"Me Against the World" received critical acclaim. In a contemporary review, Cheo H. Coker at "Rolling Stone" called the album Shakur's best and 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, writing in "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. Steve Huey of AllMusic noted that, with "Me Against the World", the rapper became markedly more "confessional," "reflective," and "soul-baring."