Me Against The World - Reception

Reception

The album debuted at the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart with 240,000 copies sold in the first week, and became certified double platinum by the end of the year. Likewise, it also debuted at number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, thus giving 2Pac the first number one album on both R&B and Pop charts. While Shakur was in prison, the album over-took Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits as the best-selling album in the United States, a feat which he took pride in. Shakur became the first artist to have a number one album while serving a prison sentence.

In a contemporary review, Cheo H. Coker at Rolling Stone called the album Shakur's best, giving it three-and-a-half out of five stars. Of the overall effect of the album, Coker said it was "by and large a work of pain, anger and burning desperation — is the first time 2Pac has taken the conflicting forces tugging at his psyche head-on". Jon Pareles of The New York Times called Shakur the "St. Augustine of gangster rap" due to his ambivalence towards the behavior and nature of the gangster lifestyle. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice was critical of the album, saying "the subtext of persecution complex is his self-regard".

In a retrospective review, Allmusic editor Steve Huey dubbed the album " most thematically consistent, least self-contradicting work", and stated, "it may not be his definitive album, but it just might be his best". Steve "Flash" Juon of RapReview seemed to feel differently, remarking that the album "is not only the quintessential Shakur album, but one of the most important rap albums released in the 1990s as a whole". Piero Scaruffi cited it as his "most powerful album" and stated, "Both gloomy and explosive, it covered a vast spectrum of styles, from homicidal to sensitive, while remaining true to the gangster persona."