“If I get killed, I want people to get every drop,” he said. Shakur, who co-starred with Janet Jackson in the 1993 film Poetic Justice, told Vibe that the interview would be his last. 30, when he was shot five times while being robbed outside a Manhattan recording studio. The rapper has granted only one jailhouse interview, telling Vibe magazine that his “thug life” was finished after several scrapes with the law and a brush with death last Nov. Shakur, 23, and Interscope seem to have made the most of a unique situation, launching the album with a marketing program that was in part shaped by Shakur from prison. 7 this week on the Billboard singles chart, Me Against the World has sold almost 500,000 copies. 1 on Billboard magazine’s weekly sales chart since Interscope Records released the collection three weeks ago. Boosted by the success of “Dear Mama,” which is No. Shakur’s incarceration hasn’t hindered the success of his third solo album, Me Against the World, which has been No. Los Angeles Times, by Jerry Crowe (April 8, 1995) It’s a long, slow grind while 2Pac doesn’t sing, other voices do, providing smooth melody. Dre’s productions others mix viscous bass lines and overlapping vocals like Parliament-Funkadelic. Some songs pick up the slow-rolling bass and the almost casual synthesizer hooks of Dr. The music has a fatalistic calm, in a commercial mold. Where early gangster rap celebrated machismo, elegies have been appearing for the last few years, notably Ice Cube’s 1990 “Dead Homiez.” Me Against the World revolves around memories and mourning. The album will surprise anyone expecting a tough guy’s most savage boasts. The New York Times, by Jon Pareles (April 9, 1995) It’s ironic that it arrives as his sentence begins. “Dear Mama” is a tear-jerking tribute to his mother’ “Lord Knows” discloses desperate considerations of suicide, and “So Many Tears” ponders a merciless world that wrecks young lives. 2Pac even includes a sorrowful “shout-out” to Joey Sandifer, the Chicago teenager whose brief life ended in a brutal shooting.Īfter earlier releases that lacked focus and consistency, 2Pac finally presents a polished project of self-examination and social commentary. Desperation follows raw anger on “Fuck the World” and “It Ain’t Easy,” but most tracks confess frailties beneath the rapper’s tough exterior. B-Ĭhicago Sun-Times, by Jaleel Abdul-Adil (April 9, 1995)ĢPac’s latest also mixes toughness and tenderness. That’s a shame - if they were more in-your-face, the lackluster beats might be less noticeable.
On record, the rapper-turned-movie icon’s vocals are buried deep in the mix. When he says it’s ”me against the world,” there’s an urgency that only comes from experience. Entertainment Weekly, by James Bernard (publication date unknown):ĢPac does the black-man-backed-into-a-corner routine better than just about anyone because that’s largely who he is.
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