2Pac -2005- The Rose, Vol. 2 (Poetry) (Amaru / Interscope)

• 2005, September 20 : second compilation of music inspired by and poetry written by Tupac Shakur and interpreted by various artists
• Unfortunately clearly lacking of a musical direction.  

What a weak picture for a poetry album !

Tracklist - Discogs

1. Intro - Black Ice /  Jukebox
2. Power Of A Smile - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony / Kush & Kato
3. The Eternal Lament - Celina /  Jukebox
4. Fallen Star - Talib Kweli / 88-Keys
5. In The Depths Of Solitude - Ludacris / Icedrake
6. Movin On - Lyfe Jennings
7. Life Through My Eyes - Memphis Bleek / DR Period
8. When Ure Heart Turns Cold - Outlawz
9. Black Woman - Jamal Joseph & Che Davis
10. Only 4 The Righteous - Yo-Yo / Mr. Payback
11. Where There Is A Will… - Boot Camp Clik / Ayatollah
12. When Ur Hero Falls - Impact Kids / Rayedon Coleman & Vinney Idol
13. And 2morrow - Shock G
14. If I Fail - Dead Prez / Fabrizio Sotti
15. Poetry - Amber & Morgan Of Pacskids / Jukebox

is it useful to say something about that back cover ?

What is a potpourri ?

This compilation mixes up one third Rap (2, 4, 7, 10, 11), one third Soul and R&B (3, 6, 10, 12, 13) and a last third Spoken Word (1, 5, 9, 14, 15).

R&B tracks are not that bad in itself, but they clearly don't fit to 2Pac's musical universe. 2Pac was more into a Soul and Blues heritage. Almost none of his songs from his lifetime have that kind of honey singing you can hear in "When Ur Hero Falls". The "Shock G" song is much more relevant (but don't expect to recognize Shock G... it is clearly not him singing). The production more than the singing itself are irrelevant.

low coast designer from low school ?

Low coast production ?

Thanks to Amaru Entertainment / Interscope, this is again a soulless project which uses 2Pac's heritage without any effort.   

Who is Jukebox who produced three tracks ? An almost unknown guy who produced the same year a track for female rapper Ak'Sent in Coach Carter Soundtrack. And he also did the human beat box for a track of Will Smith Lost & Found compilation... Not to say that an unknown couldn't work on such a project, but 3 tracks !! It says something about the poor investment of Amaru Ent. Kush & Kato who produced the Bone Thugs' track seems as well to be totally unknown. The result is quite mediocre. The Yo-Yo track is also hard to digest in terms of production. 

Memphis Bleek is into the classic posthumous abuse of recycling original vocals of the dead rappers (here taken from the well known well released "Smile", what is even worse), typical from the last disappointing Amaru Ent. projects (We speak about Loyal To The Game, of course). Average rap and tasteless. Shameless.

What's to save from the disaster ? 

For the rest, Boot Camp Clik, Talib Kweli, Ludacris, Shock G came with their own producers. And the result is that those are the good things to save from this compilation... Outlawz did a decent thing too but with a poem which was already interpreted in the first compilation in a spoken word performance by Sonia Sanchez...

Dead Prez tried an audacious beat by the Italian jazz guitarist Fabrizio Sotti who produced the whole Soul album of Kyrsten, So In Love in 2004, and will produce most of Dead Prez' M-1 first solo album Confidential in 2006. The result is in something really strange between rap and spoken word, Dead Prez finding back something of the old taste of the Lost Poets. A coherent choice, what is totally missing in this the rest of that compilation... The most successful effort of the compilation with the surprising Ludacris who also dared to try the spoken word act with success. 

Another notable effort is the one of Jamal Joseph, who is a Black Panther activist, part of the Panther 21 trial which took place in 1970-1971. Afeni Shakur was part of the 21 accused Panther members. And that's why she was in prison whilst pregnant of Tupac. And Afeni became a brilliant lawyer for the accused group who finally succeeded to get the acquittal.