(ppg 162-165).There’s nothing like finding a demo version to one of your favorite songs. Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Icon.
“Tupac Shakur: Understanding the Identity Formation of Hyper-Masculinity of a Popular Hip-Hop Artist”. Is hip hop dead?: the past, present, and future of America’s most wanted music. Perhaps they should spend a little more time with their mothers listening to good message songs like “Dear Mama”.ĭyson, Michael Eric.Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. It is truly unfortunate that most of what today’s rappers write and rap about couldn’t be further from this message despite the fact that they all claim to have love for the “OG’s” like Tupac. There can be little doubt that this song is a song with a message and that message is love and respect your mother despite her faults, and love and respect women in general. In addition to the lyrics the entirety of the song is a tribute to the song “Sadie” by the spinners, from the spoken intro, to the “Sadie” samples in the melody, to the stylistic use of the 70’s blues/funk guitar this song is riddled with references to a song that no doubt was a part of Tupac’s childhood, and probably a favorite song of his mother.
#2pac dear mama album name crack#
Johnson and Tayannah Lee McQuillar point out in their book that “Dear Mama” shows that “Tupac had always held Afeni in high regard even when she was a hard-core crack addict”(162). Lyrically the song is filled with tributes to his mother, “You are appreciated” being the main theme of the song and chorus. This is evident throughout the song in so many ways. This message struck out to remind the men of the rap game, and of the men of the struggle and plight of the impoverished, that they needed these strong women and that they should respect them.įinally and most importantly, “Dear Mama” is a tribute song to his mother. He writes: ” Tupac’s awareness and concern not only for the numerous problems of the inner city, but in particular for problems related to women’s position and the treatment of women”( 47). Derek Iwamoto discussed this well in his article about Hyper-Masculinity in the journal Black Scholar. Tupac saw the direction that misogynistic practices were taking the rap game, and perhaps by paying this homage to his mother all males might remember the good their mothers did for them and express a greater love and appreciation for females in general. Tupac’s message extends beyond the song to “all black males, and all hispanic males, all males period but especially from the ghetto” (Tupac via Dyson, 22).
Though he resents her absences this connection helps lend validity to his message throughout his short career. This activist involvement helped to shape Tupac’s message and “connects himself to black radical history through his mother’s involvement” (Hess, 66). Though he only points to his mother’s activist roots through the display of a Black Panthers flag in the music video for “Dear Mama” it is widely regarded that this is the primary reason she was not around in Tupac’s younger years. All of these things combine to deliver the message that Women should be respected, especially mothers, and most especially mothers from the ghetto. Most importantly the song “Dear Mama” allows Tupac to express his love for his mother specifically as a sort of homage to her in music. The song also provides a platform for him to express his feelings towards women in a wholesome way to help combat the hyper-sexualized images in his other songs and in hip-hop in general. Tupac knows that despite his mother’s shortcomings her activist involvement shaped his life.
Tupac’s “Dear Mama” is most assuredly a message song. Tupac wrote many songs in his short lifetime, some of which fall on the entertainment end of the spectrum and some on the message end of the spectrum.
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