Tupac Shakur is arguably the face of hip-hop. Across all the decades, he’s likely the first person you think of and see when you think about rap. The same way Bob Marley defined reggae, Pac and his Thug Life iconography are among the most iconic in hip-hop. Passing away at a far too young 25 years old, he was the kind of artist any aspiring rapper would strive towards for a long time. The music, the acting, the personality—all of it lends to his credibility as one of the biggest figures in pop culture.
Aside from the several posthumous releases, Tupac only had five years worth of albums in his catalog. Still, he made the most of it with dozens of fantastic songs in such a small window of time. Consequently, Noisey has undergone the arduous process of picking four of his greatest songs of all time and anointing them for a Mount Rushmore. In doing so, it’ll highlight exactly what made Pac such an alluring artist.
4 of the Best Tupac Songs of All Time
‘Picture Me Rollin”
Tupac’s defiance was one of his most alluring traits for fans. There was a sense that he’d always go down swinging, that he’d never roll over and comply. If something was foul, he’d be the one to call it. Even under surveillance, trying to duck the penitentiary and grappling with paranoia, his fighting spirit remained. “Full grown, finally a man, just schemin’ on ways to put some green inside the palms of my empty hands,” Tupac grunts. Even on the outro, he’s barking back at the DA and the correctional officers at Clinton Correctional Facilities. “Picture Me Rollin’” is the thesis behind Pac’s career.
‘Pain’
Tupac was always great at defining the circumstances that make someone rep ‘Thug Life’ in the first place. No one happily entertains the street life. At the core of it, it’s all people trying to survive in a system designed to set people back. There are enough interviews to back up this point, but “Pain” succinctly puts it in a song. “Maybe if they tried to understand me – what should I do? I had to feed my f***in’ family – what else could I do but be a thug?” Pac sighed. The vicious cycle claims lives before they even finish growing. By the end of his first verse, he wondered if he would even make it to 23. When you’re all too aware of the trap you’re in, you start to wonder when your time is next.
‘I Get Around’
As much as Tupac was a phenomenal writer, he was also just naturally cool. His street paranoia and sociopolitical fervor never dissuaded his charisma. As a result, records like “I Get Around” sit atop the mountains as one of his best. You can hear the smirk in his voice when he wonders why your girl keeps paging him. For Pac, women obsessing over him was “just another hazard of a fly guy.”
The music video also lends a lot to the general aura of “I Get Around.” It looks similar to how it sounds: a cozy, lounging house party where everyone is having a ball. Beautiful women are aplenty, gold chains are dazzling in the light, and everyone is having a great time on an abundance of real estate. It’s the kind of video you wish you could live in, elevated by Tupac’s effortless cool.
‘Death Around The Corner’
The kind of record that plays when you’re looking out of your front window like Malcolm X. Tupac has always rapped as if he was relaying prophecy, that his demise was an inevitability. The most he felt he could expect is a bit of retribution if he were to ever go six feet under. “In a ball of confusion, I’m thinkin’ ’bout my daddy. Madder than a motherf***er, they never shoulda had me. I guess I seen too many murders, the doctors can’t help me. Got me stressin’ with my pistol in my sheets, it ain’t healthy,” Pac rapped with bags under his eyes. It’s haunting to hear an artist so transfixed with the prospect of the end.
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