Better Days or BETTER SHIT

[SHOHEI BABA]

Well it had to happen sooner or later. Just like Ric flair ruining his legacy by wrestling horrible matches with his flabby ass and stringy hair at age 52 -pathetic bullshit which was never meant to be - Tupac Shakur's finally "held on too long." Even in death he was putting out fire with "Until the End of Time" - with lyrics touching on issues which even today seem current - rhyme schemes which were adequate and his usual rapid fire flow.

Now this album were obvious filler tracks and the fact Pac wrote songs in like 5 minutes really shows on this album. All the shit tracks that say nothing and are generic are here for you to enjoy - pac rhymes "drug dealer" with "thug nigga" and "enemies" with "hennesy" more times than ever before - and if that doesn't bore you enough - you have great lyricists like Trick Daddy, EDI, and Nutso to rhyme "Shit" with "bitch" and "Suck" with "Fuck" - the shitty part is that pac rushed out songs and laid his vocals 10 years ago when that shit was just starting to get dated - the aforementioned Lyricists of Hot Shit are dropping these vocals as little as a few months ago thinking it was hot.

The engineering is top notch, compression is just right, Eqing is brilliant but since most of you here on the siccness can't tell the difference between a fire engine running into a goat and a well engineered composition - I don't see why you morons would care.
It is a pleasure to listen to on subs since nothing is running into other shit - it has space to breath - excellent.

---

It's a shame all those hours of mixing were spent on HORSE SHIT beats - I heard the goddamn "Block" from the "hip hop drum kit" on the triton throughout the CD, and cash money drum kits, no limit cymbals and analog crashes - what the fuck were they thinking??!@? the sound is dated back to like 1998 poor man's POP - it sounds like a shaquille o'neil album

oh and it wouldn't be a post humous pac album if they didn't bring in some R&B singers and some acoustic guitar soft rock for you to sip martinis to in your big mansion, fresh after listening to barry manilow after you beat your slave to death. WASN'T TUPAC AN URBAN RAPPER?!?!? WHY ARE HIS VOCALS OVER THE "CHEERS" THEME SONG RIP OFFS WITH CHILDREN SINGING IN THE BACKGROUND!??!?!?!

it's clear to me that afeni shakur not only doesn't understand her son's lyrics, but probably falls asleep listening to Quincey Jones and Tina Turner albums and has dreams of her son rocking the Pontiac Silverdome to "HEal the world" with michael jackson masturbating his son on stage...

this album get a rating of 1 out of 8 billion and that's because it was pac - but it's time to let him RIP and move on - you might as well have gotten lil zane for this album because it's bullshit

i'm disgusted

 

[T-Spoon]

nigga, u krazy. that album is shlammin. i agree wit tha drug dealer and thug nigga shit tho, lol. but that album wuz betta than uteot. fold.

 

[southbound]

BABA, it seems like you are blaming this album on 2 pac himself which such statements as "Tupac Shakur's finally "held on too long." Lets all keep in mind that the rapper has been dead for six years and should not be blamed for a proclaimed "terrible" album when its obvious the man had nothing to do with it. I am sure 2 pac did not release this "new" material earlier for a reason.

 

[SHOHEI BABA]

southbound good point, but i was being sarcastic in a good way - i think pac is the greatest of all time and it's insane that after all these years it's finally now he drops wack shit

 

[Gemini]

I must agree with BABBA on the point that Pac should be left to Rest In Peace.

Same with the (so called), "New" material...

To be perfectly honest, the last good Pac album I heard was Makaveli.

 

[XpRidah]

if they woulda kept the songs OG, the way they were meant to be released, without editing them, it would be cool

 

[H. T. B]

His shit is still on point because of the message he gives. But like my man said they should have used the original beats and features. Because I own all 12 of the bootleg Makaveli. And I haven't heard anything tighter in a long time. But Babba he is a influence on many people going through everyday struggles.
So that makes a figga like him hard to forget. So quit being a hater. If your tired of him quit buying or downloading his master pieces, but everyone has an opinion. To me can't to many artist paint a picture like him and I bet a million people would agree with me.

 

[Jose]

Great review! I completley agree with you. Instead of leaving the original collaboraions intact with rappers like Marvelous, Storm, Bad Azz, and Big Syke Afeni/Interscope puts on current mainstream performers like Trick Daddy, Nas, Mya, Tyrese, and Ron Isley. Im not saying he didnt make music with mainstream peole because he did, but they were collaborations HE chose, because they were probably either his friends or he was feeling their music.

This album is more watered down that Still I Rise and UTEOT combined. And I feel you on the filler tracks. They claim this is unreleased material but 3 songs have been released already and 3 others are remixes. Its also painfully obvious that these songs were not the orignal versions, even if i had never heard the booetlegs, i could still tell. the words just dont match the beats.

 

[SHOHEI BABA]

test

 

[MaddDogg]

I gotta disagree. This album is definitely worth hearing. "Still Ballin," "When We Ride on Our Enemies" "Fuck em All" "Changed Man" "Ghetto Star" "Thug Mansion" "My Block Remix" "This Life I Lead" are all excellent songs. I think over all the album was well done with the exceptions of having Trick Daddy and Nas as guest appearences instead of someone who could really tear a track up with him like Yukmouth or Bad Azz or the Dogg Pound etc.

True, they probly shouldnt have changed the beats, but then again, they didnt change the beats on R U Still Down, and look how "tight" that album was (despite the fact I think there was about one good disc of material.) Changin the beats helps in that it updates the sound of his music...if Pac heard the beats people had now and the original beats he used he'd probly want them changed anyways.

And the guitar shit, to me it works well with a lot of songs they used it with. Its great experimentation as well, you don't hear a lot of people using acostics.

As far as Pac's material, Pac was never one to spit absolute flames, he never flipped his rhymes back and forth the way other lyricists like Jay Z and BIG and Eminem can....with Pac its what he says...For example, THIS BLOWS ME AWAY...

"A place to spend my quiet nights, time to unwind
So much pressure in this life of mine, I cry at times
I once contemplated suicide, and woulda tried
But when I held that 9, all I could see was my momma's eyes"-2pac

and this just Blows:

"And no, I ain't perfect -
nobody walkin this earth's surface
is, But girlfriend, work with the kid
I keep you workin at Hermes, Birkin bag
Manolo Blahnik Timbs, aviator lens
600 drops, Hercedes Benz" -Jay Z

Overall, it coulda been better, but its definitely A LOT better than 95% of today's releases. 2pacs lyrics are still classic, as westcoast listeners we know the importance of content, thats one of the staples of this board, and he brings it. The beats were done well. The features were decent...coulda used improvement...but overall I'd give it an 8/10.

 

[MaddDogg]

"Time to question our lifestyle, look how we live
Smokin weed like it ain't no thang, so even kids
wanna try now, they lie down and get ran through
Nobody watched 'em clockin the evil man do
Faced with the demons, addicted to hearin victims screamin
Guess we was evil since birth, product of cursed semens
Cause even our birthdays is cursed days
A born thug in the first place, the worst ways
I'd love to see the block in peace
With no more dealers and crooked cops, the only way to stop the beast
And only we can change
It's up to us to clean up the streets, it ain't the same
Too many murders, too many funerals and too many tears
Just seen another brother buried plus I knew him for years
Passed by his family, but what could I say?
Keep yo' head up and try to keep the faith
And pray for better days"

sorry had 2 do it one more time.

 

[Jose]

The beats were changed for R U Still Down. I have heard the the original version for the title track of that album and the beat and chorus are completely different. That album, just like the rest of his posthumous albums have been redone by new producers, redone, or remixed. You can even look at the credits of the cd insert and it says for certain songs "original production by..."
The main reasons for changing the beats for these new albums is because 1) the majority of 2pac fans have already either heard or own the songs on these albums from the Makaveli bootlegs and probably wont by a new album with these same exact songs and 2)to update 2pacs songs made in '96 to sound more current with the current sound of rap music in 2002.
If 2pac was still alive he probly wouldnt even release all these songs. Some of them were for other peoples album like "Ghetto Star" (Bad Azz first solo), some were from his One Nation compilation with Boot Camp Clik, and the rest could have been songs that didnt make it on All Eyez On Me or Makaveli.

 

[Dankedout]

i was feelin it

 

[BlessDaWizeguy]

it sounds like a shaquille o'neil album

oh and it wouldn't be a post humous pac album if they didn't bring in some R&B singers and some acoustic guitar soft rock for you to sip martinis to in your big mansion, fresh after listening to barry manilow after you beat your slave to death. WASN'T TUPAC AN URBAN RAPPER?!?!? WHY ARE HIS VOCALS OVER THE "CHEERS" THEME SONG RIP OFFS WITH CHILDREN SINGING IN THE BACKGROUND!??!?!?!








LOL!

 

[H. T. B]

@ BLESS THE WIZE GUY

IT'S CALLED VERSATILITY NIGGA! IT'S BETTER TO FLIP IT ON ALL TYPES OF BEATS. DIFFERENT CROWDS RESPECT YOU MORE. BESIDES YOU PLAY OUT IF YOU SPIT TO THE SAME TYPE OF BEATS ON EVERY TRACK AND ALBUM, PLUS THAT MAKES YOU A SIMPLE ARTIST. ***REMEMBER REAL SOPHISTICATED ARTIST WRITE BASED ON SITUATION AND THE MOOD THER IN***. IF YOU ARE YOUR OWN PERSON YOUR STYLES GROW AS YOUR LIFE.