Global// Battered and Bruised: 2Pac Against the Criminal Justice System.

By Maya Hernandez

2Pac’s 1995 album Me Against the World is riddled with paradox: from portraits of perseverance and positivity to hopelessness and despondency. Despite these contradictory messages, one preoccupation remains constant: an indictment of the criminal-justice system. Although this subject is not new to rap music, it takes on a new light against the backdrop of Tupac’s run-ins with the law and sexual abuse accusations, his mother’s involvement with the Black Panther Party, and the passage of the largest crime bill in the history of the United States.