2Pac Album: «R U Still Down (Clean)»

- Customers rating: (4.4 of 5)
- Title:R U Still Down (Clean)
- Release date:1997-12-16
- Type:Audio CD
- Label:Jive
- UPC:012414163028
- 1 - 1 Redemptionimg 1:49
- 1 - 2 Open Fireimg 2:53
- 1 - 3 R U Still Down? (Remember Me)img 4:08
- 1 - 4 Hellrazorimg 4:16
- 1 - 5 Thug Styleimg 4:16
- 1 - 6 Where Do We Go from Here (Interlude)img 4:29
- 1 - 7 I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghettoimg 4:53
- 1 - 8 Nothing to Loseimg 3:40
- 1 - 9 I'm Gettin' Moneyimg 3:32
- 1 - 10 Lie to Kick Itimg 3:38
- 1 - 11F**k All Y'all (Explicit)
- 1 - 12 Let Them Thangs Goimg 3:34
- 1 - 13Definition Of A Thug N**ga (Explicit)
- 2 - 1 Ready 4 Whateverimg 4:06
- 2 - 2 When I Get Free J Valentine, 2Pac and J. Valentineimg 4:47
- 2 - 3 Hold On Be Strongimg 4:11
- 2 - 4 I'm Losin' Itimg 3:56
- 2 - 5Fake A** B*****s
- 2 - 6 Do for Loveimg 4:42
- 2 - 7 Enemies with Meimg 4:16
- 2 - 8 Nothin' but Loveimg 4:27
- 2 - 9 16 on Death Rowimg 5:40
- 2 - 10I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto (Hip-Hop Version)
- 2 - 11 When I Get Free IIimg 3:23
- 2 - 12 Black Starry Night (Interlude)img 0:49
- 2 - 13 Only Fear of Deathimg 5:10
I am a diehard Tupac fan, and I love anything he does, but this album is my second favorite of his behind Me Agaisnt the World. It's got a lot of different Pac on here, different moods, some early stuff from him and new stuff. But I'mma keep it real, if you don't like Pac then you probly won't like this, but if you don't like Pac then shouldn't even be reading this. But if you liked All Eyez On Me, you gon like this album 10 times better. Peace
First off, I want to know why ...so many rap fans hated this album. I've had this CD for ages and I enjoy it heaps (but it did take me a long time!)
To be honest, I haven't been a 2pac fan since his younger days but I quickly grew into his music when 'Me Against the World' was released. Many people are familiar with 2pac when he was with Deathrow but this is some old stuff created back even before '2pacalypse Now' was released.
Both CDs are generally good, though I like CD2 a bit better. Some great songs on this CD are: Nothing to Lose, I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto, R U Still Down, Hellrazor, Lie to Kick It, When I Get Free, Hold On Be Strong, ..., Do for Love, Nothin But Love, When I Get Free II and Only Fear of Death.
2pac released 2 songs from this CD (I think), I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto and Do for Love. Great tracks to listen to but could have been worked on some more. Some tracks I reckon he should have released are Only Fear of Death and Nothing to Lose.
You won't find 2pac's thug style on here but you will find some pretty heavy, old stuff on here. Generally, I would recommend this CD to true 2pac fans. It's a great album but would take a long time to like.
I'm surprised how this album has been accepted. Lets not get carried away with "his legacy" and his tragic death and all the controversy surrounding 2Pac. Everybody already knows about all that.
R U Still Down is my favorite album by 2Pac. Makaveli and All Eyez are both 5 stars to me, but R U Still Down is more raw. Especially as far as the production is concerned. A lot of people are apparently disappointed by the production on this album. I find it to have a sense of being more genuine, and more fitting than the other posthumous releases. This is probably since Pac actually had some input on creating these tracks. Overall, the sound of the album (and individual tracks) is more whole. Listening to R U Still Down helps to show how much of a project Makaveli and All Eyez On Me were. Those two albums were obviously much more orchestrated and calculated, and designed to provoke in every way. They were much more surgical and precise.
R U Still Down, however, is just straight hip-hop. There's scratching on here! There's no name dropping, or disses aimed at specific people. Just general expression of different emotions. Instead of a song about Tipper Gore or Bad Boy (for example) specificly, you get the more general (and undated) song about the struggles in general with government oppression or social commentary or anger or whatever. This is technically easier for a listener to relate to, since hardly any of us actually know Tipper Gore or Puffy, etc.....but somehow the audience doesn't want that. wtf?
"Thug Style" is probably the single song by Pac to most adhere to the street chronicling and nostalgic waxing scenarios in hip-hop. And at the same time, he's replying directly to everybody giving this album bad reviews: 'you don't know my style.'
Just because All Eyez sounded one way, or Makaveli sounded one way, or Strictly 4 My sounded one way....don't get it twisted. Its art. You gotta be open. Don't expect artists to be how you want them to be. You cannot expect anything from art, all that does is turn it into a product instead of art.
The lyrics on this album are of things more accesible to the common listener. The production is reminiscent of earlier 2Pac and more of a east-coast style of the early 90's (pre-Death Row). There's more lyrical acrobatics than usual (Let Them Thangs Go), and more of the same techincal (Lie to Kick It) and simple formats (F*** All Y'All) we're used to from 2Pac.
If you ignore all the hype and controversy surrounding the artist, and drop your expectations of him...just listen to the music on R U Still Down for the music, then maybe you can re-discover the best MC with this album.
"R U Still Down? (Remember Me)", a double album 26 tracks deep, is far from impressive. The previously unreleased tracks, recorded between the years '91-'94, represent Pac at his lowest state lyrically. To be honest, the lyrical performance is weak. The beats are nothing more than average and the production left plenty of room for improvement. After several recordings with Death Row, this album leaves much to be desired. Gone is the fury, the agression, the hatred, the overall emotion that he so vividly displayed in his more recent recordings. "I Wonder If Heaven Got A Ghetto", the albums first single, originally recorded in '93, is far from single worthy. "Do For Love", the albums second single, is better than the first, but still (despite a decent lyrical performance) is not of single status either. This is not to say that the entire album was a flop though. 2Pac raps with fury and rage on "Hellraizer", displaying his burning passion and emotion listeners were once fond of. "Thug Style" has a more modern sound than the majority of the album, the beat is above average, the lyrics are strong, and the track is rather satisfying. On the whole, the album becomes more enjoyable the more you listen to it. Don't expect to be impressed the first time around, it takes a while to adapt yourself to a younger Pac, different than that of his character at the time of his passing.
Why do Amazon randomly delete reviews, there was nothing wrong with my previous review, and in fact the guy above me actually used a whole paragraph of my old review for himself!
This is the best compilation of posthumous Tupac songs, there are some serious classics on here, how some of these missed the cut for Strictly 4 my Nig*az and 2Pacalypse Now, i don't know. My favourites include the title track, I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto (with the verse they recycled for Changes), Hold On Be Strong, Do For Love, Fake A*s Bit*hes, Hellrazor, Lie To Kick It etc... Probably the track he goes deepest on is Only Fear Of Death, which is another eerie track in which Pac predicts his early death.
This album is nothing like his other posthumous releases, the beats are as he intended and most importantly no one has messed around with his lyrics (Eminem). He may not have considered these tracks to be worthy of release when alive, but there are still many gems on here, highly recommended.

