Live My Life

Album Review

One of the odder 2Pac best-ofs to come along, Live My Life is so odd it may not even count as a best-of. In fact, it might be more accurate to tag the German-manufactured and distributed disc as a straight compilation, since only a few of the songs are actually among 2Pac's best. For instance, the subtitle of the album ("Collection of Legendary 2Pac Traxx") doesn't use the standard best-of or greatest-hits rhetoric one often associates with this type of collection. So if only a few of the 18 songs here are among 2Pac's best, the remaining ones could be considered "legendary," which would at least make this collection legit. Either way, there's no use splitting hairs — the bottom line is, this is an odd compilation. The few hits ("California Love," "I Ain't Mad at Cha," "How Do You Want It" — of all them licensed from Death Row) are sequenced alongside a bunch of non-album tracks of questionable origin. Some, like the "Stone Radio" remix of "Runnin'," which features the Notorious B.I.G., are rarities of great interest to 2Pac collector types. But others are totally random and mostly uninteresting. For that reason, people who are looking to pick up a single-disc sampler are advised to go with a true best-of like Greatest Hits, or one of the key albums like Me Against the World or All Eyez on Me. The only people who might want to bother with this collection are collectors who are looking to pick up some of the rare "legendary" tracks compiled here. Just be forewarned that the bulk of these tracks are legendary for their rarity rather than their quality.