Honestly, his albums prior to it are just okay. 2pac might be the most technically skilled rapper ever, but his actual songwriting kind of took a while to get really good. All Eyez on Me is definitely his peak.
Oh derp. I completely forgot about Me Against the World. That album is also great. It's the one that really put 2pac on the map.
Quote from arkarian:
was dr dre on any of them? that might be why aeom is so great tbh
No, and part of the issue with Pac is that he was just some dude from Interscope for the first few years of his career. He didn't get big until he started hanging around Death Row and rappers like Biggie... only to then burn those bridges in the span of a couple of months and ending up shot dead by late 1996.
It's kind of sad what happened to the guy. He survived a shooting and had to go through multiple incarcerations for questionable reasons. By the time he got out of a jail term in 1996, he turned into a massively jaded asshole who lashed out at a lot of old friends. Combine that with him constantly trying to look tough and continue to engage in street life and it's no surprise how he ended up in as bad of a situation as he did. If you talk a lot of shit, sooner or later someone's gonna want to shut you the fuck up. And that's how 2pac went.
What's bizarre is that he wasn't always like this. Check out this old interview from 1988. Talk about a change of scene.