The irony is that even though 2Pac may be known best for the trash talking he did in the spotlight and on rap records, his roots as a scholar poet and intellectual (which inspired coutnless other freelance writers) gave him far more to offer the rap world than “Thug Life.” While later albums such as Death Row’s “All Eyez On Me” exploited the controversy surrounding his life for profit, this Interscope offering is Shakur at his very best – a pure unfiltered look at his life through the carefully balanced dichotomoy of sensitivity vs. The power is in the people and politics we address”ĭoesn’t seem to reflect the image that the media cultivated for Tupac Shakur as a thoughtless violent thug, does it? He never was.

The message I stress, to make you stop study your lessonsĭon’t settle for less – even the genius askses questionsīe grateful for blessings, don’t ever change keep your essence

Through this suppression, they punish the people that’s askin questionsĪnd those that posess, steal from the ones without posessions

“With all this extra stressin the question I wonder is after deathĪfter my last breath, when will I finally get to rest? The title of “Me Against the World” itself suggests a man who is unafraid to pursue his vision despite being persecuted, and the title track of the same name reflects that lyrically: This album, perhaps more than any other in his entire career, reflects the maturity of Shakur’s vision and his potentcy as a rap artist. In a post-mortem world of ‘Pac, we’ve all become sadly familiar with music videos that at best only feature still shots of the slain rapper or outtakes of home videos shot at the studio or in concert. The eeriley foreboding thing about this album is that the videos for “Dear Mama” and “Temptations” were both filmed without him, due to his conviction and incarceration on trumped up charges not worth recounting. The 1995 release of “Me Against the World” fell squarely in the middle of all these definitions and a few not even mentioned.

All of these things define the man and the myth of Tupac ‘2Pac’ Shakur, the rapper whose egotistical brashness, charismatic voice and sharp lyrics (ranging from incisive to nihilistic) made him large in life and even larger in death. A martyr to hip-hop music and culture? Most definitely. Activist? He was never afraid to speak out. Controversial? From the day he first appeared as a soloist, it swirled around him like a hurricane.

Me against the world album genius