Me Against The World’s introduction sets the stage for this worldview, featuring a string of news broadcasts that are equal parts truth and fiction, recounting robberies, shootings, court drama, and the media storm that followed. Nearly a quarter of a century later, 2Pac’s death is still one of the most impactful events in hip-hop history – arguably the root cause of the music’s wider paranoia and obsession with death. But despite the press labeling his lifestyle (and its harsh consequences) a persona, 2Pac knew better than anyone the realities of thug life, and Me Against The World found him coming to terms with them. Heading straight to No.1 in the US, it also made 2Pac the first star to top the album charts while in prison. Hitting the shelves while he was still in prison, the album helped shift his image from that of gangsta rapper to more of a gangsta poet, setting the stage for 2Pac to become one of the most famous MCs in the world.
Released on March 14, 1995, Me Against The World was 2Pac’s most introspective effort to date.
Listen to Me Against The World on Apple Music and Spotify. While his next two efforts, All Eyez On Me and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (and their respective singles), would raise his profile, it was Me Against The World that transcended the cultural trappings surrounding 90s gangsta rap, making Tupac a cultural force that went beyond hip-hop. Later albums like 2004’s Still Not Gettin' Any… and 2008’s Simple Plan showed off more strengths that were evident from the get-go, including the band’s emphasis on melodic songcraft and frontman Pierre Bouvier’s willingness to show off a more vulnerable side on “Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me?)”, “Save You,” and many other songs that no high school dance should go without.Me Against The World is the album that made 2Pac the artist we know and revere today. Nor have they lost any of the irrepressible energy that fills No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls, the cheekily titled 2002 debut that fueled the band’s swift rise from playing early-afternoon slots on the Vans Warped Tour and gigs opening for Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne, and blink-182 to headlining their own tours in Canada and the U.S. But even as speedy and hook-filled early hits like 2002’s “I’m Just a Kid” gave way to a beefier and more varied sound that drew from alt-rock, emo, and even funk, Simple Plan have retained a snotty sensibility that feels teenaged in the best possible way. One of Canada’s most popular pop-punk bands and the most successful to break out of Quebec, Simple Plan have grown a little bit older and wiser since forming in Montreal in 1999.
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