Tupac's Top 10

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Hello millennium sande fans! I’m Igor and I’m really excited to be part of this blog. I was originally supposed to be writing a weekly report on the NBA season, but unfortunately the players and the owners have not come to terms on an agreement yet and the first two weeks of the regular season have been cancelled. Oh the sad time it is for an NBA fan. Since I have no basketball to write about and after reading Cabrock Jones’ article about OutKast’s top 10 songs, I decided to make a list of my favourite Tupac songs.

When I was 14, one of my friends introduced me to hip-hop, and specifically Tupac. We used to jam to his beats all the time back then and ever since I’ve been in love with his music. He’s got a great mix of everything, songs with great lyrics, party songs and beats to chill to. What was unique about him was that these songs were delivered with such charisma and passion. Tupac also addressed many themes about the world and life itself. Anyways, enough of the intro, here are my top 10 Tupac songs, with 5 honourable mentions.

Honourable Mentions (These won’t include best lyrics):

5. Me and My Girlfriend (7 Day Theory)
All I need in this life of sin is me and my gir…gun. One of the best metaphors for a song, and Tupac kills it. This is one of his most sampled songs, most notably used by Jay-z and Eminem.

4. Life Goes On (All Eyez on Me)

This was so hard to exclude from the top ten, almost left me in tears. Tupac wastes no time rapping over a nice soft beat about how his homies have passed away, while his life still goes..or went on. This one always gets to me.

3. Old School (Me Against the World)

A more “old school” beat comes on and Tupac starts rapping about all the old rappers that paved the way for him. This song makes be think of a really happy Pac just enjoying himself and rapping about his idols and the old school way. I wonder why no rappers nowadays pay some respect to the older rappers and make a song similar to this?

2. Keep Ya Head Up (Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.)

I will probably get massive criticism for putting this so low, but I couldn’t move the other songs out of the top ten. This song has some amazing lyrics, really showed what a talent Pac was. The young Tupac raps about how women are being treated poorly by men, but that things will get better one day. Deep shit for a 22 year old.

1. All Eyez on Me (All Eyez on Me)

I don’t have much to say about this song, except just listen to it. The beat is perfect, lyrics great, it’s simply amazing.

The Top Ten

10. Hail Mary (7 Day Theory)

A sick, dark beat combined with some crazy lyrics makes the song legendary. This song got me into the 7 Day Theory album, as I witnessed Tupac’s other persona, Makaveli. Makaveli kills this song and the Outlawz do a much better job than usual.

Best lyrics: “Penitentiaries is packed with promise makers/Never realize the precious time the bitch niggas is wasting/Institutionalized I lived my life a product made to crumble/But too hardened for a smile, we're too crazy to be humble, we balling”

9. Hit ‘em Up (Greatest Hits)

Greatest rap diss ever made. Biggie got destroyed on this track, actually not just Biggie, all of Bad Boy got dissed up and there was nothing they could do about it. Unfortunately, Tupac only has one verse, as the rest was rapped by the Outlawz.

Best lyrics: “First off, fuck your bitch and the click you claim/West side when we ride come equipped with game/You claim to be a player but I fucked your wife/ We bust on Bad Boys n****s fuck for Life”

8. Ambitionz Az a Ridah (All Eyez on Me)

Fresh out of jail Tupac released a double disc album (few consider it the best, I rank it third), that really changed his rap game up. Almost every song on the album is great, but none compare to the first song on the album. I remember my friend putting All Eyez on Me into my JVC 3CD boom box (which hasn’t been used in years) and Ambitionz Az a Ridah coming on. My first thought was oh my goodness….this has got to the best beat ever made. He basically packed all his anger from being in jail into this song, and flowed right though it.

Best lyrics: “To be a soldier, must maintain composure at ease/Though life is complicated, only what you make it to be”

7. Brenda’s Got a Baby (2Pacalypse Now)

To many, this is Tupac’s best song, but I’m more of a fan of his work from Me Against the World until his death. This song is about a 12 year old girl who is pregnant, growing up with a tough life. Unplanned pregnancies have become a popular topic for rappers and this was the song that started it all. Tupac delivers amazing lyrics on a good old school beat and wastes no time getting into it, saying all he has to say in one verse. With this being released as his first single, everyone could tell that a rap legend has entered the game.

Best lyrics: “He left her and she had the baby solo/she had it on the bathroom floor
and didn't know so/She didn't know, what to throw away and what to keep/She wrapped the baby up and threw him in the trash heep”

6. Only God Can Judge Me (All Eyez on Me)

This is one of Tupac’s lyrically great songs, where he raps about his backstabbing homies and how he can’t trust anyone anymore, except God. The second verse where he’s in the hospital recovering from his shootings is amazing and very detailed. The beat in the song is simple, but works well enough and 4-Tay does a good job in the third verse. To this day, the phrase “Only God Can Judge Me” is huge worldwide.

Best lyrics: “I hear the doctor standing over me screamin I can make it/Got a body full of bullet holes layin here naked/Still I, can't breathe, somethings evil in my IV/Cause everytime I breathe, I think they killin me”

5. If I Die 2nite (Me Against the World)

A coward dies a thousand deaths, a solider dies but once…enter beat and enjoy. This song definitely doesn’t get enough respect, because I think Pac goes crazy hard on this track. This might be his best song in terms of word play, especially the way he uses same sounding consonants in certain sections of the song (kind of like what I did there).

Best lyrics: “They say pussy and paper is poetry power and pistols/Plottin on murderin motherfuckers 'fore they get you/Picturin pitiful punk niggaz coppin pleas/Puffin weed as I position myself to clock G's”

4. Blasphemy (7 Day Theory)

This song starts off with a creepy voice, which eventually turns into a woman’s voice, talking about God and Jesus. This is one song where the Tupac conspiracies/relations to the number 7 come from. “As the Lord does return in the coming seven days”, “Tupac don't start that blasphemy in here! Makaveli, the new breed” (he also “killed” Tupac at the beginning of Bomb First and he was “resurrected” as Makaveli). The CD was made in 7 days, he was shot on September 7^th, he survived the shooting for 7 days (died on the 13^th), he went under the alias Makaveli (who faked his death). There are many more hints at this conspiracy which I won’t get into, but you can decide for yourself if he is alive or dead, by doing a simple google search. Anyways, Makaveli talks about God, life in general and this problematic/hellish world we live in, all done on a simple, yet powerful beat. This song is one of my all time favourites, since it’s so deep.

Best lyrics: “Now rule one -- get your cash on, M.O.B./That's Money Over Bitches, cause they breed envy/Now rule two is a hard one, watch for phonies/Keep yo', enemies close n****, watch yo' homies”

3. Fuck the World (Me Against the World)

I woke up and screamed fuck the world! Exactly what was unique about Tupac is that he didn’t care about what others thought, if he had something to say, he’d say it and that’s why Fuck the World is a song that identified him. He raps about how he lives his life, staying away from jail, smoking blunts, drinking liquor, and how he’s been though the hard times too. The beat is amazing, one of my favourites, and Tupac delivers on every verse, only getting better as the song progresses.

Best lyrics: “But don't try to test me out, stall that/Homie this is Thug Life n**** and we all strapped/I been through, Hell and back, and if I, fell black/then it's, back to the corner where we sell crack”

2. Dear Mama (Me Against the World)

Almost every Tupac fan has this song in their top 3 and there is no reason to not do so. This is his most emotional song, rapping about his mother and how she raised him though very tough times. When Tupac was born, his father left him, so all the care was left with his mom and here he’s paying a tribute to her. Even though we all get mad at our moms sometimes, listen to this song and even if you didn’t grow up with a hard life like Tupac’s, you will still want to go hug your mom for always being there for you and caring for you. Over a soft beat, we see Tupac’s exceptional talent as a poet in Dear Mama.

Best lyrics: “There are no words that can express how I feel/You never kept a secret, always stayed real/And I appreciate, how you raised me/And all the extra love that you gave me”

1. Against All Odds (7 Day Theory)

Against All Odds is so significant, since it was Tupac’s and Makaveli’s final song released before he got killed. Makaveli, as he says, raps the truest shit over a great beat. He disses up various rappers for getting involved in his beef with Biggie (which was huge, especially in terms of marketing). The rappers he disses are Mobb Deep (part of the East Coast), Puffy (who Pac believed was part of his NY shooting, as well as for being fake and unoriginal), Dre (for leaving Death Row, and apparently earning to much money for the amount of effort he put in his work), and mostly Nas (who got involved with Pac’s beef with the East, his song “the Message”, which Pac thought was targeted at himself, and Nas ripped some of Tupac’s beats). Each verse is powerful, especially the last one, which destroys Nas completely. Tupac holds nothing back, speaks whatever is in his mind, and has great flow ending off his career with a bang…literally.

Best lyrics: “Lord listen to me, God don't like ugly, It Was Written/Nas, your whole damn style is bitten”