This is the one of the gems in the hip hop 12" world. Such a powerful record that out of 3 songs you'll find 3 classics. But, I'll stick to the "Pain" by 2Pac & Stretch. I don't really know why the destiny of this song is to be sooo underrated. I mean, it almost never appears on "the best of" compilations/mixtapes of 2Pac. The possible reasons come to mind... Is it because it appeared on the b-side of Warren G's single and not on any of 2Pac's lps (compilations excluded)? Is the reason (possible) unsolved copyright between Interscope and 2Pac's family? Is it because the man he has done this song with - Randy "Stretch" Walker - was said to be involved in the robbery and assault on 2Pac on 30th of November 1994. when Pac caught 5 bullets? Is it because 2Pac reffers to himself as "nigga with a mother on drugs" (where "drugs" maybe stand for "narcotics") so it made his mother upset and made her put away this monster of a song when she got hold of the copyrights (if she got it)? Is it because it belongs to the pre-"Me against the world" era of 2Pac's lyricism so that it shares the same destiny of the great albums such are "Strictly for my N(ever)I(gnorant)G(ettin')G(oals)A(complished)Z" and Thug Life - "Vol. 1" - to not be recognised by "new" fans who like the man's more commercial stuff?
But let aside all of these questions and many more that this song and its destiny can raise and let me tell a few things about the song itself. First of all, this is one of the best if not THE BEST song which so called "gangsta rap" has given to the world of music. Full-on emotion in lyrics and delivery by both men involved with the song -the men who both died in the period of 2 years after the song had been recorded - 2Pac & Stretch. It tells the story of the stress which is upon a man who is steady mobbin', who lives that 'thug life' from the subject's (both 2Pac's and Stretch's) point of view. Where Geto Boys with "Mind playin' tricks on me" had given somewhat dark-comedy-psychotic-neurotic expression of the matter, 2Pac & Stretch tell it straight. There is no big wordplays here, metaphors or mc stuff like that, but the on point lyrics, delivery and the flow with the dope-as-hell downtempo beat gives this song its CLASSIC status. I remember the January of '95 when there was a regular hip hop party in Belgrade, Serbia local club "Industrija" and when my friends and myself heard the song for the first time at the end of the party. We could tell it's 2Pac but we didn't know anything about the song, and listening to the lyrics, THE PAIN and THE LUST FOR LIFE in both 2Pac's and Stretch's voices, made us realize at that first acquaintance with the song that it's "something else" and that it will stay with us for the rest of our lives. You can quote me on this - I say that all 2Pac's lyrics on struggle after 1994. are no more than pale footnotes of "Pain" - the anthem that I've been writing about here (for a half an hour now:) and the song that I'll be rockin' on my system forever.