Me Against the World

By 1994, Tupac Shakur, age 23, was already a prominent and controversial rapper. His second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., going Platinum, had entered the top 25 on the Billboard 200, and offered two Gold singles, "I Get Around" and "Keep Ya Head Up", both entering the top 15 of the Billboard Hot 100.[4][5] In rapid succession, however, he had become involved in a string of violent encounters.

All for incidents in 1993, Shakur was sentenced to 15 days in jail for assaulting director Allen Hughes while filming Menace II Society, pled guilty to the attempted assault on a rival rapper and saw the charges dropped after he shot two off-duty police officers. Later that year, Shakur and two associates were charged with gang-raping a female fan in Shakur's hotel room, a charge he vehemently denied. In the ensuing trial, Shakur was acquitted of seven felonies, including rape, sodomy and gun charges, but was convicted of two counts of sexual abuse for unwanted touching and was subsequently sentenced to 18 months to 4.5 years in prison. On November 30, 1994 one day before the jury reached their verdict, Shakur was shot and robbed at gunpoint at the lobby of a New York recording studio. He believed the shooting was set up by East Coast associates and collaborators, such as The Notorious B.I.G., Andre Harrell and Sean "Puffy" Combs.

According to Shakur, Me Against the World aimed to show the hip-hop audience his respect for the art form. Shakur purposefully made Me Against the World's lyrics more personal and reflective than previously.[6] This was widely attributed to Shakur's growing maturity and perhaps an effort to reconcile with his troubled past.

Although originally released by Interscope, the album was later released twice by Amaru Entertainment, the label owned by Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur.[7] The album was recorded at ten different studios, and it was mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering by Brian Gardner. Several critics found the album's musical production the best on any of Shakur's albums to date.

Steve "Flash" Juon of RapReviews, scoring the production a perfect 10 of 10, particularly praised "So Many Tears" and "Temptations".[8] Jon Pareles of the New York Times called the production a "fatalistic calm, in a commercial mold", and added that "while 2Pac doesn't sing, other voices do, providing smooth melody".[9] Yet James Bernard of Entertainment Weekly, dissenting, complained that Shakur's "vocals are buried deep in the mix. That's a shame—if they were more in-your-face, the lackluster beats might be less noticeable."[10]

Me Against the World was really to show people that this is an art to me. That I do take it like that. And whatever mistakes I make, I make out of ignorance, not out of disrespect to music or the art. So Me Against the World was deep, reflective. It was like a blues record. It was down-home. It was all my fears, all the things I just couldn’t sleep about. Everybody thought that I was living so well and doing so good that I wanted to explain it. And it took a whole album to get it all out. It’s explaining my lifestyle, who I am, my upbringing and everything. It talks about the streets but talks about it in a different light. There’s a song on there dedicated to mothers, just a song I wrote just for my mother. And it digs deeper like that. I just wanted to do something for all mothers. I’m proud of that song. It affected a lot of people.[6]

— Tupac Shakur

Often depicting the travails of male survival in the ghetto,[11] prominent sentiments include anguish, despair, hopelessness, paranoia, and self-loathing.[12] Such dark tracks, sometimes simultaneously menacing, are "If I Die 2Nite", "Lord Knows", "Outlaw", and "Fuck The World". But there are exceptions. Nostalgic jubilance distinguishes "Old School"—a roster his favorite rap songs, with associated joys, predating his adulthood—while bittersweet optimism occurs in "It Ain't Easy".[8][12] "Can U Get Away" aims to flirtatiously encourage and lure a romantic interest away from her current, abusive relationship. And the track most popular, "Dear Mama", is a reverent ode to his mother.[8][13] Throughout the album, Shakur employs various poetical devices, such as alliteration ("If I Die 2Nite") and paired couplets ("Lord Knows").[8]

Me Against the World debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 210,500 copies in the first week. The album held the top spot for four consecutive weeks.[14] The album also debuted at number one on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, thus giving 2Pac the first number one album on both R&B and Pop charts.[15] While Shakur was in prison, the album overtook Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits as the best-selling album in the United States, a feat which he took pride in.[6] Shakur became the first artist to have a number one album while serving a prison sentence.[16] On December 6, 1995, the album was certified double platinum for sales of over two million copies in the United States.[17] As of September 2011, the album has sold 3,524,567 copies in the United States.[18]

Tupac Shakur's virtual appearance at the annual Coachella Festival (April 15, 2012) led to the album selling 1,000 copies the following week (up by 53% from the previous week).[19]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Chicago Sun-Times	[24]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[25]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[10]
The Guardian	[26]
Los Angeles Times	[27]
Rolling Stone	[28]
Select	4/5[29]
The Source	4/5[30]
The Village Voice	C+[31]

Me Against the World received critical acclaim. In a contemporary review, Cheo H. Coker at Rolling Stone called the album Shakur's best and said it was "by and large a work of pain, anger and burning desperation — [it] is the first time 2Pac has taken the conflicting forces tugging at his psyche head-on".[28] Jon Pareles, writing in The New York Times, called Shakur the "St. Augustine of gangster rap" due to his ambivalence towards the behavior and nature of the gangster lifestyle.[9] In his review for The Source, the leading hip-hop magazine in the United States, Allen Gordon hailed Shakur as an elite lyricist on display on the album, called it "his best work by far" and noted that "any complaints critics and fans alike had about Tupac's last two albums can be put to rest". He particularly praised the production and lyricism of the "incredible" title track, "So Many Tears", "Temptations", "Heavy in the Game", "Dear Mama" and "Old School", but also noted "It Ain't Easy", "If I Die 2Nite" and "Young Niggaz" as "notable" tracks.[32]

"This may be the first hip-hop blues LP," observed Matt Hall in Select. "Not so much in the music, although the harp blasts owe more to Howlin' Wolf than Tupac's previous two solo efforts, but more with Shakur's vocals, which are at once rebellious and resigned ... Me Against the World is a statement of intent, a note from the depths of America, and a fine, thoughtful LP."[29] In The Guardian, critic Caroline Sullivan observed a "surprisingly optimistic" and thoughtful 2Pac on display on the album, deeming it "worth a listen" despite criticizing the presence of "anodyne" beats and predictable samples.[26]

Jaleel Abdul-Adil of the Chicago Sun-Times stated that "2Pac's latest also mixes toughness and tenderness. Desperation follows raw anger on "Fuck the World" and "It Ain't Easy," but most tracks confess frailties beneath the rapper's tough exterior. "Dear Mama" is a tear-jerking tribute to his mother, "Lord Knows" discloses desperate considerations of suicide, and "So Many Tears" ponders a merciless world that wrecks young lives. 2Pac even includes a sorrowful "shout-out" to Robert Sandifer, the Chicago youth whose brief life ended in a brutal shooting. After earlier releases that lacked focus and consistency, 2Pac finally presents a polished project of self-examination and social commentary. It's ironic that it arrives as his sentence begins."[33]

Some reviewers were less impressed. James Bernard from Entertainment Weekly said, "2Pac does the black-man-backed-into-a-corner routine better than just about anyone because that's largely who he is. When he says it's 'me against the world,' there's an urgency that only comes from experience. On record, the rapper-turned-movie icon’s vocals are buried deep in the mix. That’s a shame-if they were more in-your-face, the lackluster beats might be less noticeable."[10] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice said Shakur witlessly exploited fundamental hip hop themes such as persecution while exhibiting an offensive level of self-pity: "His I-love-Mom rings true because Mom was no saint, and his respect for old G's seems genuine, probably because they told him how smart he was. But whether the metaphor be dead homies or suicide threat, the subtext of his persecution complex is his self-regard."[31]

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[47]

Notes

• Additional Vocals on "Lord Knows" performed by Natasha Walker
• Background Vocals on "F*** the World" performed by Shock G
• Background Vocals on "Me Against the World" performed by Puff Johnson
• Background Vocals on "So Many Tears" performed by Thug Life, Digital Underground & Stretch
• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer.
• ^{^[b]} signifies an additional producer.

Sample Credits[47]

• "If I Die 2Nite" contains samples from:
  • "Tonight Is the Night", written by Betty Wright and Willie Clarke, as recorded by Betty Wright.
  • "Tonight", written by Norman Durham, as recorded by Kleeer.
  • "Deep Cover (187)", written by Calvin Broadus, Colin Wolfe, and Andre Young, as recorded by Dr. Dre.
• "Me Against the World" contains samples from:
  • "Walk On By", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, as recorded by Isaac Hayes.
  • "Inside My Love", written by Minnie Riperton, Richard Rudolph, and Leon Ware), as recorded by Minnie Riperton.
• "So Many Tears" contains a sample from "That Girl", written and recorded by Stevie Wonder.
• "Temptations" contains samples from:
  • "Computer Love", written by Roger Troutman, Larry Troutman, and Shirley Murdock, as recorded by Zapp.
  • "Watch Your Nuggets", written by Reggie Noble, George Clinton, Garry Shider, and David Spradley, as recorded by Redman.
• "Young Niggaz" contains an interpolation of "She's Strange", written by Nathan Leftenat, Charles Singleton, Tomi Jenkins, and Larry Blackmon.
• "Dear Mama" contains:
  • a sample from "In All My Wildest Dreams", written and recorded by Joe Sample.
  • an interpolation of "Sadie", written by Joseph B. Jefferson, Bruce Hawes, and Charles Simmons.
• "Can U Get Away" contains an interpolation of "Happy Feelin's", written by Frankie Beverly.
• "Old School" contains samples from:
  • "We Share", written by John Buchanan and Donald Tilery, as recorded by the Soul Searchers.
  • "Dedication", written by Maxwell Nixon, as recorded by Brand Nubian.

Credits for Me Against the World adapted from AllMusic[48]

• List of number-one albums of 1995 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B albums of 1995 (U.S.)

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Me Against the World at AllMusic