Issue #40: 2Pac – All Eyez on Me

Released:  February 13th, 1996

Recorded:  October 13th – 27th, 1995

Genre:  Hip-Hop, West Coast Hip-Hop, G-funk

Record Label:  Death Row / Interscope

Duration:  132:18

Producers:  Suge Knight, DJ Quik, Dat Nigga Daz, DeVanté, DJ Pooh, Dr, Dre, Lawlay, Bobby “Bobcat” Ervin, Johnny “J,” Mike Mosley, Doug Rasheed, Rick Rock, QD3, 2Pac

Personnel

Track Listing

Singles

Why All Eyez on Me is One of My Favorites

Since Issue #39 covered Biggie’s double album Life After Death, I thought it only appropriate to discuss 2Pac’s similar effort, All Eyez on Me.  As I said of Life After Death, All Eyez on Me is probably better classified as one of my favorite hip-hop albums of the 90’s.  It’s a good, but flawed album, and although I’d listened to a fair bit of Pac before All Eyez, it was All Eyez that clicked on the lightbulb of why endless comparisons were drawn between East and West, more specifically the 2 rappers, and how it all ended both tragically and ironically.

Where to start?  Well, first of all, All Eyez is the more polished album of the two.  It was Pac’s 5th album versus Biggie’s 2nd.  Biggie had a lot of guest spots on the album and so did Pac, but Pac had the Death Row camp behind him for the first time, a tighter knit unit of affiliated performers and thus the record achieved a more consistent sound.  Production is dated but slick and sharp unlike the muddled and flat beats of the East and overall one of All Eyez’s stronger suits.

So much rap from the 90’s is severely lacking from a “musical” standpoint, though All Eyez on Me rises above this to some degree.  It doesn’t always suit me, but I do appreciate the variety, the bassiness, and the more unique rhythmic structures.  More often than not, there’s significant interplay between the bass and percussion and 2Pac’s flow.  There’s a good deal of G-funk influence running through several of the songs; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, though it does provide a good deal of underlying structure and even adds a smidge of melody.  Actually, I’m probably being a little too dismissive of the truly awesome beats here.  “Ambitionz Az a Ridah” is of course one of the sickest ever.  “Can’t C Me,” “When We Ride,” “I Ain’t Mad At Cha,” and “Heartz of Men” are all both catchy and forceful and really play to 2Pac’s strengths.

2Pac has a certain range in his delivery that suggests more emotion than the average (or even above average) rapper.  Far too many rappers have one mode: cocky, confident, even smug.  And while Pac has his share of these moments on All Eyez, he also gets emphatic about certain issues, to the point of anger.  It’s not gang-related retaliatory anger either (well not always anyway), it’s a disgust and contempt for the system that forces this life on certain strata of the population.  Rarer but effective moments include those of genuine positivity (“I Ain’t Mad At Cha,” “Ratha Be Ya Nigga,” “Heavean Ain’t Hard 2 Find”) and bona fide sadness (“Life Goes On”).

A lot of people probably see “I’ll Be Missing You” (the Puffy / Faith Evans tribute to Biggie lifted from The Police) as the pinnacle of emotion in hip-hop, but for me, it’s “Life Goes On.”  It’s an extremely touching reflection on the death and carnage that pervades the “inspiration” behind gangsta rap.  For all the fires that 2Pac fanned (if you really look at the evidence, Pac was much more openly hostile against Bad Boy than vice versa; I tend to believe Suge Knight’s bizarro plan of world domination probably factored into it since Knight essentially had Pac on a chain during the last months of his life (due to the whole prison release/bail arrangement)), he did at least have an exceptional grasp on what this life lead to.  The last few bars of the chorus get me every time: “Rest in peace young nigga, there’s a heaven for a G / be a lie, if I told you that I never thought of death / my nigga, we the last ones left,” as does, “But now ya buried / rest nigga cuz I ain’t worried / eyes blurry sayin’ goodbye at the cemetery. / Though memories fade / I got ya name tatted on my arm so we both ball til my dyin’ days.”  Gang violence has always been a pretty distant thing to me as a middle-class white kid, but there’s something about how “Life Goes On” comes together that really makes me feel for the what a senseless waste of life is occurring, be it incarceration or outright death.

Now that “Life Goes On” is out of my system, I do want to be realistic about most of what’s on All Eyez on Me.  It’s got some poignant and even inspirational moments, but mostly it’s all about “Thug Life,” partying, women, etc.  I do miss the more introspective writing of Me Against the World or 2Pacalypse Now, though I support the increased accessibility.  He doesn’t quite display his previous mastery of lyricism and wordplay here; as such, it’s probably not the best representation of who 2Pac was as an artist, though it is certainly Pac at the apex of being an entertainer.

I don’t want to get too hung up on Pac versus Biggie, but after writing about each artist’s magnum opus back to back, I’ve come to a few conclusions.  (This disregards anything about their personal lives; these assertions are based on their material, not their personalities.)  All Eyez on Me has stronger production values and greater accessibility.  BIG seems to have a greater mastery of lyrics in general and is constantly finding new ways to tell stories.  Pac can really drive home the symbolism when he wants to, but he doesn’t always want to.  However, his flow is expressive while BIG takes a more monotone approach.  The verdict?  I prefer All Eyez on Me, purely because it’s easier to listen to, and perhaps because Pac hits a wider variation in mood and tone.  But that doesn’t mean Pac is a better rapper, and I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to settle the issue without being able to watch both artists evolve.  These albums dropped at different points in their careers, but with both being double albums, both being each rapper’s final proper release, and both dropping within 13 months of each other (Life After Death had originally been scheduled for October of 1996), it’s pretty much impossible not to compare the two when trying to figure out who was better.

Written by The Cubist

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Written by The Cubist

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I collect as much video gaming paraphernalia as I can get my hands on, especially when it comes to hardware. With over 40 systems including oldies like the ColecoVision and Intellivision, obscurities like the CD-i and 3DO, and the latest and greatest including the Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, 3DS, and PS Vita, I get easily overwhelmed. Most of the time you can find me firmly nestled sometime between 1985 and 1995 when it comes to my games of choice, but I’m also having a great time seeing what the 8th generation has to offer.

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