When it comes to introspection, hip-hop has a reputation for morbidity, and 2Pac certainly furthered that, but his refusal to sugarcoat the harsh realities of urban life was part of his appeal.Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs. Amid all this chaos and his looming prison sentence, 2Pac started laying the groundwork for the album.Ī morbid preoccupation with his own demise is expressed most explicitly on two tracks that more or less bookend the album, “If I Die 2Nite” and “Death Around the Corner.” Both songs present Pac’s fear of death as a persistent, gripping force that looms over every lyric, a fatalistic reality that can only be dealt with an ambivalent approach to mortality. 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. 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.

But despite the press labeling his lifestyle (and its harsh consequences) a persona, 2Pac knew better than anyone the realities of thug life, and Me Against The World found him coming to terms with them. Heading straight to No.1 in the US, it also made 2Pac the first star to top the album charts while in prison. Hitting the shelves while he was still in prison, the album helped shift his image from that of gangsta rapper to more of a gangsta poet, setting the stage for 2Pac to become one of the most famous MCs in the world. Released on March 14, 1995, Me Against The World was 2Pac’s most introspective effort to date.

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