Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. [PA]

Performer: 2Pac
Artist: Ice Cube; Ice-T; Live Squad; Deadly Threat; Treach; Apache; Digital Underground; D.J. Fuze; Shock G; Money B; Stretch
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: 2Pac (rap vocals); Poppi, Treach, Apache, Ice Cube, Ice-T, Deadly Threat, The Black Angels, Live Squad, Wycked (vocals); Stan Franks (guitar); The Piano Man (keyboards); D.J. Fuze (programming); Pacific Heights, Shockalock, Money-B (background vocals). Producers include: Tupac Shakur, Stretch, The Underground Railroad, Big D The Impossible, Bobby "Bobcat" Ervin. Engineers: Darrin Harris, Mike Calderon, Bob Morse. Recorded at Starlight Sound, Richmond, California, Echo Sound Studio, Los Angeles, California and Unique Recording Studio, New York. Personnel: 2Pac (vocals); Black Angel, Live Squad, Shockalock, Money-B (vocals); Stan Franks (guitar); The Piano-Man (keyboards); DJ Fuze (drums); Pacific Heights (background vocals). Audio Remixer: Lea Reis. Recording information: Echo Sound Studio, Los Angeles, CA; Starlight Sound Studio, Richmond, CA; Starlight Sound, Richmond, CA; Unique Recording Studio, New York, NY; Unique Recording Studiom, New York, NY. Photographer: Jeffery Newbury. Although Tupac Shakur had already released one solo album after leaving Digital Underground, it was 1993's STRICTLY 4 MY N.I.G.G.A.Z. that cemented his place in the hip-hop universe. A more musically diverse and lyrically heavy album than 2PACALYPSE NOW, this set included some of Tupac's sharpest writing yet. In particular, the singles "Papa'z Song" and "Keep Ya Head Up" were early proof of the rapper's more sensitive and thoughtful side, while "Souljah's Revenge" and "Point The Finga" addressed the state of the hip-hop nation in the wake of the anti-gangsta controversies of the previous three years. Musically, the album is of a piece with the stripped-down retro-funk style that Dr. Dre was turning into the dominant sound of West Coast hip-hop, although there's one throwback to Digital Underground's loopy playfulness on the party track "I Get Around."

The Source (4/93, pp.69-70) - 3.5 Stars - Good Plus - "...a combination of '60s black political thought and '90s urban reality, 2Pac is not afraid to speak his mind....balances the gangsta tendencies of street life with insightful revelations..." Melody Maker (5/1/93, p.34) - "...[on STRICTLY] 2Pac drops rhymes that drip with the sweat of hardcore funk....this is an adventure into life on the streets of America..."

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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