Long overrated cultural icon, Tupac Shakur is now remembered for what the public is shown to remember. Forgetting that he was the "I Get Around" as much as he was the "Keep Ya Head Up" guy, that he was the "Hit 'Em Up", as he was the "Dear Mama" guy. The person, as he is now portrayed in the media, is a unquestioned, messiah like genius of poetry. The people controlling his legacy now, keep anything away images that could spoil the picture of a thoughtful, conscious, misunderstood person. But just like his "Thug Life" tattoo was never destined to fade out, so shouldn't we be blinded by this constructed image of his.

This album probably would have never been released if Tupac wouldn't have lent his work to it. The Outlawz, a collection, consisting of Young Noble, E.D.I., Kastro, Napoleon and the ex-Digital Underground dancer Pac, and they were basically the homies he was running around with. And so the question remains if they got put on, because Pac was cool with them, or because they were cool on the mic.

Something good to say about this album is, that it seems to not just consist of Pac outtakes, somewhere found in the dusty shelves of studio engineers. Like on a track like "Letter To The President", an actually concept has been recorded: throwing everything that doesn't seem to be right and fair in the presidents direction, and blaming Clinton for just about anything. These concept give this album a certain value and makes it matter just a little more, than those loosely connected other albums that are thrown on the market.

The beats are very mid 90s westcoast gangsta style. Relaxing tunes, with deep instrumentation, as heard before. This makes the sound be tame, and very much acceptable for a pop crowd, that will most likely be the ones that embrace this here. Produced by several of Tupacs usual suspect producers, like QDIII, Johnny "J", Soulshock, but also Daz shows up on the "Homeboyz" cut, and the other Dogg Pound Kurupt on "Tattoo Tears". Notable tracks on the beat spectrum are "Hell 4 A Hustler", the very smooth "The Good Die Young", the clubish "Killuminati", "Tattoo Tears" and the somewhat hardish "Y'all Don't Know Us", while a "High Speed" misses to combine the different musical elements, and also the lyrics sound attached to the track and "Teardrops And Closed Caskets" fails to catch the magic romanticism of a "I Need Love" and comes out rather corny.

On the title track, Tupac keeps it spiritual, rhyming "somebody break me I'm dreaming, I started as a seed the semen / swimming upstream, planted in the womb while screaming / on the top, was my pops, my momma screaming stop", while his rhyming compadres fail to rhyme in the same vein and remain trapped in not logic, rather ignorant thought process, like Khadafi rhyming "half of you niggaz is softer than a Snicker / let's go to war and see who draw quicker / and still I rise, and still I rise". And many other tracks talk about the thug life too. But sometimes the 'good' Pac comes through too, like on "Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)". And here too, his fellow rhymers fail to come as thoughtful as he, what shows again, what separates the legend from the common rapper.

Add to this, tracks that would have never been released if Pac would be still recording today, tracks that would have ended up somewhere in the vaults of oblivion and obscureness, add some more of typical Pac topics that make it easy for people to relate, and you get another product that should please those that appreciate what he does, and feed those that hate. Either way, you know what you get.