FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
2Pac - Me Against the World
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I have not included as many albums…
from the world of Rap and Hip-Hop in Vinyl Corner as I should. I am reminder of 2Pac as, on 16th June, it would have been his fiftieth birthday. A controversial figure for sure, one cannot ignore his immense talent and legacy. Killed at the age of twenty-five, the world wonders how far he could have gone. I want so spend some time with his third studio album, Me Against the World. The title is pretty apt. I would urge people to buy it on vinyl, as it is a remarkable album from a rapper at the top of his game. In terms of the background to the album and the significance of its title, it does make for eye-opening reading:
“By 1994, Tupac Shakur, age 23, was already a prominent and controversial rapper. His second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., going Platinum, had entered the top 25 on the Billboard 200, and offered two Gold singles, "I Get Around" and "Keep Ya Head Up", both entering the top 15 of the Billboard Hot 100. In rapid succession, however, he had become embroiled in one criminal allegation after another.
All for incidents in 1993, Shakur was sentenced to 15 days of jail for assaulting director Allen Hughes while filming Menace II Society, had seen the charges dropped after he shot two off-duty police officers, and was sentenced to 1.5 to 4.5 years in prison for, with two other men, sexually assaulting a woman.
According to Shakur, Me Against the World aimed to show the hip-hop audience his respect for the art form. Shakur purposefully made Me Against the World's lyrics more personal and reflective than previously. This was widely attributed to Shakur's growing maturity and perhaps an effort to reconcile with his troubled past”.
Perhaps his fourth studio album, All Eyez on Me, is a better-regarded album. Released in 1996, it was the final album released whilst 2Pac was alive (the rapper was murdered in September 1996). So Many Tears and Dear Mama are two of my favourite 2Pac songs ever. I love the album as a whole. Maybe the fact 2Pac was dogged by a degree of controversy affected some critics when it came to reviewing Me Against the World. I want to bring in a review before moving on. In their assessment, this is what AllMusic had to say:
“Recorded following his near-fatal shooting in New York, and released while he was in prison, Me Against the World is the point where 2Pac really became a legendary figure. Having stared death in the face and survived, he was a changed man on record, displaying a new confessional bent and a consistent emotional depth. By and large, this isn't the sort of material that made him a gangsta icon; this is 2Pac the soul-baring artist, the foundation of the immense respect he commanded in the hip-hop community. It's his most thematically consistent, least-self-contradicting work, full of genuine reflection about how he's gotten where he is -- and dread of the consequences. Even the more combative tracks ("Me Against the World," "Fuck the World") acknowledge the high-risk life he's living, and pause to wonder how things ever went this far. He battles occasional self-loathing, is haunted by the friends he's already lost to violence, and can't escape the desperate paranoia that his own death isn't far in the future.
These tracks -- most notably "So Many Tears," "Lord Knows," and "Death Around the Corner" -- are all the more powerful in hindsight with the chilling knowledge that he was right. Even romance takes on a new meaning as an escape from the hellish pressure of everyday life ("Temptations," "Can U Get Away"), and when that's not available, getting high or drunk is almost a necessity. He longs for the innocence of childhood ("Young Niggaz," "Old School"), and remembers how quickly it disappeared, yet he still pays loving, clear-eyed tribute to his drug-addicted mother on the touching "Dear Mama." Overall, Me Against the World paints a bleak, nihilistic picture, but there's such an honest, self-revealing quality to it that it can't help conveying a certain hope simply through its humanity. It's the best place to go to understand why 2Pac is so revered; it may not be his definitive album, but it just might be his best”.
If some reviews in 1995 were not wholly positive, since, there is the opinion that Me Against the World is one of 2Pac’s finest works. It is an important and hugely powerful Hip-Hop record that has inspired many other artists. It still sound compelling and utterly engrossing over twenty-five years since it was released.
To show that there was a range of critical opinions upon the release of Me Against the World, this Billboard article brought some of them in when marking twenty years of the album in 2015:
“Twenty years ago today, TupacShakur's landmark third album, Me Against the World, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. On that day -- April 1, 1995 -- the West Coast rapper was behind bars, just weeks into serving his sentence for a sexual abuse conviction (he maintained his innocence until the day he died).
While the album has become a hip-hop classic (many argue it's his best), response to Me Against the World was far more varied when it landed.
Here's what a variety of critics said about Tupac's Me Against the World back in 1995.
Entertainment Weekly, by James Bernard (publication date unknown):
2Pac does the black-man-backed-into-a-corner routine better than just about anyone because that’s largely who he is. When he says it’s ”me against the world,” there’s an urgency that only comes from experience. On record, the rapper-turned-movie icon’s vocals are buried deep in the mix. That’s a shame -- if they were more in-your-face, the lackluster beats might be less noticeable. B-
Chicago Sun-Times, by Jaleel Abdul-Adil (April 9, 1995)
2Pac's latest also mixes toughness and tenderness. Desperation follows raw anger on "Fuck the World" and "It Ain't Easy," but most tracks confess frailties beneath the rapper's tough exterior. "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.
After earlier releases that lacked focus and consistency, 2Pac finally presents a polished project of self-examination and social commentary. It's ironic that it arrives as his sentence begins”.
Los Angeles Times, by Jerry Crowe (April 8, 1995)
Shakur's incarceration hasn't hindered the success of his third solo album, Me Against the World, which has been No. 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. 7 this week on the Billboard singles chart, Me Against the World has sold almost 500,000 copies.
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”.
Before wrapping up, I want to bring in an article published earlier in the year. They highlight two sides of 2Pac. One where he is fearless and hard-hitting; the other where he is poetic and sensitive.
“Refusing to sugarcoat harsh realities
Nearly a quarter of a century later, 2Pac’s death is still one of the most impactful events in hip-hop history – arguably the root cause of the music’s wider paranoia and obsession with death. Me Against The World’s introduction sets the stage for this worldview, featuring a string of news broadcasts that are equal parts truth and fiction, recounting robberies, shootings, court drama, and the media storm that followed. Amid all this chaos and his looming prison sentence, 2Pac started laying the groundwork for the album.
Unafraid to speak his mind
On “Lord Knows” and “So Many Tears,” 2Pac is not the only one experiencing these societal ills – everyone around him is, too. But Me Against The World also reveals 2Pac’s duality: the gun-toting “thug” on “Heavy In The Game” and the street poet who wants to elevate his community and the women in it, as on “Dear Mama” and “It Ain’t Easy.” On the former, he empathizes with the difficulties his mother had raising him, while the latter is more of a nostalgic lament than an angry cry.
2Pac doesn’t shy away from his own inner turmoil, either. He’s shockingly candid about his own depression and pain on “Lord Knows,” while “So Many Tears” sees him understanding how cruel the world can be to other young lives. Set against these high-stakes situations, Dr. Dre’s production is all calm, low-riding bass and smooth synths that complement 2Pac’s flow.
Go and investigate Me Against the World. It is one of the most significant Rap albums ever released. Ahead of the fiftieth birthday of 2Pac, I think there will be a lot of articles published discussing his legacy and what could have been. On Me Against the World, we hear the New York-born rapper in full flight. After all of these years, this remarkable album still…
HITS all of the senses.