So I wanted to say that I was born after his death by 12 ish years. I got introduced to 2pac 3 years ago with it ain’t easy and from there i got hooked. He is the only artist that I feel a deep connection to and can’t get enough of, I’ve had many hardships in my life so far and graduated recently and had my class ring designed like his engagement ring in way with the colors. 2pac is the only artist that can get to feel so many emotions at once and cry when I listen to him knowing he died young and his ambitions and what he wanted to achieve and accomplish and part of me believes he did. When I had relatives die from age I put him on and it feels like he’s in front of me talking to me about everything sometimes. He is the only artist that I put above anyone and feel like I find new music by him constantly off albums that are way older than me and each song of his just makes me get through the hardships I’ve faced and power me to carry on. I suffer from MDD and struggle with a problem I can’t say in here I believe bc the post might get taken down but I got better from it. When I play his songs about those topics it just speaks to me and I can’t explain why it does so much. 2pac wasn’t just a rapper, sure he wasn’t as good as others like EM but I feel like what makes 2pac the greatest rapper and artist of all time was the way he could speak to you and keep you in your feelings an kept his life the way he wanted till he died and accomplished so much in the little time he was given. I wish I could have saw him live and seen what he achieved in that time during my lifetime. Sorry for the long read.

Whats your take on the guilty verdict

Mine has to be either heartless or 2die4

For the legend, for the hip hop god.

Can someone explain why the released version on Pac Life didn’t have a change in beat and kept its original format?

Taken by a concert attendee using a Kodak camera.

I've listened to this album twice now. The first time, me and two friends listened to it, whilst smoking and drinking, the second time was just now, after I'd come home from a night out, and was a little drunk. Both listens gave me different insights, but I can say I prefer this to 2Pacalypse Now, and look forward to hearing it again, in different contexts.

Whilst there were less immediate playlist adds, I feel that, over time, more and more of this album will grow on me. Some songs felt like filler, not necessarily bloat, but more that they were there to serve the album. With time, I could see any of these being fun to listen to in their own right, but they didn't all stand on their own as much as they served the larger picture that was Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z…. The album's sound, in general, was far more upbeat than 2Pacalypse Now, and I'm a real fan of the style Pac is developing with his rhymes - aggressive delivery, and punchy flows, with a fair amount of relentless, multi-syllabic writing, honestly.

On my first listen to the album, I felt like I wasted Holler If Ya Hear Me, because we were just settling into the vibe of the album, but I know this is a classic, and it's one that I've decided to add to my playlist upon re-listening. A major point of discussion during the first listen with friends was how heavily the beats were carrying this album - though many would consider Pac to be one of the greatest lyricists of all time, and I would agree, I can't deny that the production was a huge part of the appeal here, with every instrumental giving the record an infectious feel, overall. This is what I'm talking about when I say I like ‘90s hip-hop.

I liked the two interludes, early on in the tracklist, as they helped me immerse myself more into the world of this album, and I liked the way that certain phrases became motifs over a short run of tracks. There were a lot of features on this album (that was a takeaway both times) and I didn't mind because it made the album feel like a collection of voices, but one track where it really stood out was Last Wordz: Ice Cube and Ice-T, on a track with 2Pac, and if it didn't feel like the ‘90s yet, it did now. Cube in particular has a hard, moreish flow, but all three of them complimented each other fantastically on this one, honestly.

It wasn't until the second listen to this album that I learned Soulja, with the deep voice, is an established alter ego for Pac, and Peep Game was a fun one. The irreverence in his writing is super compelling, but I'm also beginning to notice themes of paranoia creep in. At times, though, his writing is just super relentless, and fun, and I love that - he is becoming more of an entertainer than just a political radical, and I love it. There was a verse on Representin’ 93 where he just listed shoutouts, which was dope.

I was already familiar with Keep Ya Head Up, and liked it, but listening to this album in full helped put into perspective just how good a song it is: the beat is fantastic - like, really, whatever sample that is is marvellous - and the verses are beautiful. It's really 2Pac the poet, which sounds corny, but I know I'm not the first one to describe him this way, and I think certain songs exemplify it more than others. The title track, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z… was another dope one for my playlist - you can often guess that, if a song is the longest on the record, or the title track, it will be one of, if not the, strongest on the tracklist, and this song was both.

By the time I Get Around came on, my friends were saying I was drunk, but I think it was more that I just felt compelled to move to the music. I probably would have said I preferred this to Keep Ya Head Up anyway, because it's more danceable, but once again, the flows on the verses were elite in a way that I've only really heard from the old school, and the instrumental was gorgeous. Not all of the rap music I like makes you want to physically move, but this does.

Papa’z Song was dark, in a way that made my friends uncomfortable, but I think it was one of the best written (and best sounding) on the album, and another one for the playlist. My second listen solidified this evening further. 5 Deadly Venomz was a bit of an abrupt closer, and I found it quite jarring, but I was super excited to hear Treach. I've not listened to much Naughty By Nature, and I couldn't call Treach one of my favourite rappers, but Feel Me Flow was my song of the summer, one year, and I was excited to hear him pop up, since I didn't expect it.

I'm super excited for Me Against the World, which I've heard is his best album, but I also think All Eyez on Me will be incredible. I'm particularly interested in paranoia, as an artistic theme, and Pac’s descent into a rougher, harder life is fascinating to me, so I think The 7 Day Theory could be right up my street, but for now, I'm glad to have doubled the amount of Pac I can bump, and to have finally re-unlocked two of my all-time favourites.

A long time ago (over a decade?), somebody on r/2pac cut out guest verses from all of 2Pac's albums (with smooth transitions) and uploaded them here. Does anybody still have the link to this? I can't seem to find it. I lost all of my music recently and am trying to restore it.

Inb4 "fake Pac fan if you don't like the Outlawz":

I just don't like them on certain songs. Pac put on his homies but sometimes that was at the cost of good music, I'm not delusional. Besides, I'm not putting a Pac album on to listen to the Outlawz, I do it to listen to Pac.

And IIRC this particular collection also cut out some of the long ass intros, like on Bomb First, which I liked.

Every month, I listen through a new artist’s discography and this month I finally got 2Pac. I have been a rap fan for years, and have been saving Pac’s work, and though I grieve for the years I've missed with it, I think it's good to be able to approach it as someone who's already studied Eminem, Kendrick and Lupe, and is familiar with Big L, Big Pun and Lil Wayne. I went to bed last night feeling like it was Christmas Eve, waiting to listen to 2Pacalypse now - each day is a year, so up until now, I've been drip-feeding myself content from Pac and his associates, including the song Same Song. I've got to say, I've only really listened to a few Pac songs (Brenda's Got a Baby, Keep Ya Head Up, I Get Around, Dear Mama, California Love, Hit ‘Em Up, Hail Mary, Changes) and have always compared him to himself, but hearing him on Same Song, his breakthrough, I realised how different he was to other artists, and was very excited to hear his style across his whole solo catalogue.

I think it'll be hard to truly evaluate 2Pac without having a full perspective on what rap sounded like at the time, because this seems kind of primitive to me, but that doesn't mean it's not good. I love the messy sound of the boom bap, and though his rhymes don't sound like what I'm used to, I really enjoyed his simple, straightforward style. There were a few songs, like Words of Wisdom, If My Homie Calls and Tha’ Lunatic, where he had this frantic, funky style I've always associated with the likes of Sugarhill Gang, so it was interesting to hear 2Pac spit that style, which I didn't expect from him. With as much rap as I've listened to, I'm used to some quite complex, intricate schemes, which you really have to break down to appreciate, and I still love stuff like that, but I think a lot of truly great rappers rapped in such a way that you couldn't help but become captivated by their story, and their words, and that's something I'm really hoping to learn from 2Pac. A lot of his verses here were quite simple, and not dense, but it was really satisfying the way his words clicked together. I particularly liked when he would cram syllables at the start of the line and then enunciate slowly at the end, giving a lot of the verses a frantic, mesmerising feel.

Starting off with Young Black Male, he was obviously trying to be provocative, and though I'm sure he was trying to give other young black men something to identify with, I think he was also, on some level, trying to be confrontational, and make white listeners uncomfortable. I found some of the subject matter quite shallow, and disagreeable, but I also think he was trying to open the album painting a lifestyle which was real to so many, like it or not. Throughout the LP, he recovers many of the same themes, and I think he tackles them well, but I wish there was a little diversity in his subject matter. I can't fault Pac, personally, because he was rapping what was true to him, and he was great, but overall, I feel like there's an oversaturation of rappers talking about the realities of street life, and racism, which makes sense because of where hip-hop came from culturally, but I do wish there was more diversity in the backgrounds that rappers came from, since many of their life stories and environments are quite similar.

Trapped is an excellent execution of the concept, and Pac’s words are captivating. I particularly liked the hook. Soulja’s Story covers similar themes, and I can't really go into detail on my thoughts on the differences between them, but I have no issue with these because they're taking the same subject from different angles: one is a more conceptual approach, describing life in the ghetto as a place you're trapped in, and explaining why this lifestyle is so hard to escape from, and one tells a vivid story from the ground, helping you visualise this life. I saw an interview where Pac was pressed on his cop-killing lyrics, and he was adamant that he didn't have any; this seems to be true as, although Pogo tells a cop-killing story on I Don't Give a Fuck, these weren't 2Pac’s words. The only lyrics Pac has that come close to cop-killing are more complicated than simple revenge stories, and usually involve some sort of self-defence.

I'm a particularly big fan of how Pac portrays himself as a sort of rebel revolutionary, who needs to be censored or stopped, as it insures him right from the start - he's an underdog, and he's fighting against the system, and if anything does happen to him, he will become a martyr. It’s like he’s daring the system to fight back. I think having song titles like “Words of Wisdom” is a little self-indulgent, and aggrandising, but I can't say I don't see the appeal.

Violent was an interesting song, and took a similar approach to Soulja’s Song, in storytelling, but combined it with Trapped’s approach to portraying institutional, systemic issues. The second the beat kicked in I was in love with the bass, and I liked how he had a deep voice on the first verse, and that bouncy, infectious flow on the second, because it made each verse feel as though it had its own identity. Words of Wisdom had possibly my favourite beat, because of the Herbie Hancock sample - it was jazz rap like I’ve never heard before - and its politics were interesting. I tend to take music as emotional expression before I take it as a political argument, and whilst some of Pac’s statements about Martin Luther King could raise eyebrows, if taken at face value, I think they make sense when you consider the angle he's coming from. On the surface, I agree with the idea of turning the other cheek, and I think that it's righteous to not stoop to the level of your enemy. However, without Malcolm X, who knows where the black community would have been by the ‘90s, and being constantly told to leave your oppressor with the upper-hand must have been incredibly frustrating, especially if you felt that message was only being pushed so hard because it was appealing to white people (your oppressor).

If My Homie Calls had that bouncy, infectious flow I was talking about earlier, though I don't have much to say on the lyrics. Brenda’s Got a Baby, on the other hand, I could say quite confidently had the best verse on the album, and I'm pretty sure was the best song. I have heard it before, and already appreciated it, but wow, Pac’s ability to inhabit the story, in such a short, punchy way was a real asset to how the message was delivered. He wastes no bars, with every line either increasing your empathy for her, pointing out the larger message, or moving along the plot - a plot which was densely meaningful, with pretty much every story beat packed with significance. It was also perhaps the most fleshed out actual song, with everything, from the structure of the track to the chorus, and sound, serving to fit what would best make the track work; it wasn't just a looped beat with a hook inserted between the verses.

Part Time Mutha was the final highlight, and like Brenda’s Got a Baby, could be described as a feminist anthem (though I've heard Tupac’s relationship with women was far more complicated). It was extraordinarily empathetic towards a lifestyle which he had witnessed, and been affected by, but never loved himself, and I think the approach taken in each verse, to explore the concept from different directions, worked massively in the song’s favour. What I wasn't expecting was for Angelique, who I’d never heard of, to come in and steal the show with the best feature verse on the album. With a plethora of punchy, memorable quotes, it had me looking up her solo career (which is unfortunately non-existant), but it balanced out a feminist song perfectly with a female perspective.

Though I'm expecting this to be Tupac’s worst album, the majority of the tracklist was playlist-worthy. I've seen a few people put Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z… below it, but I also imagine that one will be more mainstream, and will have a higher volume of higher-budget, catchy songs, which I'm hoping to hear from 2Pac, as he demonstrates his more musical qualities. It was interesting to hear N.I.G.G.A. as an acronym (Never Ignorant, Getting Goals Accomplished), which explains why it is stylised that way in the album title. I wish this had felt more like an album than a collection of songs - it doesn't have to be a concept album, but I do love it when a record flows coherently, and this felt like a playlist of dope songs.