Why do hip-hop bloggers hate 2Pac?

As I was finishing my list of the 25 best rap albums evar the other day, it occurred to me that a few of the d-bags in the comments section would probably throw a bitch-fit because there weren't any 2Pac albums on it. Hence my little quip about Digital Undergrounds Sex Packets being the closest 'Pac would make it to my list.

Here's the thing: obviously none of 'Pac's 49 or however many albums qualified for my top 25 list; but even if said list was expanded to include, say, 100 albums, I'm not sure if any 'Pac albums would make it. Put simply, I don't ever recall there being a really good 2Pac album. Call me crazy.

And I'm not the only one. That cracka-ass cracka Noz' list was expanded to include 50 albums, and there wasn't a single 2Pac album. And it was the same story on several of the other lists I've read in the past couple of weeks.

So what gives? Is the hip-hop blogosphere nothing but a buncha haters, or was 2Pac really just not that good? Both? I think I kinda already gave up my stance on this issue, but bear with me.

This weekend, I went back and listened to some 2Pac to make sure my racism wasn't clouding my good judgment, which is entirely possible. Obviously there isn't enough time in a weekend to listen to everything the guy recorded, especially when you have to bust several shifts that The Day Job, but I figured I'd check out Me Against the World, which is a lot of people's favorite 'Pac album.

Wow, what a shite sandwich of an album.

If I had it to do over again, I probably would've spent the extra hour that it takes to listen to All Eyez on Me, since that's the one that's 8x popular. Or maybe I could have just watched the video for "California Love" on YouTube and pretended as if I had actually listened to All Eyez on Me. What's an little white lie between friends?

For the record, I heard Me Against the World, All Eyez on Me, and Makaveli back when they were new, and not so much recently. I've yet to hear the first two, which aren't as well regarded as those three, or any of those bullshit-ass posthumous albums, and hopefully I never will. Obviously I don't qualify as an expert on the guy's work, but I figure I know enough of it to know whether or not it's any good.

Listening to Me Against the World this weekend, it occurred to me that 'Pac must not have spent very much time on it. I'm aware that he only spent three days recording the Makavel album. (It took another four days to mix, hence "The 7 Day Theory.") And obviously he couldn't have spent much time working on All Eyez on Me, since it arrived in stores a mere matter of weeks after he was released from prison.

But you have to wonder how much better any of those albums would be if he did spend more time on them. Though it's generally regarded as 2Pac at his most introspective, nothing about Me Against the World suggests to me that 'Pac was any more thoughtful a rapper than, say, Master P. In fact, those last few 2Pac albums were obviously a blueprint for all of those shitty No Limit albums that followed in their wake.

I'm not saying that's 'Pac's fault. I'm just saying.