2PacALipsNow
As his first officially released album, "2pacalypse Now", introduced the world to the raw and unpolished talents of Tupac Shakur. Unlike subsequent releases, the anger in this album is focused in one direction and from the beginning track, the aptly titled ‘Young Black Male’ to the last track, the Stevie Wonder inspired ‘Part-time mother – this is an album that does not hold back it’s tongue on the injustices and contradictions of AmeriKKKan life in the Ghetto.
On this album, ‘Pac experiments with several styles ‘Something wicked’ for example borrows the diggy diggy twisted flow that was popularized by Das Efx whilst Souljah’s story is delivered with a level of bass and monotone which is reminiscent of the style adopted by Big Syke. Though not an out and out classic such as ‘Me Against the World’ or ‘The Don Killuminati’, 2Pacalypse now is a worthy addition to any record collection. If anything, the album excellently captures the eclecticness of rap music in the early 1990s. Pac comes to us with the political fierceness of Public Enemy (‘Words of Wisdom) and a young Ice Cube (‘Young Black Male), the Fuck the Police attitude of NWA (Souljah’s story) and the story telling narratives of Slick Rick(Part Time Mother and Trapped). Most importantly, 2pac brings himself to the record through the outstanding ‘Brenda’s got a baby’, the excellent ‘Trapped’ and the playful ‘something wicked’
This album dropped in 1991 during the so-called golden era of hip-hop. Despite coming out when heavy weights such as Public Enemy, NWA, KRS-One, Eric B and Rakim and EPMD (to mention a few) were at the peak of their game, 2pac still shined and produced an album which in 2001 still stands strong. If you doubt what I’m saying, pick up a copy of this album and stick it in your player – 10 years on still banging!