There are two types of people when it comes to Pac, so there’s an article below for each of you.  Start HERE if you think 2Pac is one of the greats and start dancing like this when any song of his comes on. For those who just discovered hip-hop, have some vendetta against Pac cause of some West Coast / East Coast shit, or just have bad taste, start THERE.

HERE

Keep Ya Head Up
2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted
Hail Mary
Me Against The World
How Do You Want It
Shed So Many Tears
Hit Em Up
Troublesome ‘96
Life Goes On
Brenda’s Got A Baby
I Ain’t Mad At Cha
I Get Around
California Love
Picture Me Rollin’
How Long Will They Mourn Me
Dear Momma
All About U
To Live And Die in LA

18 of the 25 tracks off Greatest Hits are fire, and I’ sure the other 7 will grow on you.

Welp. That’s the review. Thanks for your time.

THERE

2Pac is a man of many moods. This album is a musical buffet and you can pick and choose what you feel like bumping based on the moment. Feeling melancholy or emo? Shed So Many Tears or To Live and Die in LA make Hawthorne Heights and Evanescence sound like a Bob Ross painting. The lovely thing about 2Pac’s existential anguish is it isn’t rooted in upper, middle class concerns like not getting the right color Audi as a present for surviving 16 rotations around the sun. Pac turns the racial terror, disenfranchisement and economic hardship he sees into something a lot of his black and (at that time) young listeners related to.

For the appreciative you have Dear Momma. For the vengeful and petty, there’s Hit Em Up. The party-going? All About U and California Love. 2Pac is simultaneously the Who’s Who of rap and Rap for Dummies. Where else can you get entry level greatness like this?

So, the next time someone (or probably you) says rap is only about bitches and hoes, introduce them to Greatest Hits. The hope is they’ll take note of 2Pac audioscape, stories of violence, beauty, mental health, contemporary politics and the like. Maybe then they realize hip-hop is merely mostly about bitches and hoes. It’s… complicated.

Knehmo