T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. - "The Hate U Give Little Infants F**ks Everybody."

To the group that 2Pac formed in late 1993 with his half-brother Mopreme, Big Syke, Macadoshis, and Rated R, T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. - those infamous words tattooed across ‘Pac’s abdomen - represented a couple of things. It was a state of mind, acquired due to years living in poor, urban communities. It was their experiences that had shaped them into the men they had grown to become. And it supposedly birthed a set of codes which were to respond to the rise of gang violence and drug dealing in their communities. The twenty-six codes are an indication of the kind of leader 2Pac could have been, or at least what he aspired to be. The resulting album, 1994’s Thug Life, Vol. 1, shows shades here and there of the moral reasoning behind these codes, but ultimately it sticks to the literal meaning of the acronym – the victims of an oppressive society eventually emerge and harm everything and everyone in sight, including themselves.

There are some true classics in this album. “Pour Out a Little Liquor” and “How Long Will They Mourn Me” are touching odes to fallen comrades. The former is a solo 2Pac piece; laced with a smooth, lounge room-style funk beat, 2Pac pours libation for his fallen comrades and reveals the pain he goes through lamenting his loss in painstaking (no pun intended) detail:

Drinking on gin, smoking on blunts and it's on
Reminisce about my n****s, that's dead and gone
And now they buried, sometimes my eyes still get blurry
‘Cause I'm losing all my homies and I worry
I got my back against a brick wall, trapped in a circle
Boxing with them suckers ‘til my knuckles turn purple

The latter, “How Long Will They Mourn Me”, is just as good, and this time, the whole gang is in for the ride. Nate Dogg even stops by for the soulful hook, and the slow G-Funk track comprising prominent organs, some pounding bass and an understated wah-wah guitar lends more strength to the rappers’ lyrics of dripping emotion. Macadoshis in particular wails his verse: “We know life's a f*****g trip, and everybody gotta go/But why the f**k it have to be my n***a Kato?” Powerful stuff, I tell you.

Despite the strength of these two songs previously discussed, others deserve an honorable mention. “Bury Me a G” the first track in the album, is a song of Thug Life’s supposed acknowledgement to their lifestyle, complete with an Isley Brothers sample laced with hard-hitting steel drums. “Street Fame” which features an exhilaratingly dark synthesized beat, has the group, sans ‘Pac, striving for ‘hood deification. “Cradle to the Grave” is typical G-Funk; over a whiny synthesizer, solemn bass and faint pianos, the Thug Life members chronicle the predictability of their lives. For ‘Pac in particular, such accounts of ‘hood life results in some unintentionally caricaturized – and hilarious – lyrics:

June sixteenth, nineteen seventy-one:
Mama gave birth to a hell-raising heavenly son
See, the doctor tried to smack me, but I smacked him back
My first words was "Thug for life" and "Papa, pass the MAC."

Speaking of lyrics, naturally 2Pac is the strongest one. I don’t think the other members are necessarily bad, but most of the time, they merely rap about inner-city happenings, with rarely any insight or analysis. For example, “Don’t Get It Twisted” has Mopreme, Macadoshis and Rated R hurling threats of violence. Not even ‘Pac is immune from such generic rhyming, rambling on about survival, violence and sex in “Str8 Ballin’” (A closer listen would reveal that large chunks of this song comprises “I’m Getting Money” from 1997’s posthumous R U Still Down [Remember Me]). And despite chastising people in the ‘hood for violating a number of Thug Life codes condemning snitching in “Pour Out a Little Liquor” (“But since a b***h can't be trusted/Hoes snitched to the police, now my n***a's busted”), he violates some of the codes himself in the same song by drug dealing (“You couldn't stop us, long as I got my glock, f**k the coppers/Hanging on the block, slanging rocks and making profits”). Well, at least we get an idea of the connection between the turbulence of inner-city life and the codes; the other members rarely touch upon it at all.

Oh, almost forgot about the beats – they are tight. The weakest one would have to be “S**t Don’t Stop” which really doesn’t do anything with an “Aqua Boogie” loop and therefore sounds rather monotonous. And even that beat is not bad at all. In fact, there is not one wack beat in this album. Credit the producers such as Johnny “J”, Warren G and Easy Mo Bee for that.

True, Thug Life, Vol. 1 could have been more developed in lyrical content – and it would have been nice to see that in a follow-up. But it was not to be. Tupac got jailed the following year, and the group consequently split up. By the time 2Pac regained his freedom, he was a Death Row soldier, with a new group under his wings (the Outlawz) and had seemingly abandoned the urge to clarify the still-vague concept of T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. Oh well, even though it is technically not a 2Pac solo album, he is the prominent voice in this enterprise. Thus I recommend this to all you 2Pac fanatics out there. The album’s got a few jewels in there, not to mention excellent production and it being mercifully taut, clocking in at only forty-three minutes. Now, if only there had been a Vol. 2...

TRACK LISTING:

1. Bury Me a G
2. Don’t Get It Twisted
3. S**t Don’t Stop
4. Pour Out a Little Liquor
5. Stay True
6. How Long Will They Mourn Me
7. Under Pressure
8. Street Fame
9. Cradle to the Grave
10. Str8 Ballin’

REVIEWS IN MY 2PAC SERIES:

2Pacalypse Now (1991)
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. (1993)
Thug Life, Vol. 1 (1994)
Me Against the World (1995)
All Eyez On Me (1996)
The Don Killuminati: The 7-Day Theory (1996)
R U Still Down? (Remember Me) (1997)
Greatest Hits (1998)
Still I Rise (1999)
Until the End of Time (2001)
Better Dayz (2002)
Tupac: Resurrection Soundtrack (2003)
Loyal to the Game (2004)
'Pac's Life (2006)



Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out