Tupac Dear Mama

Dear Mama is a song by the 2Pac and a part of the album Me Against the World. Tupac Shakur was the on the vocals with Ronnie Vann being the guitarist. Dear Mama, written shortly before Shakur was sentenced to jail, was the first single of this album to be released in February 1995. The song is often referred to as the deepest and emotionally touching song by 2Pac. This song was more like a tribute to Shakur’s mother, Alfeni Shakur. Dear Mama proved as a significant deviation from Tupac’s regular radio-friendly style of rapping and instead it is a masterpiece of heart felt internal pain.

The song was divided into six parts; three verses of different number of bars (21 – 27) and three chorus parts in between respectively. The first verse is

By this Tupac refers to the much resented childhood that he had been through. The technique that Tupac uses here is logos; he connects to the audience by providing logical explanation of

Salman 2 what made him the person he was. He also tries to convey that by the age of 17, Tupac had to live on streets, make and spend time with friends and began to sing with an aim of rapping as a career. He also gratifies his mother by saying “Ain’t a woman alive that could take my mam’s place”. Just because he had been with the “big” boys, breaking all the rules, he never wanted to hurt his mother. When he got suspended from school he was scared to go home so that he wouldn’t have to disclose this truth to his mother. Next, Tupac discusses about self-prophesizing himself, as he raps the following,

I reminisce on the stress I caused, it was hell

Huggin’ on my mama from a jail cell

Even though this album, Me Against the World, was released during the days when Tupac was in jail, it was long before that he had composed the song. It was as if he knew he would be incarcerated. All the odds were against him; he being a black male from the ghetto who belonged to an activist mother. Later, Tupac raps about the difficulties his mother had to go through while raising him. Tupac shows that sometimes a reality, even though bitter enough, could serve as an immense strength and that is what the following lyrics

He signifies the realization that raising a child as a single parent is not easy, and especially when the chips are down. He definitely appreciates his mother’s dedication and commitment and that by no means can he repay her