da77yn's Full Review: Still I Rise [Clean] [Edited] [PA] by 2Pac
2Pac s fourth (official) posthumous release was obviously anticipated greatly by Hip-Hop fans worldwide, and in 1999 Interscope & Amaru decided it was time to release yet another album to continue Tupacs legacy, this time jointly titled with Pac s crew The Outlawz. The only reason I decided to buy this album in the first place was because 1) It was the last album I needed to complete my 2pac collection and 2) It was only 6.99. I knew the album wasn t held very high in the eyes of all of my fellow Pac Net fans, but nevertheless I needed to complete the collection, regardless of the quality on which the CD contained. Unfortunately, a lot of the original versions of these tracks had been bootlegged, and now you can pick up a few of the OG s in MP3 from various sources across the web. Most of these tracks remastered or remixes of the originals, like Until the End Of Time where bootlegging proved a big problem in trying to provide the fans and public with something they hadn t heard before. This is the second example, after R U Still Down (Remember Me?) where some of the songs have been changed or updated since 1996. Another feature that the labels have been keen to use is the inclusion of artists that didn t appear on the original versions of the songs, in most cases this has proved disasterous but thankfully the first track Letter To The President (thankfully) doesn t differ much from the original and keeps the original beat produced by QDIII, and is just remastered and updated to suit times of today. Tupac features in a decent amount of the track, joint with The Outlawz and Big Syke, and the beat is a typical hard hitting West Coast synthed-out bassed up banger, where Pac addresses Mr. Clinton with issues of how blacks are still treated under his government and how he didn t live up to the promises he made to improve life in the black communities, something which Mr. Dubya still hasn t done The title track Still I Rise keeps to the original beat too, produced by Jonny J. Shakur delivers a decent enough opening verse, where again he criticizes his father (Sound like Eminem and his mother anyone?) on not being there for him and using his moms. (Nothing beats Part Time Mutha or Papa z Song in parental criticism). The first single taken from the album Baby Don t Cry (Keep Ya Head Up 2), easily the highlight on the album, it features just enough Tupac to keep me interested but what it does is show Tupac at his finest, at his most inspirational, optimistic, and spiritually uplifting, whilst nothing may rival Keep Ya Head Up in that department, ALL members of The Outlawz deliver their best verses in this one track. As The World Turns delivers a nice enough beat, Pac s first verse is typically nihilistic (Why are they always the openers???), unfortunately the track is spoiled by an awful chorus and mediocre raps from The Lawz. The best production in the album comes in the form of Black Jesuz, apparently co-produced by the big man himself. Fortunately the Outlawz verses aren t that bad, and fortunately there s TWO, yes TWO Tupac verses in the track, what a treat. Tupac dominates the track and his lyrics and commanding voice overwhelm the other members and gives you a clear reason that they were in two different leagues, and still are. Next up the second best track on the album, the perfectly old skool styled Homeboyz , produced by Daz, and even better, there is only ONE Outlawz verse which is pretty good too courtesy of Young Noble, and the rest is pure Pac baby, this track totally f-ckin slams. Hell 4 A Hustler features a decent enough beat and a couple of aggressive verses dropped by Makaveli, but still, The Outlawz verses are lacklustre and too abundant. The rest of the tracks are pretty much forgettable apart from the Tupac verses which is basically why the album came my way. The Good Die Young offers a little bit of hope near the end, "This is just a little somethin to help you through". He tells us. Pac even gives a shout out to the Oklahoma bomb victims and Young Noble does the same with the Columbine High victims, Noble gets alot respect in my book for that. Typical 2Pac, conveying positive yet cautious messages. Songs like this are the reason you should be a Tupac fan, if you're not then why the f-ck else do you like him? The beats? The R&B hooks? Granted, the album is titled 2PAC & OUTLAWZ , I feel that each could have had a fair share of the album, like the title should represent. Instead on some tracks, which usually turn out to be the best, we get 50% plus Tupac, but the rest only contain an opening verse and one doesn't even contain Tupac at all. Instead you end up getting 75% Outlawz, 25% Tupac. Buy this album only if you must, if you need to complete your collection, or buy it for the Tupac, but unfortunately even that isn t enough to spend your money on. (Unless you get it cheap like me).
Production: D. There are a few good beats, but there s nothing original here. Out of 15 tracks the pluses are far outweighed by the minus .
Lyricism: C. It only rates this high because of the Tupac it contains. The Outlawz show the odd good moments but for good 2PAC & OUTLAWZ tracks you d be better checking out The Don Killuminati .
Total: D+. Buy this album only for the reasons stated at the end of the review, if you re looking for better Tupac & Outlawz moments check out the other reviews.
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