Asif Khan Inc.

All Eyez on Me – 2Pac

The nigga brotha was out on the loose again. And this time around, he had got his thug side rollin’. Everything that showed the opulence of big pimped up cars, flashy cribs, the righteousness of arms possession, run-ins with the law, drug abuse, them booties and hoes, and life on the streets – yes, the soul squeezing days of socio-political commentary were probably behind him. But then maybe, just maybe, this is what judicial detention does to you. The brotha knew that all eyes were on him. What he probably didn’t know was that he had also caught the fancy of eyes looking down at him from the skies above.

Tupac Shakur, one of the biggest names ever in the history of Hip Hop music, was released in January 1996 after being incarcerated and serving a jail term for sexual assault following help from Suge Knight of Death Row Records in exchange for a three album record contract. Recorded in just two weeks after his release, ‘All Eyez on Me’ achieved a level of stupendous success and receptivity which is absolutely incomparable, and stamped the mark of a legacy which 2Pac was to leave behind following his death in a shootout barely 7 months later.

Listening to this double album packed with the energy of a herd of mammoth elephants on rampage and a groove which could set the orbital motion of celestial bodies in overdrive, you still do tend to have that overbearing sense of feeling the prophetic nature of the material. That is if you can look beyond a tightly wound G-Funk sound, reverberating to thick drawling bass grooves and heavily layered melodies clicked shut in a strongbox – which though should be considered a sin, but you just might be pardoned as long as you enjoyed the music, even if you did not ‘see’ it. Whether it’s 2 Pac extolling you to ‘Shake it, Shake it Baby’ along with Dr. Dre on the sample and synth heavy ‘California Love’, the seductive booty shaking beats of ‘Thug Passion’ backed by wet lipped female vocals, the funky George Clinton assisted ‘Can’t C Me’, or even the smart ass attitude displayed in cahoots with Snoop Dogg on ‘2 of Americaz Most Wanted’. But its not all bling thuggery – behind that façade 2Pac’s torment flow underneath, which becomes visible when he says ‘they wonder how I live, with five shots / niggaz is hard to kill, on my block’. What shakes you though, is the dark lyrics on ‘Only God Can Judge Me’ as he puts the happening of his recent life in verse, and when he mockingly plays around with Big Syke and Kurupt on ‘Check Out Time’ as though he had a premonition of the days ahead but gave a damn, a feeling most potently put in the most succinct manner on ‘Life Goes On’ – How many brothas fell victims to tha streetz / Rest in peace Nigga, there’s a Heaven for a G.