta rap cliches. There are quite a few songs that feel introspective, but that said, he doesn’t fully avoid gangsta rap cliches, and it’s a bit hard to take songs like Me Against the World, It Ain’t Easy, and Fuck the World seriously when he was clearly associated with a lot of violence in his life.

I've read " It is objectively bad music." in the comments of this album. That's a thing that an objectively dumb person would say.

nevertheless I liked it but ther are songs by 2Pac that I like more and I wouldn't consider myself a 2Pac Fan

Comprendo la importancia histórica y reconozco un montón de samples pero tampoco es un disco que me vaya a poner mucho más, es un estilo de rap que no me llama mucho.

eh, uglavnom ili blago ili dosta nepodnošljivo. semplovi nekad budu okej, no ni oni nisu baš dobri. stvari »dear mama« i »it ain't easy«, koje dolaze jedna za drugom, mogao bih odrediti kao prolazne. ostatak zanemariv

Everything I could think of that I might want to say just doesn't feel right. His rapping ability. The influence he had. The real shitty things he did. The shitty things he got accused of doing. The difficulty there is to distinguish between those two. I'm not equipped to talk about any of it. All I know is that, in general, I wasn't really a fan.

There are so many people on here triggered by gangsta rap. I guess I can understand it, but to overlook EVERYTHING else this record has to offer just baffles me. Among the 1001 albums we come across here, at lest half of them are made by artists that have some kind of really problematic controversy. I think in order to write lyrics like this, you have to have lived through some shit. I'm not trying to justify what he ALLEGEDLY did, but you can feel his pain on this album. Don't disregard any music because of an artist's life. You are robbing yourself of greatness.

That being said, so far in my life, I always said 2pac is overrated. His later work blends into the kind of hiphop that i just don't really like, closer to the 2000s style. Mostly knowing his hits, i never dug deep enough.
After listening to this one, I fully get it now. His rapping sounds soo effortless, I really can not compare it to anyone else. He was born to glide on these beats. Incredible writing, aand to my surprise, perfect beats too. As i found out, Easy Mo Bee is the producer on some of the songs, and he produced a lot of biggie's Ready to die, so it's not really surprising that i like it. I was scared of the double lp length, but this might be one of the few rap records, where it really is justified.

To sum it all up, this probably is a top 100 album of all time. Super influential, and deeply personal.

It’s Tupac, what more can I say? Shit is fireee

Sorry 2Pac, but this is a hilariously bad album cover. I get why this is on here, of course, 'cause 2Pac and Biggie loomed very large over the pop culture landscape in my formative years, but I have never listened to this album because I'm not about that scene. Slur count = 91ish. He sounds more like Ja Rule than I expected. The album is not terrible, but not quite a 3 for me personally.

'Intro' is wild, because this is NOT a posthumous album, but give it ~2 years and it would be.

Highlights: 'So Many Tears', 'Dear Mama' (me: "aw, that's nice")

Language Observation: "conversate" (on this album) is AAVE but "orientate" (not on this album) is British! How 'bout that!

I’m preferential to All Eyez on Me but this is still a solid album. It is, however, too long. Pac should have trimmed the fat a bit in my opinion. Still some classics for sure, just too many songs for one album.

I have no idea why, but this album was like an instant boredom ray. It took 3 or 4 sessions to finish it... and it's only an hour long! My ears just had such an instant reaction every time. Utterly bizarre. Maybe it's really repetitive? I can't remember, as it took me more than a week to finish!!!

2Pac at the pinnacle of introspective/conscientious hip hop in the heyday of gangsta rap and dance hip hop.

can hear his talent in the flows but I found the album dragging on a bit. Not a ton of variation to my ear, but maybe it’s because I like ice t s faster style of rap

But it’s still very impressive being so introspective, thematically strong. Very confessional and raw, probably was a bit uncommon to show vulnerability in hip hop at this time.

I didn't dislike this, but I also didn't really find it very engaging or interesting. A high two.

It's got groove, swagger. Production is good.

For some reason I've always avoided 2Pac, I now realise this was a mistake.

3.75 Meh? Just did not age as well as I expected.

I love a lot of hip hop, but mostly not gangsta rap, so I went into this one pretty cautiously. I'm a big Kendrick Lamar fan though, so I was curious to hear more about the guy who was such a big inspiration to him.

This honestly surprised me, with its introspective and vulnerable lyrics. There is a lot of the gansta/thug type lyrics, but also a lot of context provided for how he fell into that lifestyle (similar to Kendrick). This is exactly what I feel is missing from the Dre and Snoop albums on this list, so it's very welcome. The beats and production are also great as well, g-funk at it's best.

The downsides though, it is a bit repetitive and too long. After a while it starts to feel like 2Pac has a bit of a Saviour complex. There are also some misogynistic and creepy lyrics here and there, but not nearly as much as some of his contemporaries. I don't really want to comment on his crimes - it sounds like he was guilty, but also did his time from what I understand.

Overall, I enjoyed finally listening to some 2Pac and can see what the hype is. Not sure I would listen again though, and some of the songs I would drop. I think Kendrick did it better. Realistically this is a 3 star for me, but I'm bumping it to 4 to counter some of the "all-rap-sucks" cretins.