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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, All Eyez on Me - Review﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿2Pac Shakur, ﻿<i﻿>﻿All Eyez on Me﻿</i>﻿ 

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by Ashkan Hashemi﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, May - June 1996﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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In case you missed it the first time, the liner notes on 2Pac's double album "All Eyez on Me" contain four shots of a massive tattoo covering the 2Pac's entire stomach reading "Thug Life." The liner notes themselves read like a who's who of gangsta funk. Represented here are Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Kurupt and Dat Nigga Daz from Tha Dogg Pound, Nate Dogg, Sam Sneed...the list goes on. "All Eyez on Me" marks 2Pac's recording debut with the West-Coast g-funk institution, Death Row Records. "Thug Life" and "Death Row Records" tell you pretty much all you need to know about the contents of the album: predictable lyrics recounting the gangsta lifestyle set to some of the funkiest beats and samples around. 

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As Laura Jamison points out in Rolling Stone magazine, "what made 2Pac interesting in the past was his contradictory nature." He would simultaneously lay down some of the most woman-positive raps and the same old "bitches and hos" shit. His association with the Death Row posse has straightened out those contradictions on "All Eyez on Me," Tupac is reincarnated as a straight-up thug and playa. 

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Lyrically, 2Pac faithfully reproduces the cartoonish machismo of the gangsta lifestyle, complete with songs about making money ("Picture Me Rollin'"), taking out your enemies ("Heartz of Men"), the dangers of street-life ("Tradin War Stories"), partying and getting laid (almost every song), and so on. Except for some rapping on "Run Tha Streetz" by female rapper C-Bo ("I could never be the type to wait alone at home/ Just 'cause we bone don't mean you own me") and the convoluted "Wonda Why They Call You Bitch'), "All Eyez on Me" provides no antidote to the overt sexism of songs such as "All About You" and "Skandalouz." 

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The flip-side of 2Pac's association with Death Row Records is that musically, his product has improved by leaps and bounds. The entire album benefits immensely from Dr. Dre's production wizardry, with bomb-ass beats, clever samples, and funky bridges and choruses throughout. 

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The verdict: if you're looking for an uplifting political message, run a mile away from "All Eyez on Me." Go listen to your Consolidated album. If you can get beyond the banal and at times offensive lyrics, then this album is all good. 

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