..well I just went though my old script again today and found plenty of typo's and language mistakes, so here u go with a corrected version of the text where I spent much time and effort into. Take your time and enjoy. Tupac in his own words.
Tupac Shakur : “Me Against The World” (1995) Lyric Analysis
My last analysis was strictly about “R U Still Down? (Remember Me)”. A double disc compilation full of collected tracks from a huge time era, systematically comparable with projects like UTEOT and BD. The next chapter in the wide and long road of Tupac’s lyrics turned out to be something different. Although with the ‘95 record release Tupac Shakur himself was AGAIN not able to control and determine the tracklist of yet another of his albums - because he had has been sent to jail - this one is rather an exception to the rule: the album had most likely been well-planned and co-ordinated by Pac personally and his team.
So, as the chronology continues, my lyric analysis took me back to 1995 this time, to Tupac’s “ME AGAINST THE WORLD” era. To a time full of significance in Tupac’s rap career, and also in his development in becoming the heroic figure for millions of young black males and others. To a time where one easily realizes Tupac’s condition, his state of mind - which always has been widely opened for the public - his feelings, his issues.
What w e r e those matters and issues ? I’d like to begin simply with the theme of the album. The THEME of “Me Against The World” is clear: suffering, pain, hopelessness, fear of paranoia, psychological destruction due to the hard terms of life for this man. Now there may be a lot of fans slowly realizing that this t h e m e is not only the theme of “Me Against The World” but also the theme for almost Tupac’s entire life, expressed in every single album he dropped, interview he gave, issue he complained. In “2Pac Alypse Now” it simultaneously may have been more about police brutality and racial injustice which made him sick, in “Thug Life” it was more about the barely-to-bear depression and consequences of his street lifestyle which demanded painful sacrifices and deaths of relatives and friends and which made Tupac suffer.
Anyway, “Me Against The World” appears like the ultimate climax to that all. It always has been stated that this disc as a whole represents Tupac’s “introspective” side. But what does this really mean? If you read though these 15 chapters of MATW you will understand. There are no songs in here expressing nothing. None. In not one single song you do not find any heart-given statements revealed by Pac. So sensitive, so sentimental, so scarry (at some parts). Scarry because of the imagination how a man could take all “his suffering and all the pain” (So Many Tears) ...
Textual Analysis:
There is this song more or less everybody knows - "So Many Tears" appeared to me like probably the m o s t suffering-pain orientated song of all of the 500-to-300 Tupac songs we know. Look at these lines: "I'm barely standin', bout to go to pieces"..."suffered through the years and shed so many tears". In a word: PAIN. Nothing but Pain. Like "So Much Pain, Pt.II". Pac even refers to his poetic style of description when narrating here "I had my mind full of demons tryin to break me , they plantred seeds and they hatched, sparkin the flame.." - magnificient. This whole track has a culminating structure with each verse - Pac is throughout suffering, lamenting, moaning. In manner of a William Shakespeare - whom as we know he was inspired of – this 24-yaer old man succeeds in arousing the reader's emotions; he appeals to the listeners feelings. This can not be 'untouchable’ or 'unaffecting' to any reader/listener.
The next chapter in this emotional and pain-riddled album which easily could have also been titled "So Much pain" is "Lord Knows": Verse 2 "Cause I done suffered so much..", "I done lost too many homies to this motherfuckin game". Listening to the full "Lord Knows", that means to the way it is performed, one is immediately reminded on what Shock G told us in "Thug Angel": "Pac rhymes from the back of his stomach"...Absolutely touching with full energy - this voice in "Lord Knows".....Here, too,
there comes up this one word in your mind: pain.
(Me Against The World, Verse 3): ”When will I finally get to rest from this oppression?" and "Will I Live to see tomorrow?" (It Aint Easy) are also typical Tupac statements and also express his anger and near-resignation. I say "near" since we know the fighter that Tupac was. "I can't give up though Im hopeless" and "After every dark night there's a bright day after that" are archetypical for this (the latter even reminds on "Unconditional Love"). I have come around different people with different opinions about the person Tupac, but one thing I was repeatedly told was "that this man stands for fighting, resistance and not-giving-up no matter what" what also explains and contributes to his immense impact on so many people. And so he does here, titling his own album "Me againt the world", which does not imply a plan to conquer the world as the denotation may suggest but the readiness to overcome all those obstacles (NY shooting, rape-case, crucification by the media..). This deserves respect.
"Lord Knowz" is just one of the songs containing several references to Tupac's usage of drugs "as a way to bein' free". He repeatedly explains "I smoke a blunt to take to pain out, If I wasnt high I’d probably try to blow my brains out"..."Hennessey make a nigga think he strong (even though I kow Im wrong)". The same goes for the chilling "It Ain’t Easy": "I take a shot of Hennessey now I'm strong enough to face the madness" and of course in "Death Around The Corner" : "I hope the Lord will forgive me, I was a G, and gettin' high was a way of being free".
In this context one could go on and on, let me just add one more song here, namely "Outlaw". The whole two verses from Pac have again this typical description of how "hard life is". "Drive-By's", "Murder", "Closed Caskets" are the keywords not only in "Outlaw" but in so many other songs as well. All that evokes this p r e s s u r e Tupac keeps mentioning again and again. "I see death around the corner, the pressure's getting to me"..;"When everyday its another death, with every breath, its a constant threat" ("Lord Knows"). And exactly this leads up to the two fixed things many people always associate Tupac Shakur with: hopelessness & insanity . Simply due to the fact, that it is almost impossible to bear and stand all those depicted circumstances without any psychological consequences: the result of it - (Death Aroud The Corner) "I guess I seen too many murders, the doctor's cant help me"...Am I paranoid ?"..; (Lord Knows, Verse 1) "I'm hopeless"..; (It Aint Easy, Verse 1)"Everybody wanna know if Im insane"..;(It Aint Easy, Verse 2)"Probably Paranoid"..;(Lord Knows, Verse 1)"I'm goin' crazy....I'm loosin' hope)..and so on....All this shows the psychological pressure on Tupac which triggers and conveys a conflicting personality and uncertainties.
Besides all the "Pressure" and "Pain" there are of course also other - even though in a sense also sentimental and introspective - a s p e c ts and t h e m e s in "Me Against the World" which are worth pointing out. We got the sympathetic Tupac in the ever-green "Dear Mama". Here he shows respect and apology to his mother. This song, this ballad is a touching and sympathetic description of his childhood memories. "A poor single mother on welfare..." - Tupac (as so often) reflects time, he is in the role of a sensitive story teller. He claims "there are no words that can express how I feel" but his three verses show bulletproof-love or to put it in his words "unconditional love".
R e f l e c t i n g and ‘Reminiscing’ he also does in "Old School" which is a pure flash-back. A looking-back to his childhood when a lot of rappers influenced him when he was still hungry for a come breakthrough. This song sounds beautiful, finally something nice and positive on the album. [You could go so far as to say he disproves himself from his some time later-followed "Life Goes On" where he says "all I got left are stinkin' memories". No, here he is actually glancing when he thinks back, I guess.
A rather rare style of writing a song Pac does adopt in "Can U Get Away". In a kind of dialogue he expresses his interest and love for that one girl over three slow and mellow verses. It probably looks more like a monoloque since he has the word all alone after the telephone conversation. The story wants it that Pac does n o t succeed in getting the girl, which may very likely imply the possibility (since we all know that Pac described real happenings of his life in his texts) that once he had indeed been bitterly rejected by a girl whom he had obviously true love for. Take all Tupac albums and you will quickly see that this is most likely the most romantic song he ever did for a girl. Nice.
There are more and more interesting and worth-to-be discussed topics in "Me Against The World". One of the very last words off MATW (the outro of "Outlaw") are "I'll Never Die, thug niggas multiply..". If you compare this with his words in Verse 3 of "If I Die 2Nite" "Never Die, I live eternal, who shall I fear?" you cannot deny the fact that "Me Against The World" also symbolizes first attempts of i m m o r t a l i z a t i o n. And this is not only interesting for the equally eternal "alive theorists" but simply remarkable for any objective observer. Something like this is yet untraceable in times of "Thug Life (Vol 1)" when we look back to Pac’s former work.
Analysing Tupac's lyrical achievements in MATW one also has to point out the following: even though it maybe does not occur for the whole album there a r e parts in which one discovers a fine developed and high-leveled rap style on Pac: In "If I Die 2Nite" he spreads and plays with alliterations such as "Polishin' pistols, prepare for battle, pass the pump". He so to speak seems lyrically advanced, he plays with words as if he juggles with balls. Nice.
A few more remarks about the productional side: "Outlaw" appeared to me more impressive than before but I'm of the opinion that for this slowed-down outro track there could have been used a much more solemn and serious refrain, something like a very slow female voice (as it is so often the case in Tupac’s songs). However, it is not. Yet, we get to know those few unknown and very young voices of his posse called "Dramacydal" - who – at that time - would have thought these same dudes would be worldwide adored as Tupac’s closest representatives only a few years later?
"Young Niggaz" in my opinion could have gotten a more slowed down beat. It is namely yet another 'reminiscing’ song' and thus, it would be suitable for it, but of course it’s just right to make some change from predominantly slow songs even on an "introsepective album".
What caught my attention about "It Ain’t Easy" is that although this is the next song in which Tupac tells how hard and hopeless life gets there was not used a too emotional heart-breaking instrumental but rather a quite chilling and unspectacular production. As if Pac tries to take all the pressure with humour and still smiles about it.
And then there are of course those two tracks left which I haven't commented on so far - "Tempations” and "Heavy In The Game" . I know that I’m one of very few Tupac fans who don’t like "Tempations" that much as so many others do. Yet, as a matter of fact it is a party song (on MATW almost the only one). And it continues to being played in clubs all over the world as I just noticed recently a few days ago in the movie “8 Mile” . All the more fascination, however, I feel for "Heavy In The Game". This track could absolutely been also used for an "All Eyez On Me" album. It is probably my favorite track on "Me Against The World". This one comes up more cool, more of a lay low sound than any other on MATW. "Plus with this fame, I got enemies do anything to break me..." - we got fine verses from Pac and Rich (who represents one of the ultra-few cameos on that CD) and the beginning of Verse 3 has been a earwig for me for many years: "I'm just a young black male, cursed since my birth..". Simply tight.
It has been undoubtedly a clever move from producer Tony Pizarro or whoever to put down this intro the way it was. A flood of journalistic reports reveal in how far Tupac already became the media-artist No 1 in 1994/1995. There is this funny and convincing “Meanwhile, in Tupac news,…” It makes clear what a big quantity and intensity his public fame in the USA had reached until that point in time.
With all the copied lyrics in front of me it is kind of hard to quit but also hard to keep going on, one could go into so many more parts and aspects from these texts, such as Verse 3 of "Me Against the World" which abounds in real relevant content but I assume most of you know for yourselves what they are about - and that is some REAL shit. For instance, "Unless we shootin no one notices the youth".."they punish the people thats askin questions, and those that possess, steal from those without possessions, the message I stress, to Make it Stop!.." - they prove and underline Tupac’s role as a leader who represents resistance against injustice and oppression.
"Me Against The World" (the song as well as the album) is in every sense a must have for Tupac fans. It reveals so much. Even though matters and issues are repeated often by Pac, this way they only get more emphasized and stressed. As other original Tupac albums this album-title, too, implies a real message, a well-thought through implication.
I would like to quit with a beautiful part off "Old School". No, it's not the sweet reminiscing on the ice-creams in the hood ("The Ice Cream trucks, remember the...") mentioned in the outro nor is it the surprising early reference to Tha Row in "When Slick Rick was spittin' Lodi Dodi". It’s his permanent reference to his idols of rap at that time: "And through my speakers Queen Latifah and MC Lyte, Listen to Treach and KRS ta get me through the night" - this makes me imagine a ‘lil 'Pac somewhere hanging alone in the middle of the night in the late 80's visualizing himself to become such a big name as well one day. Then, in 1995 he does not refrain from calling out those names he meanwhile has begun to out-sell – he is once again keepin' it real!
© Written by Michael Tomala
Tupac Shakur : “Me Against The World” (1995) Lyric Analysis
My last analysis was strictly about “R U Still Down? (Remember Me)”. A double disc compilation full of collected tracks from a huge time era, systematically comparable with projects like UTEOT and BD. The next chapter in the wide and long road of Tupac’s lyrics turned out to be something different. Although with the ‘95 record release Tupac Shakur himself was AGAIN not able to control and determine the tracklist of yet another of his albums - because he had has been sent to jail - this one is rather an exception to the rule: the album had most likely been well-planned and co-ordinated by Pac personally and his team.
So, as the chronology continues, my lyric analysis took me back to 1995 this time, to Tupac’s “ME AGAINST THE WORLD” era. To a time full of significance in Tupac’s rap career, and also in his development in becoming the heroic figure for millions of young black males and others. To a time where one easily realizes Tupac’s condition, his state of mind - which always has been widely opened for the public - his feelings, his issues.
What w e r e those matters and issues ? I’d like to begin simply with the theme of the album. The THEME of “Me Against The World” is clear: suffering, pain, hopelessness, fear of paranoia, psychological destruction due to the hard terms of life for this man. Now there may be a lot of fans slowly realizing that this t h e m e is not only the theme of “Me Against The World” but also the theme for almost Tupac’s entire life, expressed in every single album he dropped, interview he gave, issue he complained. In “2Pac Alypse Now” it simultaneously may have been more about police brutality and racial injustice which made him sick, in “Thug Life” it was more about the barely-to-bear depression and consequences of his street lifestyle which demanded painful sacrifices and deaths of relatives and friends and which made Tupac suffer.
Anyway, “Me Against The World” appears like the ultimate climax to that all. It always has been stated that this disc as a whole represents Tupac’s “introspective” side. But what does this really mean? If you read though these 15 chapters of MATW you will understand. There are no songs in here expressing nothing. None. In not one single song you do not find any heart-given statements revealed by Pac. So sensitive, so sentimental, so scarry (at some parts). Scarry because of the imagination how a man could take all “his suffering and all the pain” (So Many Tears) ...
Textual Analysis:
There is this song more or less everybody knows - "So Many Tears" appeared to me like probably the m o s t suffering-pain orientated song of all of the 500-to-300 Tupac songs we know. Look at these lines: "I'm barely standin', bout to go to pieces"..."suffered through the years and shed so many tears". In a word: PAIN. Nothing but Pain. Like "So Much Pain, Pt.II". Pac even refers to his poetic style of description when narrating here "I had my mind full of demons tryin to break me , they plantred seeds and they hatched, sparkin the flame.." - magnificient. This whole track has a culminating structure with each verse - Pac is throughout suffering, lamenting, moaning. In manner of a William Shakespeare - whom as we know he was inspired of – this 24-yaer old man succeeds in arousing the reader's emotions; he appeals to the listeners feelings. This can not be 'untouchable’ or 'unaffecting' to any reader/listener.
The next chapter in this emotional and pain-riddled album which easily could have also been titled "So Much pain" is "Lord Knows": Verse 2 "Cause I done suffered so much..", "I done lost too many homies to this motherfuckin game". Listening to the full "Lord Knows", that means to the way it is performed, one is immediately reminded on what Shock G told us in "Thug Angel": "Pac rhymes from the back of his stomach"...Absolutely touching with full energy - this voice in "Lord Knows".....Here, too,
there comes up this one word in your mind: pain.
(Me Against The World, Verse 3): ”When will I finally get to rest from this oppression?" and "Will I Live to see tomorrow?" (It Aint Easy) are also typical Tupac statements and also express his anger and near-resignation. I say "near" since we know the fighter that Tupac was. "I can't give up though Im hopeless" and "After every dark night there's a bright day after that" are archetypical for this (the latter even reminds on "Unconditional Love"). I have come around different people with different opinions about the person Tupac, but one thing I was repeatedly told was "that this man stands for fighting, resistance and not-giving-up no matter what" what also explains and contributes to his immense impact on so many people. And so he does here, titling his own album "Me againt the world", which does not imply a plan to conquer the world as the denotation may suggest but the readiness to overcome all those obstacles (NY shooting, rape-case, crucification by the media..). This deserves respect.
"Lord Knowz" is just one of the songs containing several references to Tupac's usage of drugs "as a way to bein' free". He repeatedly explains "I smoke a blunt to take to pain out, If I wasnt high I’d probably try to blow my brains out"..."Hennessey make a nigga think he strong (even though I kow Im wrong)". The same goes for the chilling "It Ain’t Easy": "I take a shot of Hennessey now I'm strong enough to face the madness" and of course in "Death Around The Corner" : "I hope the Lord will forgive me, I was a G, and gettin' high was a way of being free".
In this context one could go on and on, let me just add one more song here, namely "Outlaw". The whole two verses from Pac have again this typical description of how "hard life is". "Drive-By's", "Murder", "Closed Caskets" are the keywords not only in "Outlaw" but in so many other songs as well. All that evokes this p r e s s u r e Tupac keeps mentioning again and again. "I see death around the corner, the pressure's getting to me"..;"When everyday its another death, with every breath, its a constant threat" ("Lord Knows"). And exactly this leads up to the two fixed things many people always associate Tupac Shakur with: hopelessness & insanity . Simply due to the fact, that it is almost impossible to bear and stand all those depicted circumstances without any psychological consequences: the result of it - (Death Aroud The Corner) "I guess I seen too many murders, the doctor's cant help me"...Am I paranoid ?"..; (Lord Knows, Verse 1) "I'm hopeless"..; (It Aint Easy, Verse 1)"Everybody wanna know if Im insane"..;(It Aint Easy, Verse 2)"Probably Paranoid"..;(Lord Knows, Verse 1)"I'm goin' crazy....I'm loosin' hope)..and so on....All this shows the psychological pressure on Tupac which triggers and conveys a conflicting personality and uncertainties.
Besides all the "Pressure" and "Pain" there are of course also other - even though in a sense also sentimental and introspective - a s p e c ts and t h e m e s in "Me Against the World" which are worth pointing out. We got the sympathetic Tupac in the ever-green "Dear Mama". Here he shows respect and apology to his mother. This song, this ballad is a touching and sympathetic description of his childhood memories. "A poor single mother on welfare..." - Tupac (as so often) reflects time, he is in the role of a sensitive story teller. He claims "there are no words that can express how I feel" but his three verses show bulletproof-love or to put it in his words "unconditional love".
R e f l e c t i n g and ‘Reminiscing’ he also does in "Old School" which is a pure flash-back. A looking-back to his childhood when a lot of rappers influenced him when he was still hungry for a come breakthrough. This song sounds beautiful, finally something nice and positive on the album. [You could go so far as to say he disproves himself from his some time later-followed "Life Goes On" where he says "all I got left are stinkin' memories". No, here he is actually glancing when he thinks back, I guess.
A rather rare style of writing a song Pac does adopt in "Can U Get Away". In a kind of dialogue he expresses his interest and love for that one girl over three slow and mellow verses. It probably looks more like a monoloque since he has the word all alone after the telephone conversation. The story wants it that Pac does n o t succeed in getting the girl, which may very likely imply the possibility (since we all know that Pac described real happenings of his life in his texts) that once he had indeed been bitterly rejected by a girl whom he had obviously true love for. Take all Tupac albums and you will quickly see that this is most likely the most romantic song he ever did for a girl. Nice.
There are more and more interesting and worth-to-be discussed topics in "Me Against The World". One of the very last words off MATW (the outro of "Outlaw") are "I'll Never Die, thug niggas multiply..". If you compare this with his words in Verse 3 of "If I Die 2Nite" "Never Die, I live eternal, who shall I fear?" you cannot deny the fact that "Me Against The World" also symbolizes first attempts of i m m o r t a l i z a t i o n. And this is not only interesting for the equally eternal "alive theorists" but simply remarkable for any objective observer. Something like this is yet untraceable in times of "Thug Life (Vol 1)" when we look back to Pac’s former work.
Analysing Tupac's lyrical achievements in MATW one also has to point out the following: even though it maybe does not occur for the whole album there a r e parts in which one discovers a fine developed and high-leveled rap style on Pac: In "If I Die 2Nite" he spreads and plays with alliterations such as "Polishin' pistols, prepare for battle, pass the pump". He so to speak seems lyrically advanced, he plays with words as if he juggles with balls. Nice.
A few more remarks about the productional side: "Outlaw" appeared to me more impressive than before but I'm of the opinion that for this slowed-down outro track there could have been used a much more solemn and serious refrain, something like a very slow female voice (as it is so often the case in Tupac’s songs). However, it is not. Yet, we get to know those few unknown and very young voices of his posse called "Dramacydal" - who – at that time - would have thought these same dudes would be worldwide adored as Tupac’s closest representatives only a few years later?
"Young Niggaz" in my opinion could have gotten a more slowed down beat. It is namely yet another 'reminiscing’ song' and thus, it would be suitable for it, but of course it’s just right to make some change from predominantly slow songs even on an "introsepective album".
What caught my attention about "It Ain’t Easy" is that although this is the next song in which Tupac tells how hard and hopeless life gets there was not used a too emotional heart-breaking instrumental but rather a quite chilling and unspectacular production. As if Pac tries to take all the pressure with humour and still smiles about it.
And then there are of course those two tracks left which I haven't commented on so far - "Tempations” and "Heavy In The Game" . I know that I’m one of very few Tupac fans who don’t like "Tempations" that much as so many others do. Yet, as a matter of fact it is a party song (on MATW almost the only one). And it continues to being played in clubs all over the world as I just noticed recently a few days ago in the movie “8 Mile” . All the more fascination, however, I feel for "Heavy In The Game". This track could absolutely been also used for an "All Eyez On Me" album. It is probably my favorite track on "Me Against The World". This one comes up more cool, more of a lay low sound than any other on MATW. "Plus with this fame, I got enemies do anything to break me..." - we got fine verses from Pac and Rich (who represents one of the ultra-few cameos on that CD) and the beginning of Verse 3 has been a earwig for me for many years: "I'm just a young black male, cursed since my birth..". Simply tight.
It has been undoubtedly a clever move from producer Tony Pizarro or whoever to put down this intro the way it was. A flood of journalistic reports reveal in how far Tupac already became the media-artist No 1 in 1994/1995. There is this funny and convincing “Meanwhile, in Tupac news,…” It makes clear what a big quantity and intensity his public fame in the USA had reached until that point in time.
With all the copied lyrics in front of me it is kind of hard to quit but also hard to keep going on, one could go into so many more parts and aspects from these texts, such as Verse 3 of "Me Against the World" which abounds in real relevant content but I assume most of you know for yourselves what they are about - and that is some REAL shit. For instance, "Unless we shootin no one notices the youth".."they punish the people thats askin questions, and those that possess, steal from those without possessions, the message I stress, to Make it Stop!.." - they prove and underline Tupac’s role as a leader who represents resistance against injustice and oppression.
"Me Against The World" (the song as well as the album) is in every sense a must have for Tupac fans. It reveals so much. Even though matters and issues are repeated often by Pac, this way they only get more emphasized and stressed. As other original Tupac albums this album-title, too, implies a real message, a well-thought through implication.
I would like to quit with a beautiful part off "Old School". No, it's not the sweet reminiscing on the ice-creams in the hood ("The Ice Cream trucks, remember the...") mentioned in the outro nor is it the surprising early reference to Tha Row in "When Slick Rick was spittin' Lodi Dodi". It’s his permanent reference to his idols of rap at that time: "And through my speakers Queen Latifah and MC Lyte, Listen to Treach and KRS ta get me through the night" - this makes me imagine a ‘lil 'Pac somewhere hanging alone in the middle of the night in the late 80's visualizing himself to become such a big name as well one day. Then, in 1995 he does not refrain from calling out those names he meanwhile has begun to out-sell – he is once again keepin' it real!
© Written by Michael Tomala
