SONG: “Thugz Mansion” (Acoustic Version)

ARTIST: Tupac Shakur feat. Nas & J. Phoenix

ALBUM: Better Dayz

WHY: Anyone who thinks hip-hop is nothing but songs glorifying grandiose materialism has clearly never heard this song. In this track, we find Shakur and Nas eloquently theorizing about the afterlife over a beautifully improvised two-part acoustic guitar progression. The song takes on added depth because it was written just months before Shakur was infamously gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip in 1996.