Still I Rise

1	Letter to the President / Tupac Shakur 6:03
2	Still I Rise / Outlawz 4:45
3	Secretz of War / Tupac Shakur 4:15
4	Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head up II) / Tupac Shakur 4:22
5	As the World Turns / Tupac Shakur 5:08
6	Black Jesuz / Tupac Shakur 4:29
7	HomeBoyz / Tupac Shakur 3:38
8	Hell 4 a Hustler / Tupac Shakur 4:56
9	High Speed / Tupac Shakur 6:00
10	The Good Die Young / Tupac Shakur 5:42
11	Killuminati / Tupac Shakur 4:02
12	Teardrops and Closed Caskets / Tupac Shakur 5:05
13	Tattoo Tears / Tupac Shakur 5:02
14	U Can Be Touched / Tupac Shakur 4:23
15	Y'all Don't Know Us / Tupac Shakur 4:55

Barnes & Noble

Though many critics will remember the late 2Pac as a rapper who lived and died by the guntalk, diehard fans continue to find gems of truth and insightful ghetto reportage in his hardcore rhymes. On his most recent posthumous release, STILL I RISE, the Outlawz, a posse of impossibly hardcore named L.A. rappers -- Kadafi, Hussein Fatal, Kastro, Napoleon, Mussolini, E.D.I., and Kormaini -- use technology to add new music and their own backup rhymes to rare 2Pac lyrics. Like the theme of the Maya Angelou poem that inspires the album title, much of the disc is fueled by 2Pac's street-scarred, survivalist ethos. With song titles like "Hell 4 a Hustler," "Teardrops and Closed Caskets," and "The Good Die Young," the Outlawz take Pac's more reflective verses and blend in their own us-against-the-world thug passion. The results are captivating. On "Black Jesuz," one Outlawz voice rhymes, "Some say/someday/some how/some way/we gon' fail/and it ain't hard to tell we dwell in hell/trapped/Black/scarred and barred/searching for truth where it's hard to find God." Though not Pac's own words, the lyrics speak of what he represented for a generation of disaffected ghetto youth. 2Pac struggled to realize his humanity under the scrutiny of the public eye. He also strove to carve out his legacy in a cruel world. STILL I RISE proves he succeeded. Brett Johnson

All Music Guide

More than three years after his death, it's difficult to believe there's still unreleased 2Pac material out there, much less quality material. After no less than three posthumous albums built around what 2Pac produced when he was still alive (plus an assortment of bootlegs making the rounds), the well apparently still hasn't run dry, and Still I Rise is the inevitable result. As on the Notorious B.I.G. album released just weeks before though, there are some pretty wide gaps on Still I Rise between rhymes actually delivered by 2Pac. There's also an undeniable -- some would say obvious -- impression that this album just doesn't bear the mark of 2Pac himself.

Making up the difference in both categories is Outlawz, a quartet of rappers keeping the flow going between 2Pac fragments. As with 2Pac's other posthumous releases, Still I Rise comes with four or five solid tracks that may have survived the cuts on a real 2Pac album. The title track and "Letter to the President" are obvious winners, still reliant on the syrupy G-funk that 2Pac made famous, and (thankfully) not influenced by the increasing late-'90s insurgence of muzaky hip-hop productions. And "Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)" -- 2Pac's self-produced follow-up to 1993's "Keep Ya Head Up" -- is a surprisingly touching message track. For any of 2Pac's fans, it'll be so good to hear his voice again on new material that the cash-in nature of Still I Rise can easily be overlooked. It's just not the album 2Pac would have produced had he still been alive. John Bush