He battles occasional self-loathing, is haunted by the friends he's already lost to violence, and can't escape the desperate paranoia that his own death isn't far in the future. Even the more combative tracks ('Me Against the World,' 'Fuck the World') acknowledge the high-risk life he's living, and pause to wonder how things ever went this far. It's his most thematically consistent, least-self-contradicting work, full of genuine reflection about how he's gotten where he is - and dread of the consequences.

By and large, this isn't the sort of material that made him a gangsta icon this is 2Pac the soul-baring artist, the foundation of the immense respect he commanded in the hip-hop community. Having stared death in the face and survived, he was a changed man on record, displaying a new confessional bent and a consistent emotional depth. Recorded following his near-fatal shooting in New York, and released while he was in prison, Me Against the World is the point where 2Pac really became a legendary figure.

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