2pacalypse Now [PA] by 2Pac

They call me militant, racist cause I will resist
You wanna censor somethin', ************ censor this!

Tupac Shakur's rookie album, 2Pacalypse Now is a look through the eyes of a young black male. It's also a tale of struggle. The struggle to stay young and rebellious, never giving into society, while also trying to stay humble and do the right thing. It's an awesome look at what Tupac was early on in his music career, because at the end of it, he'd be a different man. 2Pacalypse Now is an album that on it's own doesn't stand out as a classic record that needs to be in your collection. But if you break it down and see what he tried to do, you'd commend the man for trying to make something that he thought would be meaningful and real.

Tupac was either 19 or 20 when the album dropped. And for the most part, he was a young man who was fed up with society. He was fed up with poverty. He was fed up racism. This isn't the same Tupac you would see later who was living on borrowed time. The misogyny that would be prevalent in his later releases hadn't shown up yet. Even though young, angry, and rebellious isn't necessarily the right cocktail for being heard or noticed, Tupac did his best to put out something that says, "There are problems in our society, and I'm not holding back on what I think they are."

Tupac says immediately based on the first song that he's a Young Black Male which is more of an intro than anything else. However, it does set the tone for the rest of the album. The production on this album isn't anything special. It's gloomy and very early 90's generic sounding. Produced mostly by The Underground Railroad, Pac rises above the cheap production and makes his words heard. On Trapped he rhymes about being trapped in a life of unjust society and how it's almost as if his life is a jail cell. Shock G shows up on the hook saying that you can't keep a black man down. He screams I Just Don't Give A **** at those who disagree with him, just like any other 19 year old would. Many people have problems with 2Pac's popularity as an MC, because he didn't have wicked rhymes or superb flow like some of the all time greats. But what he did have was charisma and influence. Pac was leading people without ever saying he was their leader. To be a teenager listening to Tupac's young wisdom was basically being able to be rebellious and street smart, even if you were neither. But you transformed yourself into him and followed him like he was the pied piper.

Whenever people talk down upon Tupac's music as being mindless and irresponsible, his fans use three songs to stand up for him. The argument is that if he can be this thoughtful on one song, he can't be that irresponsible of a person in real life. He's a responsible man pretending to be irresponsible to sell records. Not sure I necessarily believe that, but one of those songs is here and it was his most precious work on this album. "I hear Brenda's Got A Baby, but Brenda's barely got a brain, a damn shame, the girl can hardly spell her name" are the first four lines of Pac's narrative about a young woman who was the product of a two junkie parents and what came out of it. Brenda is any baby who had a baby and shouldn't have been a parent. It's Pac's way of slapping people upside the head saying, "Brenda is a problem that isn't being noticed so wake up people." It ends in haunting fashion with the words, "Prostitute found slain, and Brenda's her name, she's got a baby" with Dave Hollister singing the hook.

On Violent, Pac says that because he speaks his mind, people stereotype him as a violent person.

They claim that I'm violent, just cause I refuse to be silent

If not for the horrid production, it'd be the type of song that you could point to as a blueprint for what Pac stood for early in his career. A little bit of NWA and a little bit of Chuck D.

Stepping away from the serious issues, Pac's If My Homie Calls is a simplistic track about being there for a friend until the end. The production is piano based and uppitty and makes for a fun little single. It steps away from the dark tempo of the album and gives you something of substance but not overly overbearing. Rebel Of The Underground is similar in the freshness of the production, but isn't the same fun.

Part Time Mutha is a jack of Stevie Wonder's Part Time Lover and though it's a creative concept and tries to follow the same storytelling style of Brenda's Got A Baby it comes off as a weak copycat. Where Brenda seems original, the wailing on the hook by the wannabe Luther Vandross singer comes off as corny. And it's the only song in which Pac comes across this way.

If Interscope put a little bit of money behind this release and gave Tupac some strong producers, this could've been a classic rookie release. This was a Tupac Shakur who had a lot to say, but with the cheap and brooding production, it comes off as too generic to be taken seriously. That would soon change, but more so because Tupac would learn how to make better songs, rather than because the production would get tremendously better. By the time the production would get better, he wouldn't have as much to say.