Me Against The World
The importance of and, the drama surrounding 2Pac’s third release cannot be overemphasized. Me Against the World along with BIG’s Ready to Die raised a new standard for music by perfecting the notion of the concept album. Me Against the World was recorded following 2Pac’s shooting in New York, ‘the’ alleged rape, his apparent shooting of two off duty police men in the ATL and through the simmerings of the so-called East-Coast/West Coast Beef that was set off during The Source Awards. Me Against the World shows the reflections of an individual who was shot five times and lived to tell the story:
In short, 2Pac’s third solo joint is a classic piece of work from start to finish. The album begins with a mock news report that runs through 2Pac’s trials and tribulations from 1994 to 1995 and then leads into the excellent If I die 2Nite. The album’s eerie ‘I’m ready to go out all guns blazing’ intro is then followed by what can only be described as some excellent poetry that is poured over an array of beats: So Many Tears is without doubt a 2Pac track as it deals with the emotional side of a disturbed man’s psyche without sounding corny or too soft, whilst Lord Knows shows Pac doing some more soul searching.
In true form, Pac also manages to exhibit a myriad of different emotions on Me Against the World. The Grammy Nominated Dear Mama shows a young man’s eternal appreciation to his mother for the sacrifices that she had made to raise him and his siblings. Like Keep your Head up on Strictly for my Niggaz.. Dear Mama is a nice heartfelt track that recognizes some of the beautiful aspects of womanhood and the disproportionate burden that many women are left with when it comes to raising their children - for a change, a ‘chickenhead’ does not embody what is feminine.
As with the two solo albums that preceded Me Against the World and the countless number of albums that followed , Pac includes a ‘Fuck you’ track on Me Against and whereas 2Pacalypse said an F U to Amerikkka (just to avoid any confusion 'Amerikkka' refers to a state within this country that works against freedom, equality and justice for all and NOT 'America') and Strictly for my Niggaz dealt with absent fathers and Dan Quayle – Me Against goes all out on backstabbers, fake friends and the media on the appropriately titled Fuck the World.
In short, this album has too many high points to review and, more importantly like the posthumous Don Killuminati, the mood of the album has to be felt – a review cannot accurately capture this piece of art. I've said this for his previous two albums and the record is definitely not going to change in this review. 'If you don't have this album' - buy it. If you do have it, ok, it's time you placed it in heavy rotation again.