Tupac Shakur’s maggot-infested corpse rose from its grave again last Friday to return to the studios and record yet another double LP of previously unreleased tracks. Dead Thug: The Second Coming contains new hardcore rhymes telling about his rough time coming up in the south side of his LA cemetary.

Tracks like “Zombie Niggaz be Eating Yo Brains” and “Worms be Keeping Brothas Down” tell the truth about the hard-knock afterlife rappers from the graveyard-ghetto experience. Tupac’s music was inspired by his day-to-day experiences slowly decomposing in the cold, cold ground.

“I be lying down there, and my mind ain’t never stop movin'” says Shakur. “That’s `cause there be a nest of rats inside.”

The album represents some of Shakur’s best work to date. “Puffy, I am Mad Atcha (You be Joinin Me Soon)” and “Brenda’s Rotting Body” rival past hits for the West Coast gangsta. Fans have come to think that Shakur’s star might never burn out, and the track “I Ain’t Done Until My Jaw Rots Off” addresses that subject.

Women also remain a key part of Shakur’s post-death career, and tracks like “Goin’ Necro on Yo Ass” and “Dead Bithes Suck Bone” tell stories that could have come straight from Penthouse: Coroner.

“I already dead, AIDS ain’t gonna stop me, now all I gotta fear is fungus,” Shakur said. “That shit’ll drop yo wang right off.”

Other rappers, living rappers, still feel the toll of Shakur’s heavy competition, something they thought they could have ruled out after murdering him ruthlessly.

“I had my crew cap that whack-ass bitch,” recording artist Lil’ Bow Wow said. “But zombies don’t go down easy, not like Schlitz Malt Liquor, that shit goes down smooth. Aw shit.”

The East Coast/West Coast rivalry that eventually led to Shakur’s death has not cooled down, even after the death of frighteningly large rapper, Notorious B.I.G.

“If I see that motherfucker, I gonna up on into his tomb and jam a stake in his big ass,” Shakur said.

But his own mortality has never stopped Shakur before, and though some might argue that his continued recording career is a crime against nature, Shakur said he remains grateful for “God’s decision to allow my lifeless corpse to forever wander the Earth.”

Dead Thug: the Second Coming is considered by Shakur to be “my shout-out to the world, tellin’ em I be comin’, comin’ to consume yo brains.”

Dead Thug: the Second Coming is in stores now