Tupac Shakur is one gutsy brother. Or maybe two. The front-page Shakur is a punk, a convicted sexual felon and a fool, a hard case on a collision course with authority, a hot-head who checks himself out of the hospital hours after being shot five times and gives a stretcher-borne finger to the media. The record-making 2Pac who inhabits the recording studio, however, is a sensitive, wise and loving commentator, a straight-up observer of life and death whose measured, melodic flow gives his pained lyrics searing eloquence. In one of the many ironies that attends Shakur's existence, while the man is on his way to prison, his album is headed to the charts. Shot through the heart with grim reality and fatalism, set atop smooth, seductive atmospheres of gently rolling funk and soul, "Me Against the World" is the hip-hop album to beat in 1995. There's nothing unusual about reformed tough guys offering don't-follow-my-mistakes advice, but 2Pac cedes none of his gangsta hardness in telling young listeners not to join him in the thug life. "You could be an accountant, not a dope dealer... you could be a lawyer," he suggests, and he sounds serious. Such contradictions have always accompanied the tumult of 2Pac's combined life and art, but never before has the dichotomy been drawn in such sharp relief. The rapper-actor's fourth album begins with news dispatches about his November brushes with justice and violence, but 2Pac's obsession is evidently death, not spinning his public image. "If I Die 2 Nite," "Me Against the World" and "Death Around the Corner" ambivalently present death as everything from a fact of life to a desirable end. "I'm having visions of leaving in a hearse," he raps in "So Many Tears." "I'm suicidal / So don't stand near me / My every move is a calculated step / To bring me closer to an early death." Listen to the album, cont'd below...
Rather than an album of attempts at vindication, "Temptation" is the only song here that actually addresses the issues surrounding his sexual abuse conviction. Explaining the context of his love life, 2Pac comes off as patient and beleaguered, careful not to impose himself on a woman in the way the jury believed he did. Furthering the surprisingly positive message amid the prevailing gloom, "Dear Mama" is a tragic, tender expression of gratitude and forgiveness -- for Tupac, and for his troubled mother, Afeni Shakur. "Even as a crack fiend, mama, you always was the black queen / Mama, I finally understand for a woman it ain't easy trying to raise a man / You always was committed / A poor single mother on welfare / Tell me how you did it / There's no way I can pay you back / But the plan is to show you that I understand / You are appreciated." Likewise, 2Pac's ebullient tribute to "Old School" rap comes to terms with the past in a way that makes the future seem like an afterthought. If there's any way to separate the musician's reality from its creative translation, "Me Against the World" is one of the saddest and most affecting expositions on young black America ever offered for public display. Tupac Shakur makes the line between art and life impossible to discern, but both have the potential to leave an indelible impression. - Newsday (3/95)
