2PAC - Pac's Life Review

While Nas is proclaiming Hip-Hop is dead, he may be speaking literally. While there are emcees currently in the business alive and well, the late, great Tupac continues to overshadow those who claim to be "the best in the game," from the grave. Tupac's latest release, Pac's Life (Amaru/Interscope) although filled with too many collaborations makes an applaudable effort to recreate the Pac we all once knew. Even the ad libs on several of the tracks attempt to create conversations between Pac and the artists, some of which he actually knew in his lifetime....full text In the 10 years since Tupac Shakur’s unsolved murder fans have hardly had a chance to miss his presence due to the abundance of unfinished and unreleased material left in the vaults. Combined with his mother’s plan to have all of this work released and label execs who see dollar signs this has led to 11 records in since 1996, using a variety of producers and guests, many unexpected. Meanwhile a divide has developed between heads who are still eagerly awaiting any Pac material they can get their hands on, and those who believe all the posthumous releases are doing very little besides tarnishing the legacy of one of the greatest poets ever to embody Hip Hop....full text Wow.

Has it really been a decade since Tupac’s murder? Seems like it was yesterday that I was glued to his “Brenda’s Got a Baby” video and nodding my head to “I Get Around”. Next year, it will be 10 years for the Notorious B.I.G. as well.

Where in the world did the time go? ...full text There's a moment near the end of "Playa Cardz Right (Male)"-- one of 13 "new" songs on Pac's Life-- where Tupac Shakur has a conversation with Ludacris. Luda rose to fame years after Shakur was murdered, and the two probably never met, but there they are on wax, giggling banalities about their friends. It's not a real conversation, of course. Years ago, Tupac was just finishing off a track with a minute or so of adlibs, so Ludacris is just responding to the stuff Pac has already said, putting all his acting skills to work so that it can sound like these two guys were in the same room together at some point....full text