me against the world album cover 500 x 500

The album’s first moments also raised eyebrows, as ‘Pac is heard saying “Shoulda shot me,” which sounds eerily like “Suge shot me,” a would-be reference to Death Row Records owner Marion “Suge” Knight. The new moniker made fans question whether or not ‘Pac was somewhere on a beach living the sweet life. 2Pac had read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli while incarcerated and knew the author had faked his own death to fool his enemies. Just two months after ‘Pac had been killed, the album was released under the alias “Makaveli.” The album was littered with conspiracy-theory fodder.

If the beef was as dramatically Shakespearean as it seems and the music was its soundtrack, The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya,” and 2Pac’s “Hit Em Up,” were the catalysts of the story, ‘Pac’s All Eyez On Me was the rising action and The 7 Day Theory was the climax (with Biggie’s Life After Death as the falling action, and Black Star’s call for peace on “Definition” as the musical resolution.) However, it’s important to note how shaken up the rap world was when 2Pac died after being gunned down in Las Vegas in September 1996.

Retreading the Death Row Records/Bad Boy Records beef is beyond gratuitous.

To understand the depths of The 7 Day Theory is to recognize the controversy that led up to and followed its release. There have been albums of higher quality or heavier influence, but no album in rap’s lore carries the same magnitude as the last 2Pac album that was (mostly) finished while he was alive. The album went 4x Platinum before the turn of the century, but record sales only begin to state its impact. 2Pac’s, rather Makaveli’s, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory turns 22 years old today and it’s past time to recognize the album as the greatest in Hip Hop history.

Me against the world album cover 500 x 500