2Pac Live [PA] [Slipcase]

Performer: 2Pac
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Liner Note Author: Rhonda Baraka. No better than a run-of-the-mill bootleg, and perhaps even worse, the live 2Pac album Death Row released in summer 2004 is a terrible disappointment. Then again, that probably depends on your expectations. By this point, Death Row had become a clearing-house of 2Pac miscellanea: the label had released everything from best-ofs and posthumous double-disc albums to spoken word and remix collections, each release a bit more insubstantial than its predecessor. The previous year's Nu-Mixx Klazzics (2003) was a downright travesty of what a remix album should be -- 2Pac's vocal tracks pasted, as is, over lame backing tracks by Death Row's in-house band -- and just when you would have thought Suge Knight's exploitation of the 2Pac legacy could not get any more blasphemous, along came 2Pac Live. This slickly packaged album is in fact a faceless hodgepodge of spliced-together audience recordings from various club performances by the rapper during his All Eyez on Me heyday. There are some nice liner notes inside from Billboard contributor Rhonda Baraka; unfortunately, her ceremonial rhetoric belies the shoddy nature of the recordings at hand. If you've ever dipped your toe into the sea of bootlegs out there, most of them rock-related, you probably recognize the difference from soundboard and audience recordings -- the former recorded professionally from the soundboard, resulting in a clean, clear sound; the latter recorded amateurishly from the crowd, resulting in a microphone-recorded sound that is anything but clean and clear. Well, these live recordings of 2Pac are all most definitely audience recordings, where the crowd noise and vocals are high in the mix while the straight-from-DAT music is barely audible. Moreover, these recordings are from different shows (undocumented in the liners, though Baraka states that "many of [the songs] were recorded in 1996" and at one point the House of Blues is referenced) yet are spliced together as if this were one complete show -- again, belying the mishmash that this release really is. All of this would be forgivable if the performances were something to behold. But they're not. They're no better than the sound quality -- so poor, in fact, that they actually diminish the 2Pac legacy rather than add to it. If these are representative recordings, sorry to say it, but 2Pac was a sloppy performer. The rapper yells his rhymes with little finesse, and his flow is anything but flowing. But enough dwelling on all the negative aspects of this release. It does have some merit as a curiosity piece: if you've ever wondered what it would have been like to attend a club performance by 2Pac back in the day, here you go. And that's about the only good reason to bother with this release. It's that bad. So bad, in fact, you'd be better off picking up a bootleg recording or downloading random live performances off the Internet. At least those sources wouldn't try to pull your leg like Death Row yet again does here. How much further can Suge discredit his once esteemed label? Ten years after Death Row had been the most influential label in all of rap, it'd become a farce because of increasingly insubstantial releases like this. 2Pac and his many fans deserve better, much better. ~ Jason Birchmeier The 2Pac Live album released in 2004 by the once-mighty, thereafter-farcical Death Row label may not be imaginatively titled, but it's packaged slickly and is indeed comprised of live recordings. The 40-minute album splices together a number of audience recordings from various club performances by 2Pac. The dates and locations of these recordings aren't documented, though it's safe to say they're from the All Eyez on Me era, circa 1996. The spliced-together nature of the album might be a thorn in the side of some listeners, as might the poorly mixed audience recordings and sloppy performances at hand, but there are some curious moments here that 2Pac fanatics might value. In particular, there's a performance of "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" featuring Snoop Dogg, and 2Pac rants about his East Coast archrivals Nas and Mobb Deep in the run-up to a rough reading of "Hit Em Up." 2Pac Live doesn't have too much else of value going for it, but it does fill a gap in the rapper's mostly gapless catalog and thus serves, for better or worse, as the primary showpiece to date of Pac's performance ability. ~ Jason Birchmeier Recorded in 1996, the year of Tupac Shakur's murder, this live set displays the hip-hop legend at the height of his considerable powers. Energy personified, the rapper charges through a set of tried-and-tested tunes ("Ambitionz Az a Ridah") and new tracks of that time ("Tattoo Tears"). 2PAC LIVE shows the artist warts and all, with the set interrupted by a premature "Heartz of Men" (which Shakur declines to perform, saying he hasn't rehearsed it), but the main story here is the loose vitality with which he approaches his material. As the concert hits the climax of "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted," 2Pac pounds out the chorus "Ain't nothin' but a gangsta party" like it's his own version of the National Anthem. Sure enough, these are words that shaped the rap idol's life and death. Recorded in 1996, the year of Tupac Shakur's murder, this live set displays the hip-hop legend at the height of his considerable powers. Energy personified, the rapper charges through a set of tried-and-tested tunes ("Ambitionz Az a Ridah") and new tracks of that time ("Tattoo Tears"). 2PAC LIVE reveals the artist, warts and all, with the set interrupted by a premature "Heartz of Men" (which Shakur declines to perform, saying he hasn't rehearsed it), but the main story here is the loose vitality with which he approaches his material. As the concert hits the climax of "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted," 2Pac pounds out the chorus "Ain't nothin' but a gangsta party" like it's his own version of the National Anthem. Sure enough, these are words that shaped the rap idol's life and death.

Beginning his career in the early 1990s as a member of the Oakland rap-funksters Digital Underground, 2Pac rose to become perhaps the single most controversial figure in rap music, easily equal in popularity and notoriety to Snoop Dogg on the West Coast and sometime rival Notorious B.I.G. out East. Taking his moniker from a South American revolutionary, 2Pac managed to embrace themes of black self-determination and social conscience without dulling the edge of his thug image. Achieving almost unrivalled popularity while alive, 2Pac had a penchant for religious and iconic motifs, ensuring his status as a rap martyr after his murder in 1996.

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