2Pac - Resurrection

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Music reviews of Resurrection

Music Review: Great For Peeps Who Don't Got Pac's Older Work...
Rating: 4 Stars

Track List & Rating

1. Intro (NOT RATED)
2. Ghost (5 Stars)
3. One Day at a Time f/ Outlawz and Eminem (5 Stars)
4. Death around the Corner (3 1/2 Stars)
5. Secretz of War f/ Outlawz (5 Stars)
6. Runnin (Dying to Live) f/ Notorious B.I.G. (5 Stars)
7. Holler If Ya Hear Me (5 Stars)
8. Starin through my Rearview f/ Outlawz (5 Stars)
9. Bury Me a G (4 Stars)
10. Same Song f/ Digital Underground (5 Stars)
11. Panther Power (4 Stars)
12. Str8 Ballin (4 Stars)
13. Rebel of the Underground (3 Stars)
14. The Realist Killaz f/ 50 Cent (3 1/2 Stars)

The 2pac: Ressurection Soundtrack kicks off with a worthless, 5 second "Intro", and is soon goes into "Ghost", which a beautiful track produced by Eminem.

Honestly, Eminem is far from being one of the best producers in the world, but with this track as well as many of the songs on this soundtrack, he excells beyond expectations. Finally Eminem has decided to abandon his Dr. Dre-ish wannabe-production methods and adds new types of melodies to his beats. In fact, every single Eminem produced Pac joint comes out to be some of the best joints that have come out since his death, and that is definetely an accomplishment for Marshall. For this particular posthumous song, Em laces the boards with pounding epic drums and some computerized violin melodies, giving the song a perfect feel for its subject matter and lyricism. Its interesting too, because Eminem manages to perfectly match the tempo of the beat to the acapella lyrics, sounding as if Pac was indeed alive and rapping with Marshall in the studio. This is a beautiful thing and really shows Em's skills as a producer (even though he needs some fine-tuning). Lyrically, Pac delivers with post-humous lyrics about his death, throwing in some political awareness aimed at the police and such.

This track is followed by another beautiful highlight entitled "One Day At a Time". Eminem once again mans the boards for this restructured classic. Its hard to describe this song without using the word classic. Once again, Eminem gives us an experimental beat with pounding drums, a haunting piano melody, and some low hand claps, adding to the feel of the song itself. Production-wise, this is most likely my favorite song on the album, and lyrically, it doesn't falter either. 2pac and the Outlawz drop some well-written verses loaded with social commentary about the mindstate about humans and our tolerance level. 2pac drops some of his finest lyrical mastery, and The Outlawz are actually decent on this joint. But of course, the big surprise comes from Eminem himself rapping on this song. He easily outclasses both The Outlawz and his very own mentor 2pac, as it was expected. Eminem's lyrics beef this song up to classic status, and definetely a GOOD reason to pick this up.

The next "new" remake track is the lead-single, also produced by Eminem entitled "Runnin (Dying to Live)".

The words classic run through this track as it is indeed an incredible listen. This particular track has been "runnin" through the underground since around 1995, and now it is finally seeing the light of day. Ive heard a few versions of this song, including one live version and an acapella, and i must say that the Eminem version is the best. 2pac is joined by the Notorious B.I.G. who rap their street-smart lyrical narratives, each dropping dope rhymes. In my opinion, Biggie actually drops a better verse than Pac, when he says such lines like: "Check it, I grew up a f*ckin screw-up, Got introduced to the game, got a ounce and f*ckin blew up, Choppin rocks overnight... The n*gga Biggie Smalls tryin to turn into the black Frank White, We had to grow dreads to change our description, Two cops is on the milk box missin, Show they toes you know they got stepped on, A fist full of bullets a chest full of Teflon, Run from the police picture that, n*gga I'm too fat, I f*ck around and catch a asthma attack". Production-wise, Eminem takes a page out of Kanye West and Just Blaze's books and uses the sped-up sample for a hook. The sample Eminem chose is perfectly fitting, as he rips the beautiful classic by Edgar Winter entitled "Dying to Live", speeding it up and making it match with the song's subject matter. Besides that, Eminem manages to cleverly insert some interviews from both 2pac and the Notorious B.I.G. sort of bringing us back to that time period when the beef was heavy. This is definetely a nostaligic track and its good to see Pac and Biggie together, even if its 7 years after the situation...

The last new track on the album features hip-hop's new thug with hip-hop older thug. "The Realist Killas" is a collaboration between 50 Cent and 2pac which popped up earlier this year on DJ Whoo Kid's mixtape circuit. On the track, 50 finds time to diss Ja Rule, mocking him for copying 2pac's style. Hilariously enough, 2pac's 8 year old verse is actually BETTER than upstart 50 Cent's verse, which shows exactly how unskilled commercial rap's new phenomenon really is. The only thing this song has going for itself is Pac's excellent lyrics and Red Spyda's dark, thuggish beat.

Besides all of these new, posthumous remakes, the album contains a few older tracks from other 2pac albums. Among all of these tracks, there are two major standouts. The first of these two, is called "Panther Power". This is one of 2pac's earliest recordings, as he focuses on the Black Panther movement and injects his music with politically aware lyrics. The only other place to find this is on the rare Lost Tapes compilation, so its another good reason to buy this soundtrack. The second of the two new tracks is the Digital Underground's "Same Song". This is the first song where 2pac was exposed to the media. This is primarily a guest spot, but its impact in putting Pac out there is a great reason to include it on this soundtrack. Besides its impact, the song is just plain fun as 2pac spits some fresh, dope lyrics: "Now I clown around when I hang around with the Underground, Girls who use to frown, say I'm down, when I come around, Gas me and when they pass me they used to diss me, Harass me, but now they ask me if they can kiss me". These are more reasons to buy this soundtrack.

The 2pac Ressurection Soundtrack is an interesting purchase. To be honest, i enjoyed this a lot more than most posthumous releases. It is a great compilation of a LOT of 2pac's older, early 90s work and a lot of lost songs can be found on here. Besides that, the new tracks by Eminem are more excellent reasons to buy this album as they not only make note of Pac's powerful lyrics, but of Slim's improvement production-wise. This is definetely a good buy for major 2pac fans or for those who dont have any of Pac's older work...

4 Stars

Recommended
Yes

Great To Play While: Driving/Chillin'

Description of Resurrection

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• Music > Styles
• Rap & Hip-Hop
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