Me Against the World

I wanted to like this but its super dated. It was a first time listen and it's way too long at 65 mins. The production and background tracks are what stands out as the most dated/weak. Sounded like it was a lot older than '95 and not as good as what came before it. The rap style isn't interesting either, it's the same thing over and over. Sure the lyrics are introspective but it goes from I love my mama to the usual gangsta rap shoot em up nonsense. Make up your mind.
My guts says his early death, nostalgia and romanticism have led to the 2pac overhype.

2/5.

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

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

Damn, this album is thick with imagery about mortality and loss. So much so that I thought it was a posthumous release. While several of the songs were a tad similar and forgettable, most of them lyrically or musically made a serious impact. Tupac was talented at his craft and it's a damn shame we lost him the year after this release. 3.5/5 - 4/5

This is aight. Some of these songs just sorta go by, and it also suffers from the CD era length issue. Favorites were Me Against The World, Dear Mama, and Old School

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

I really hope I'll be done with the hip hop albums soon. I mean I'm not quite halfway through the list but hopefully I got more than half the hip hop albums in my first 500 on the list...
This is not really any exception. It's perhaps not as terrible as some of the others. I just hate all the stereotypical lyrics and themes in all of this music. It's so childish and embarrassing to listen to. Like I'm embarrassed for the people who make this music. I can only take so much misogyny, praise and boasting of violence, and lyrics that basically just relate how dangerous and amazing you think you are. It's just...dumb. I mean I appreciate the social commentary and issues that are sort of spread throughout the lyrics but to me it is sort of self defeating to your cause to mix in legitimate commentary on social and racial issues while also talking about assaulting women, murdering people, and the like. And usually in the same song. It's just bad music and bad writing. And the parts where he tries to 'sing', it's clear that he's really struggling to be vaguely in tune. And largely fails despite the struggle. As for the instrumentation (if you can call it that...), it's simple electronic beats for the most part. Same as all hip hop.
So for a rating, I don't understand the draw to this kind of music at all. I've tried and it always just blows my mind that people enjoy this kind of thing. It is objectively bad music. This record may be a little more tolerable than some but that's kind of like asking what kind of torture you would prefer. 1.5/5

WHY DID HE MAKE A SONG ABOUT GETTING SHOT?!?!?

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.

The genius of Tupac is that he was equally comfortable with hardcore gangsta rap, and "conscious rap", akin to groups like Tribe Called Quest, Common, and Mos Def. This album is closer to the latter, therefore a bit slower, and requires a bit more thought. On the flip side, it definitely has that mid-90s, West Coast G-funk flavor which allows you to just sit back and nod your head to the groove.

Tupac was a poet that happened to use music to package his message. Even though the music is a time capsule to its time, Pac's storytelling is timeless, a boots-on-the-ground recording of the 1990s. This is a great album and, although not 2Pac's best (in my opinion, that's his next - and last - release, All Eyez On Me), a very worthy inclusion to this project.

Great album. I don’t listen to rap music outside of this list but this is one of the best rap albums I’ve had so far.

Top Track - Temptations

Favorite songs: Heavy In the Game, Lord Knows, Young Niggaz, Dear Mama, Me Against the World

Least favorite songs: Outlaw, Temptations

3/5

I’m at an easy 5.

Not too much to say from me, other than a bit of anger that I chose to listen to “All Eyez On Me” when I was younger because it was the one that had “California Love” on it. I should’ve listened to this one, after giving it a full listen for the first time, it may very well be 2pac’s magnum opus, as some people say. Not a single miss here, with the only real minor complaint I have being the runtime. 65 minutes is a little long here, and that’s enough to make even 2pac’s flows & structures start to feel a little stale, in part because it does start to circle the bases just a little bit on subject matter after “Dear Mama”. Trust me, I see the irony of saying that it gets stale when “All Eyez On Me” is literally twice as long, but I haven’t heard that album in full in years, and I'd be probably REALLY worn out by it nowadays.

I’m too pressed for time to go super deep into this album, so I do have to keep this shorter, but I have two mandatory bits of praise. 2pac’s rap flow has a melodic tone to it that very few people of this era could match – it’s all in the timing & inflection that he raps with, as even his voice reaches kind of a crescendo at the climax on a lot of verses, structuring them in a way that feels like an R&B track, leading into the chorus in a way that feels super satisfying. It helps that, much like Jay-Z, his voice just feels made for rap, and his lyricism throughout this album only enhances it. There are bars upon bars upon bars on this thing, and I can fully understand why Kendrick would quite literally still go to war for the guy, like he did against Drake.

West Coast production in the ‘90s is a fucking dream, man. This might have some of the tightest beats of the whole decade. At the very least, it feels like a rather early pinnacle to the Chronic / Doggystyle / G-Funk era, before production advanced further & further going into the latter half of the 1990s. 2pac flows on these, no matter what tempo, but the variety of styles in the production work is what gives the album the variety it needs. The only reason that the 65 minute runtime isn’t a bigger thing for me is because, despite the subject matter starting to loop on itself, each beat feels fresh, and gives the tracks their own shelf life without it really affecting the enjoyment of the album. It really is a ridiculous stretch through the first 8 tracks though (9 if you count the intro). I really wish Kendrick would hop on something like “Young N****z”.

As a whole though, just a banger of an album. “Dear Mama” is very obviously THE highlight, but each track brings something to the table. 2pac may have never been more prescient in his life than the constant presence of paranoia & self-fulfilling prophecies that’s in the lyrics throughout this album. He did, however, channel that paranoia into more of a celebration of existence, tinged with the newfound knowledge after the attempt on his life that it’s all indeed that fragile, while pleading with the streets to stay smart. It gives the album a more intimate sense of depth than “All Eyez On Me”, which was perhaps a bit too sharpened by the desire for "revenge via living" borne out of his own prison experience, and a little too heavy on the party / gangsta side of things.

I’m still just mad at myself for not spinning this one years ago, and I’m mad at myself for really only knowing 2pac by “All Eyez On Me” (still a great but very long album!) and some of his bigger singles. It’s as good as advertised, and if only one 2pac album could make the list, I’m glad it was this one. A very easy 5 for me, held back from being a 10 only by everything after "Dear Mama" not hitting quite as hard.

I might need to go spin "The 7 Day Theory" now.

I find his style terribly boring

A well titled album, since it ls fundamentally a long paranoid winge. Though not misplaced paranoia as time revealed.
Perhaps there should be a special Darwin Award for 2Pac who seemed to know where his lifestyle was leading him but did nothing to change the outcome.
The one surprise was that a lot of this album was listenable.
2½

I’m an old white woman so I am not the target audience for this one. But I can hear that he is speaking the truth of his experience. Hard to rate, because I don’t necessarily want to listen to it again, but I know it is quality.

I haven't listened to anything from this album in probably 20 years. That was a dumb idea.

Pac has always been in my top three rappers. His flow is legendary, his lyrics poetic and significant, and I have always appreciated his ability to take a sample of some other song and breathe new life into it.

That said, I definitely need to draw a distinction between the man and his art. Nobody DESERVES to be murdered like he was, but it definitely shouldn't be a surprise when a person lives a life harming others or being directly responsible for the deaths of other people. It seems to me 2Pac was not a person trying to change the world for the better, but more trying to improve his own circumstances by whatever means he felt necessary. Perhaps if he would have lived into maturity, he would have become a better human. We'll never know

This was actually rather nice, but can go on a bit too long.

Why are hip hop albums always so long? I'm not sure he's got THAT much to say that it needs over an hour. It's competent enough I guess, and there are a few good tracks in there (best one: Old School). I preferred the tracks with additional vocals on in general.

2.5 rounded up.

biggie smalls is the illest