2Pacalypse Now & Strictly 4 My Niggaz: Thoughts and Questions

[TidyKris]

A lot of albums of that era have that muddy sound when it comes to the mastering, if you think Pacs albums was bad you obviously didn't cop the Wu's debut album 

Yeah thats true!

Wasnt the Wu's albums made like that on purpose though? Im sure i saw an interview with RZA back in the mid 90's
where he was explaining what he does to make the Wu tracks sounds gimey and dirty

[⠀]

A lot of albums of that era have that muddy sound when it comes to the mastering, if you think Pacs albums was bad you obviously didn't cop the Wu's debut album 

Yeah thats true!

Wasnt the Wu's albums made like that on purpose though? Im sure i saw an interview with RZA back in the mid 90's
where he was explaining what he does to make the Wu tracks sounds gimey and dirty

It was an NY thing due to the equipment they all used back then, stuff like the SP12 and Ensoniq along with the compression techniques they used. Whereas the West, either due to no old school technological allegiances, the surfeit of talented engineers that used to earn their bread mastering live groups/instruments and now turned to rap for a cheque or the fact that muddy sound = cold/grimey and crisp = hot/sunny, product of their environment thing.

Being raised on West Coast stuff all my life it was a huge change when I started listening to NY artists I was like "have these fools got wool in their ears? Wheres the separation and mixing? What no fidelity?". Compare Ice Ts Iceberg album to EPMDs debut and the difference is obvious.

Strange thing is if they went back and gave those old albums a thorough remaster (and not just a bass boost brickwalling) you wouldn't be able to listen to them as you're so used to hearing it the old way that new tracks would feel plain and strange as compressing the shit out of the tracking and mushing it all together filled in all the gaps/rough chops in the samples/bits where they didn't line it up right.

On the other hand the raw stems for Representing 93 when mixed down correctly sound beautiful, the track takes on a whole nother vibe as the sample is so nicely used and helped out with the drum break. Stuff like S4MN on the other hand sounds off as the distortion was part of the allure of the track.

[CORREA]

a dj on t.n dropped

 2Pacalypse Now & Strictly 4 My Niggaz remasters
he did a really good job


https://www.sendspace.com/file/1aigg2

[MOBNigga06]

I dont really listen to 2Pacalypse Now that much..i only like a few tracks on there. That album is far too dated and has not aged well.

I quite like Strictly 4 My Niggaz and listen to it quite often but again the beats and musical styles on that album are very dated.
The first two albums really capture that early 90s sound and to be fair that sound from the late 80s and early 90s has not aged well like music from 1994 - 2000 has.
Strictly is a pretty cool album though and is a big leap forward from 2Pacalype Now.

Speaking of mastering and mixdowns does anybody notice how "Keep Your Head Up" is much louder and cleaner sounding then all the other tracks on the album?

I noticed this about Keep Your Head Up. One of the annoying things about Strictly is how the songs seem almost all to be unequal in terms of loudness. Several times I had to adjust my speakers while playing it because one song will be quiet and the next will be much louder.

My impression is that both albums were cheaply mixed and mastered. Keep Your Head Up got special treatment cause they knew it would be a smash hit.

Early copies of SFMN has a different master of Keep Ya Head Up.  There's a few more synths during the chorus on the original album version.  The single version is much better and cleaner sounding and I think they inserted that version in future pressings of SFMN, which probably explains why it sounds like it is mastered differently. 

I agree 2Pacalypse Now is starting to sound dated, but SFMN is Raw and the lyrics are crazy.  Lots of songs about shooting cops and uprising and stuff.  Not so political as his first album, but more like taking the streets back.  I like that version of Pac.  That period from SFMN and Thug Life has some great songs.  The unreleased stuff around that time is great too, with so much stuff getting banned from the record labels

The Holler If Ya Hear Me OG is incredible, good beat, dope lyrics...talking about shooting and killing all the cops who beat Rodney King.  Insane when you think about it, a song like that today would never get made.  That's what's missing in rap these days.  Everyone has gone soft. 

All the talk of cop killing was one of the things that stood out most when I relistened to 2Pacalypse Now & Strictly 4 My Nigga. It seems to have been Pac's obsession during those years. It gets kinda repetitive. How many songs about killing cops do we need to hear? Pac became a better artist when he started to embrace the fun and lighthearted themes of G-Funk inspired music in 94. The Thug Life album gave us a hint of the direction he was moving in, and then Me Against the World changed the game forever and cemented Pac's position as the greatest rapper of his era.

[123imagee]

2N & S4MN Was More About The Message, You Know Pac Was On Some P.E.-S**t Back Then, The Real Pac Started From Thug Life Album.

Why He Didn´t Shout-Out Death Row On Reppin 93?

[BIGWORM]

Loyal 2 the game. 2-Pac, Treach & Mopreme..... Above the rim ost

[123imagee]

Loyal 2 the game. 2-Pac, Treach & Mopreme..... Above the rim ost

that´s riddler of dbg´z.

[Hack Wilson - real]

the ORIGINAL loyal to the game song was pac and syke

then somehow riddler remixed it and treach got added too, syke removed

[Blasphemy]

I dont really listen to 2Pacalypse Now that much..i only like a few tracks on there. That album is far too dated and has not aged well.

I quite like Strictly 4 My Niggaz and listen to it quite often but again the beats and musical styles on that album are very dated.
The first two albums really capture that early 90s sound and to be fair that sound from the late 80s and early 90s has not aged well like music from 1994 - 2000 has.
Strictly is a pretty cool album though and is a big leap forward from 2Pacalype Now.

Speaking of mastering and mixdowns does anybody notice how "Keep Your Head Up" is much louder and cleaner sounding then all the other tracks on the album?

I noticed this about Keep Your Head Up. One of the annoying things about Strictly is how the songs seem almost all to be unequal in terms of loudness. Several times I had to adjust my speakers while playing it because one song will be quiet and the next will be much louder.

My impression is that both albums were cheaply mixed and mastered. Keep Your Head Up got special treatment cause they knew it would be a smash hit.

Early copies of SFMN has a different master of Keep Ya Head Up.  There's a few more synths during the chorus on the original album version.  The single version is much better and cleaner sounding and I think they inserted that version in future pressings of SFMN, which probably explains why it sounds like it is mastered differently. 

I agree 2Pacalypse Now is starting to sound dated, but SFMN is Raw and the lyrics are crazy.  Lots of songs about shooting cops and uprising and stuff.  Not so political as his first album, but more like taking the streets back.  I like that version of Pac.  That period from SFMN and Thug Life has some great songs.  The unreleased stuff around that time is great too, with so much stuff getting banned from the record labels

The Holler If Ya Hear Me OG is incredible, good beat, dope lyrics...talking about shooting and killing all the cops who beat Rodney King.  Insane when you think about it, a song like that today would never get made.  That's what's missing in rap these days.  Everyone has gone soft. 

All the talk of cop killing was one of the things that stood out most when I relistened to 2Pacalypse Now & Strictly 4 My Nigga. It seems to have been Pac's obsession during those years. It gets kinda repetitive. How many songs about killing cops do we need to hear? Pac became a better artist when he started to embrace the fun and lighthearted themes of G-Funk inspired music in 94. The Thug Life album gave us a hint of the direction he was moving in, and then Me Against the World changed the game forever and cemented Pac's position as the greatest rapper of his era.

That was during the Era he was comiing outta Oakland and had his ass beat by the Police and when he shot the 2 off duty cops, so it makes sense. Honestly wish we had more Cop Killing/Fuck Tha Police type of anthems. Sorely missed today, despite the Riots and police brutality, the cities (like Baltimore for example) all used the original Westcoast albums (like Predator/N.W.A) for there soundtracks, none have produced anything antiestablishment. Funny enough last "cop killer" track I heard was from The Game (westcoast) , and that was for the shawn bell incident, and even then the lyrics weren't 100% on point, nor was the beat really aggresive.

for all the shit New York artist talk about the conscious side of rap being the elite with the G shit being ignorant and detrimental to the genre, there bitch asses haven't produced content no where near that political, and even they ended up degenerating into wannabe Mafia raps, which is seriously no different in terms what G-Rap was saying except in atheistic

 It was also during that Era they tried to blame Ice T, N.W.A and 2pac for 3 different instances of cop killings, each instant is alleged that the killer had there respective albums on em when they did the shooting (each was during a traffic stop apparently also). Before you get all conspiracy on me, the incidents were in 3 different states, during different years, and yes all 3 were basically the governments attempt at using there songs to ban rap, which was a real issue at the time.


Favorite from the first album was "Violent"

Favorite from the Second, is way harder to choose, because all the songs were pretty much equal, except for the "I Get around" which was put on there to help sell the record.

[Sccit]

The Holler If Ya Hear Me OG is incredible, good beat, dope lyrics...talking about shooting and killing all the cops who beat Rodney King.  Insane when you think about it, a song like that today would never get made.  That's what's missing in rap these days.  Everyone has gone soft. 

ACTUALLY SONGS LIKE THAT GET MADE ALL THE TIME......PARIS JUS DID 1 ON HIS NEW ALBUM CALLED "NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES".

[CORREA]

The Holler If Ya Hear Me OG is incredible, good beat, dope lyrics...talking about shooting and killing all the cops who beat Rodney King.  Insane when you think about it, a song like that today would never get made.  That's what's missing in rap these days.  Everyone has gone soft. 

ACTUALLY SONGS LIKE THAT GET MADE ALL THE TIME......PARIS JUS DID 1 ON HIS NEW ALBUM CALLED "NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES".

WHO?

[Sccit]

The Holler If Ya Hear Me OG is incredible, good beat, dope lyrics...talking about shooting and killing all the cops who beat Rodney King.  Insane when you think about it, a song like that today would never get made.  That's what's missing in rap these days.  Everyone has gone soft. 

ACTUALLY SONGS LIKE THAT GET MADE ALL THE TIME......PARIS JUS DID 1 ON HIS NEW ALBUM CALLED "NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES".

WHO?

U HAVENT HEARD OF PARIS?? THAT MIGHT CALL FOR ANOTHER BANNING.

[Fraxxx]

The Holler If Ya Hear Me OG is incredible, good beat, dope lyrics...talking about shooting and killing all the cops who beat Rodney King.  Insane when you think about it, a song like that today would never get made.  That's what's missing in rap these days.  Everyone has gone soft. 

ACTUALLY SONGS LIKE THAT GET MADE ALL THE TIME......PARIS JUS DID 1 ON HIS NEW ALBUM CALLED "NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES".

WHO?

U HAVENT HEARD OF PARIS?? THAT MIGHT CALL FOR ANOTHER BANNING.

lol firm but fair.