Tapping Out the 2Pac Reservoir

2Pac’s latest posthumous release, a 26-track, two-disc package compiled from the artist’s pre-Death Row Records period between 1991-94, proves that the slain rapper-actor had a lot moreto offer the world. The only problem is that this material is culled from 2Pac’s least artistic period.

Being prolific and compelling are sometimes mutually exclusive in music. 2Pac always recorded far more songs than he planned to release: His need to get things off his chest was relentless, but he also knew that not all his songs were ready for prime time.

Unlike his brilliant 1996 album, the two-disc “All Eyez on Me,” too much of this record is filler, and the gems too few. How many different ways can 2Pac shoot at cops, smoke blunts, explain his embrace of criminality as the only way to give his mother a better life, or complain that women can’t be trusted? To quote the first record that a young 2Pac ever appeared on, with Digital Underground back in 1991: “It’s the same old song.” The record doesn’t really get interesting until “Hellrazor,” a relentless reflection of life on the edge that compels because of the rapper’s righteous indignation. “Thug Style,” meanwhile, is a study of lyrical flow, with 2Pac delivering his lines in the rapid-fire yet smoothly fluid manner that made him a star.

But the only song on either disc worthy of his legacy is the current single, “I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto.” With one song, 2Pac reveals all that made him a great artist: his anger at injustice, his wish that people would get motivated to make positive changes and his remorse at the extremes toward which his tumultuous life situations pushed him.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).

*

Hear the Music

* Excerpts from these albums and other recent releases are available on The Times’ World Wide Web site. Point your browser to: https://www.latimes.com/soundclips