"Dear Mama" is a song by American rapper
2Pac
Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...
from his third studio album, ''
Me Against the World
''Me Against the World'' is the third studio album by American rapper 2Pac. It was released on March 14, 1995, by Interscope and Jive Records. 2Pac draws lyrical inspiration from his impending prison sentence, troubles with the police, and pove ...
'' (1995). It was released on February 21, 1995, as the lead single from the album. The song is a tribute to his mother,
Afeni Shakur
Afeni Shakur Davis (born Alice Faye Williams; January 10, 1947 – May 2, 2016) was an American political activist and member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur was the mother of rapper Tupac Shakur and the executor of his estate. She founded t ...
. In the song, Shakur details his childhood poverty and his mother's addiction to
crack cocaine
Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment'' calls ...
, but argues that his love and deep respect for his mother supersede bad memories. The song became his first top ten on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number nine. It also topped the
Hot Rap Singles
Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by '' Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stat ...
chart for five weeks. As of March 2021, the song is certified 3× Platinum by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
.
"Dear Mama" has been consistently ranked among the best of its genre, appearing on numerous "greatest" lists. In 2009, the song was inducted into the
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...
by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
, who deemed it a work that is "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States",
making it the first hip hop recording by a soloist to be inducted. In a press release, the organization called the song "a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper's own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference."
Background
The song is a tribute to Shakur's mother,
Afeni Shakur
Afeni Shakur Davis (born Alice Faye Williams; January 10, 1947 – May 2, 2016) was an American political activist and member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur was the mother of rapper Tupac Shakur and the executor of his estate. She founded t ...
. She and her husband were active members of the
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Shakur was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the
United States government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
and New York landmarks" in the New York "
Panther 21
The Panther 21 is a group of twenty-one Black Panther members who were arrested and accused of planned coordinated bombing and long-range rifle attacks on two police stations and an education office in New York City in 1969, who were all acquitte ...
" court case. She was often absent during his childhood in favor of being an activist, and also during his adolescence when she became addicted to crack cocaine.
Shakur was kicked out by Afeni at age 17, and they had little contact for many years. Having "lost all respect" for his mother, he subsequently moved into a vacant apartment with friends and began writing poetry and rap lyrics.
[Golus, Carrie. ''USA Today Lifeline Biographies: Tupac Shakur – Hip-Hop Idol''. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 112 pp. First edition, 2010.] In 1990, realizing her habit was out-of-control,
she enrolled in a 12-step program at a drug and alcohol treatment center in Norwalk, Connecticut. After completion, she reconciled with her son, who was at this point a successful recording artist.
[Mills, Clifford W. ''Hip-Hop Stars: Tupac Shakur''. New York: Checkmark Books, 104 pp. First edition, 2007.]
Record producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
Tony Pizarro Tony Pizarro is an American entertainment executive and record producer, listed as one of the "Top 50 Hip Hop Producers" of all time.
Contributing to selling over 75 million records as Tupac Shakur's producer, songwriter, recording engineer, and m ...
explained;
The song was written shortly before Shakur served a prison term.
Upon completion of the track, Shakur phoned longtime friend
Jada Pinkett-Smith
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (; née Pinkett; born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show ''Red Table Talk'', for which she has received a Daytime Emmy Award. ''Time'' named ...
, remarking; Pinkett-Smith's mother too had struggled with drug addiction, and their experiences growing up with this as children led to their friendship. She later remarked that the song gave her a "rush of emotions" upon her first listen.
[Monjauze, Molly, Cox, Gloria, Robinson, Staci. ''Tupac Remembered: Bearing Witness to a Life and Legacy''. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 168 pp. First edition, 2008.] Johnny J, one of the rapper's producers, noted that "The emotional, the sad songs, were his personal favorites."
Shakur mentioned the song and his intentions behind it in a 1995 interview with the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'': When questioned on possible
misogyny
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...
in his lyrics, Shakur defended his music, noting that he worked in the studio with women and played his songs for women pre-release, remarking;
Lyrical content and message
In "Dear Mama," Shakur praises his mother's courage, arguing that many mothers share this trait, and also describes the "highs and lows" of her past.
In a cultural and historical context, "Dear Mama" is part of a long line of hip-hop songs in which male rappers state their reverence for their mothers. Statistics show that a disproportionate number of African-American households are headed by single mothers, and Hess asserts that their bravery and role in their children's lives leads to their status as an "eternal symbol of love" in their offspring's eyes.
[Hess, Mickey. ''Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 2''. Westport: Greenwood, 688 pp. First edition, 2007.] Mickey Hess, author of ''Is Hip Hop Dead?: The Past, Present, and Future of America's Most Wanted Music'', asserts that his mother's appearance in Shakur's music works is designed to establish credibility with listeners. In this sense, he "connects himself to black radical history through his mother's affiliation with the Black Panthers," and explains that his music is autobiographical, illustrating that 2Pac (the stage performer) and Tupac Shakur (the person) are one and the same.
[Hess, Mickey. ''Is Hip Hop Dead?: The Past, Present, and Future of America's Most Wanted Music''. Westport: Praeger, 208 pp. First edition, 2007.] In addition, Shakur recorded the tune as he knew he was not the only person to grow up with a parent struggling with drug addiction.
[McQuillar, Tayannah Lee, Johnson, Fred L.. ''Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Icon''. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 288 pp. First edition, 2010.]
The song's most famous lyric is one in which Shakur "declares his love for Afeni as well as his disappointment in her":
Michael Eric Dyson, author of ''Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur'', writes that this line speaks to Shakur's maturity: In the song, Shakur also takes aim at the lack of a father figure in his life: "No love from my daddy cause the coward wasn't there / He passed away and I didn't cry, cause my anger wouldn't let me feel for a stranger." The line, according to ''Black Fathers: An Invisible Presence in America'', "seemed to resonate with a generation of Black males who felt estranged from their fathers."
[Connor, Michael E., White, Joseph. ''Black Fathers: An Invisible Presence in America''. London: Routledge, p. 114. First edition, 2006.] Shakur also describes "being kicked out of his home at 17, selling crack rock with thugs who offered paternalistic support, hugging his mother from behind bars."
"Dear Mama"
samples the songs "
Sadie" (1974) by
The Spinners, and "In All My Wildest Dreams" (1978) by
Joe Sample
Joseph Leslie Sample (February 1, 1939 – September 12, 2014) was an American keyboardist and composer. He was one of the founding members of The Jazz Crusaders in 1960, the band which shortened its name to "The Crusaders" in 1971. He remained ...
but in the chorus "Sadie" is replaced with "lady".
According to ''
The Philadelphia Tribune
''The Philadelphia Tribune'' is the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States.
The paper began in 1884 when Christopher J. Perry published its first copy. Throughout its history, ''The Philadelphia Tribune' ...
'' George Yancy, the slowness of the beat creates in the listener a mood of reflective reminiscence.
Tupac begins by creating a context where his mother was simply taken for granted against the backdrop of his rather mischievous behavior.
He says, "Suspended from school, scared to go home, I was a fool with the big boys breaking all the rules." He then reflects on how he no doubt blamed the wrong person: "I shed tears with my baby sister. Over the years we were poorer than the other little kids. And even though we had different daddies, the same drama, when things went wrong, we blamed mama. I reminisce on the stress I caused..."
Release and reception
![2Pac - Dear Mamma-Old School (test pressing single) (Side A)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/2Pac_-_Dear_Mamma-Old_School_%28test_pressing_single%29_%28Side_A%29.jpg)
"Dear Mama" entered ''Billboard''s Hot R&B Singles chart on March 11, 1995, rose to number 2 the next week, then to number 1 during the week of March 25. The song topped the ''Billboard''
Hot Rap Singles
Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by '' Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stat ...
chart for five weeks and peaked at number nine on the
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
. It also topped the Hot Dance Music Maxi-Singles sales chart for four weeks. The single was
certified platinum
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
on July 13, 1995, and sold 700,000 copies domestically.
The ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' praised the tune, writing, "The song attests to Shakur's gift at crystallizing complex emotions in simple stark images." ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' called the song "a heartfelt, sometimes harsh dedication of love for his mother that deals with the trials and tribulations each has put the other through." In his dean's list for the Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...
critics poll, Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
named "Dear Mama" the eighth best single of 1995.
Music video
The video features an appearance by Afeni Shakur, who re-enacts her reconciliation with a lookalike of her son. Tupac himself was serving his four-and-a-half-year prison sentence. He released this song, and the associated album, while being sentenced. While in prison his album quickly climbed the charts. The demand for a video grew: the video was released while he was in prison and for that reason could not be in the video. No other video was made when he was released.
Legacy
The song is often considered Shakur's most "emotionally resonant" song. ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' placed "Dear Mama" at number 18 on its 2012 list of The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time, writing, "The song is the ne plus ultra of hip-hop odes to Mom." The song was also ranked number four on About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...
's "Top 100 Rap Songs" list. Carrie Golus of ''USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' opined that "Dear Mama" was the sole reason for the double-platinum certifications of ''Me Against the World''. Golus also argues that the song revealed a softer side of the rapper, leading to increased recognition, especially among female fans. Following the rapper's death, his mother mentioned the song in a ''People
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
'' article: LA Weekly
''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...
placed the song 6 on their list ''The 20 Best Hip-Hop Songs in History''.
"Dear Mama" was one of 25 recordings selected for preservation at the National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...
in the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
in 2010, making it the third hip hop song to do so, following tracks by Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash. The Library of Congress has called the song "a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper's own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference." On the subject of the inclusion, Afeni Shakur stated,
Influence
The song has had an impact on numerous rappers. Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...
stated that the song played constantly in his car in the year following its release.
Common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally com ...
remarked; Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for his Progressive rap, progressive musical styles and Social consciousness, socially conscious songwriting, he is often considered one of the most infl ...
noted that the song profoundly impacted his life, writing,
Track listing
;12", cassette, CD, maxi
#"Dear Mama" (LP Version) — 4:41
#"Dear Mama" (Instrumental) — 5:21
#"Bury Me a G" — 4:59
#"Dear Mama" (Moe Z. Mix) — 5:09
#"Dear Mama" (Instrumental Moe Z. Mix) — 5:09
#"Old School" (LP Version) — 4:59
Credits and personnel
*Background vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...
: "Sweet Franklin", Reggie (Reginald) Green
*Co-Producers: DF Master Tee, Moses
*Engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
: Tony Pizarro Tony Pizarro is an American entertainment executive and record producer, listed as one of the "Top 50 Hip Hop Producers" of all time.
Contributing to selling over 75 million records as Tupac Shakur's producer, songwriter, recording engineer, and m ...
*Mix engineer
A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...
s: Paul Arnold, Leevester Clay
*Producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
: Tony Pizarro Tony Pizarro is an American entertainment executive and record producer, listed as one of the "Top 50 Hip Hop Producers" of all time.
Contributing to selling over 75 million records as Tupac Shakur's producer, songwriter, recording engineer, and m ...
*Rap Vocals: 2Pac
* Keys: Reggie Green
* Bass: Charles Jefferson
* Guitar: Reggie Mc Glover
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
External links
{{authority control
1995 singles
1990s ballads
Tupac Shakur songs
United States National Recording Registry recordings
Songs with feminist themes
Songs about mothers
Songs about childhood
Songs about nostalgia
Interscope Records singles
Jive Records singles
Songs written by Tupac Shakur