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Allen Hughes ’ docuseries “Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur ” strives for nothing less than to be a complete account of rapper Tupac Shakur. But to do that, Hughes reckons, one must understand the story of his Black Panther revolutionary mother, Afeni. She was an outspoken leader, media mythmaker, a person dedicated to the betterment of her community; she was known for acts of empathy, hurt, anger, intelligence, and fearlessness. So was her son, who was fired up to spread the same message to an even wider audience. Hughes wants to tell both life stories in the same five-hour series, and that goal becomes more important than whether things flow gracefully. Ambition can be a messy act of passion, and throughout an eye-opening and sometimes disorienting five hours, we come to share Hughes’ intricate admiration for the Shakurs and their impact across movements and generations.  

The sensitive project features an incredible roster of people who sit with Hughes and crew to laugh, cry, and set the record straight about Afeni and Tupac, helping us see the many sides of both enigmatic figures. The documentary has a lingering personal nature, with Hughes shown hugging many of his subjects as everything wraps up. We hear from Tupac’s peers, his cousins, and his friends. We hear from Dr. Dre and Mike Tyson in passages about Tupac's later days. Hughes’ interview subjects are often credited by first name only, like his aunt Glo (brutally honest and admiring of her nephew and sister), or his former Death Row Records collaborator “Snoop.” At one point, Hughes gets in front of the camera to share his own supporting role in this saga, which includes co-directing the rapper's "Brenda's Got a Baby" music video with brother Albert Hughes and getting beat up by the rapper’s posse. Hughes shares this experience with an understanding heavier than any other feeling.  

Meanwhile, veterans of the Black Panther Party, like Jamal and Shaba, talk about the force of nature that Afeni was. Afeni was a central part of New York City’s Black Panther 21 group, who was once accused of plotting against the government, and was the target of infiltration by undercover, manipulative police efforts like COINTELPRO. She suffered from addiction, which impacted how her son grew up; the two moved around a lot, coloring Tupac with a bit of New York, Baltimore, and Hollywood, and traumatic experiences with poverty, place brutality, and loss. But they remained close, and he expressed this in songs like “Dear Mama” (for which Hughes also co-directed the video). As Tupac ascended to rap royalty sharing his trauma and societal angst, while blurring the line between what was just an image and what was truly Tupac, Afeni was by his side.  

It becomes evident in the series' more jostling narrative shifts why most filmmakers haven’t attempted to make a high-concept duo-biopic documentary like this, but Hughes blows past any warning signs. Co-writing with Lasse Jarvi, Hughes' ambition here is about big lunges, even if they are not graceful in how it goes back and forth in time between its parallel stories. Hughes is fascinated with narrative connections, overlapping images, and revealing coincidental details that can be made with these life stories (Tupac and Afeni had life-changing court cases in the same courthouse, decades apart). The story of Tupac is titanic and challenging enough; skipping back and forth between decades while giving his mother’s story almost as much screen-time can sometimes take away from the momentum of the project. This can be frustrating as the amount of information here does not do a disservice itself.  

But the docuseries can also work because of the invested time, as with a moment in episode four. Hughes’ timeline takes us back to Tupac’s history as a high school drama student, the origin of someone who would become a Method Actor and use performance to express his voluminous emotions. For an assignment, Tupac embraced the lyrics of Donovan’s wistful ballad “Vincent” and talked about it for ten minutes. It's an amazing image painted by his drama teacher, Donald. Tupac related to how those lyrics recognized the pain of Vincent Van Gogh, and Hughes wants that to ensure we always have that association, with the song playing over footage of young and old Tupac. Then Hughes hits fast forward on the footage, blitzing through the images we had previously seen of a life filled with success, angst, trauma, and frustration; it’s an impactful way to show a full biographical arc, and to give Tupac’s story grace.  

One of the series’ most impactful choices includes the score by Atticus Ross , Leopold Ross , and Claudia Sarne —a cappella tracks of Tupac’s raps are laid over mournful ruminative synthesizer arrangements the three would be known for (especially Atticus Ross’ more mellow Nine Inch Nails days). Accompanied often by shots that slowly scan over the original handwritten lyrics, these moments effectively transform Tupac’s raps into monologues removed from their original packaging, his soul left bare.  

Hughes’ series is best looked at as a portrait made of splattered paint and by a seasoned hand, inspired by wisdom mined from hard memories. It is meant to have its flourishes looked at close-up, but also appreciated for the larger shapes that appear when one steps back and sees the full scope. (The graffiti-like promotional art for this series is particularly on-point.) By its end, Hughes achieves some peace for this saga by giving us everything he can.  

Now playing on Hulu. 

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni & Tupac Shakur (2023)

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FX’s ‘Dear Mama’ Is a Poignant, Passionate Portrait of Tupac and Afeni Shakur From Director Allen Hughes: TV Review

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Director Allen Hughes has evolved into a deft and imaginative documentarian, just the latest pleasant surprise in a long, eclectic career. His best-known films are the scripted fare he co-directed with his twin brother Albert, including “Menace II Society” and “Dead Presidents,” which dove deep into the lives of young, disaffected Black men. The brothers dabbled in documentary with 1999’s “American Pimp,” another film about Black men thriving (and suffering, and causing suffering) in a brutal subculture, but the film’s insights were mostly washed out by its prurience.

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That’s a quality Tupac inherited from Afeni, to whom he paid tribute in the song the docuseries is named after. Afeni was a vocal and visible member of the Black Panther Party, and her son shared the same inclination toward counterculture that informed his early, commentary-laden songs. After Tupac joined the infamous Death Row Records (with which he was reportedly intent on cutting ties prior to his death), Afeni finds herself less and less able to recognize her son. “Dear Mama” does a masterful job of explaining the many similarities between the two, and the pitfalls that led Tupac to end up living a radically different life than his mother. Even as their lives seem to echo each other, as when the show juxtaposes their respective legal battles, the show highlights how dramatically their paths have diverged. (Afeni stands trial for her alleged role in bombing a police station, while Tupac is sentenced for sexual assault.)

The series moves at a breakneck speed, but Hughes’ impressionistic visuals and more-is-more approach to sound design justifies that. “Dear Mama” is similar to looking at a Shakur family photo album through a microscope and a kaleidoscope at the same time. While Hughes occasionally indulges in genre tropes — if someone asks for a break to cry and compose themselves, that request will always make the cut — “Dear Mama” is incisive and inventive enough to extend his intriguing second act. 

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Dear Mama’ on FX, A Powerfully-Told Docuseries About The Life and Legacy of Tupac Shakur

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In Dear Mama (FX; also streaming on Hulu ), the new five-part docuseries from writer, director, and exec producer Allen Hughes ( The Defiant Ones , Menace II Society ), the mother-son bond between Afeni and Tupac Shakur is explored as a saga that spans the decades. Tupac, the visionary rapper and actor who was only 25 when he was murdered in 1996, appears here in rare and unreleased audio and video. Afeni Shakur is interviewed extensively, and Dear Mama also features contributions from family, friends, collaborators, as well as notables of hip hop including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem.  

DEAR MAMA : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Los Angeles, 1991. Speaking on a local talk show about the challenges he faced growing up, Tupac Shakur says all of it made him who is today. “I would say it was a test on my faith. Job, in the Bible, God did all of this crazy stuff to him, just to make sure his faith was straight.” 

The Gist: Snoop Dogg’s assessment of Tupac Shakur’s character and legacy points specifically backward in time, to the rapper’s formative years with Afeni Shakur, his mother, and a former leader in the Black Panther Party. “They say a man ain’t a man until he’s 27. You still a baby at 25. But he was just, like, a special motherfucker. And this spirit has only grown through his mother – she was great before he even got here.” Time’s arrow often points both ways in Dear Mama, as writer and director Allen Hughes seeks to connect Afeni’s activist fervor and individualism to the demeanor and public voice her son Tupac had developed by the time he was killed in a still-unsolved 1996 shooting. Despite the adversity they faced, Afeni says in an interview for Dear Mama, and despite a portion of it stemming from her own struggle with addiction, it was her duty to help her son understand his reality. That he was a Black man living in America in the 1980s.  

There are other testimonials here besides Snoop, from Dr. Dre, Eminem, Ray Luv, and Mike Tyson, the world champion boxer who says that whenever he meets kids in other parts of the world, all they want to know about is what it was like to be near Tupac. But Hughes largely eschews the traditional documentary format. Put more simply, he blows it up. Contemporary interviews blend into archival footage sourced from all over – including interviews with Tupac as a high school student as well as a 1995 deposition he gave while in custody in New York State – and commentary from friends and colleagues of both Shakurs that constructs a dramatic arc with foundations in four different decades. The history of Afeni Shakur’s journey toward liberation and empowerment as a Black Panther is repeated in Tupac Shakur’s strident lyricism and natural gifts of charisma. As much as members of the Black Panthers looked to Afeni for leadership, those around Tupac as his music career emerged felt drawn to his presence. “I saw an energy,” says music executive Atron Gregory. Deals with Interscope were signed, and acting projects began to appear. ( Dear Mama includes a clip of Tupac’s fiery audition tape for Juice . ) But tragedy was waiting in the wings.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It’s kind of crazy that it took until 2023 for us to get the definitive Tupac Shakur documentary, complete with the cooperation of his family, friends, and professional peers. But now that Allen Hughes’ docuseries is here, it’s part of a reckoning with an era of hip-hop that certainly deserves a say in how its story is told. And to that end, it’s been announced that Hughes will also be at the helm for an upcoming Snoop Dogg biopic.

Our Take: Often, the elliptical, nonlinear storytelling in Dear Mama is powerful enough to elevate it completely out of the documentary form. Its interview subjects are shot at night, in dark rooms, or beside a roaring fire; it punctuates their commentary with the use of stock footage and other resources that merge together and flirts with dramatic reenactment; and with the benefit of writer-director Allen Hughes’ experience as a filmmaker, and the hip hop soundtrack provided by its central figure, entire stretches of Dear Mama feel more like a biopic than a docuseries. There’s nothing wrong with any of this, of course. Hughes’ emphatic style choices inform the story in ways a stuffier, more traditional doc certainly wouldn’t. It keeps as its focus the energy and vitality that resonated in Tupac Shakur’s music, and which is almost touchable here, in both youthful interviews and in how a song like “Dear Mama” can deconstruct itself into atoms, until we might as well be holding Tupac’s lyric notebook for him as he lays down his raps in a Bay Area recording studio.    

Leila Steinberg, an early manager and mentor for Tupac, says in Dear Mama that she actually wasn’t managing an artist, but an entire campaign, as if he was running for office. And Rapper Ray Luv remembers that Tupac when he was just coming out, was so conscious that his hairstyle was conscious. Nobody else was carrying the message all the way through, but Tupac was. The themes he was exploring were always fully realized, part of a larger personal project that was cut short by his untimely death, and it’s that sense of determination that Dear Mama feels most compelled to illustrate since it was shared by his Tupac’s mother Afeni as she went from living as a North Carolina transplant in New York City to becoming a leading voice of the Black Panther Party’s powerful public activism.    

Sex And Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: “He looked at me and he said ‘I’m never gonna let anybody beat me down.’ Stopped me in my tracks.” Afeni Shakur, who had not been shown on camera until now, is speaking about her son’s determined nature that was instilled within him from an early age. And Tupac’s “Young Black Male” plays over the closing credits. “Young black male, ain’t shit to fool with…”

Sleeper Star: “Yeah, let me tell you this about Afeni,” says Glo, her oldest sister, cigarette close at hand and seemingly in a mood to share some tea. “So we correct, so nobody don’t think I’m blowing sunshine up her ass. She got on my nerves. Do you understand what I’m saying? Wore me out. Because the thing that I had to do, all my life, is protect my sister.”

Most Pilot-y Line: In a piece of interview footage dating back to his time at Tamalpais High School in Marin County, California, a fresh-faced Tupac Shakur, just 17, delivers a take on the preparatory failures of the American education system that also speaks presciently to his eventual career. “We’re not being taught to deal with the world as it is. We’re being taught to deal with this fairyland that we’re not even living in anymore.” Tupac says his mom taught him to analyze society. “To not be quiet.”  

Our Call: STREAM IT. The five-part series Dear Mama feels like the Tupac Shakur documentary of record as it connects the rapper’s enduring legacy to the philosophies at work in his upbringing and presents its story in a challenging, rewarding nonlinear fashion.   

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter:  @glennganges  

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Tupac was born in the 1980s. He was born in 1971.

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A documentary series which follows the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur and his mother, the Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur. A documentary series which follows the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur and his mother, the Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur. A documentary series which follows the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur and his mother, the Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur.

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• April 21, 2023 (United States)
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‘Dear Mama’ is Tupac and Afeni Shakur’s beautiful, tragic opus

The FX docuseries details the tell true story behind the mother and son

Up Next From Culture

Afeni Shakur and her son, Tupac Shakur, lived nearly 35,000 days combined — and very few of those days seemed to have brought either one of them real peace. In Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur , FX’s sprawling new five-part docuseries directed by Allen Hughes, we get a look at the trials and triumphs of the mother-son duo who fought — against racist systems, cops, their own demons, and rivals — for the majority of their lives.

“I think my mother knew that freedom wouldn’t come in her lifetime,” Shakur says in the series, which includes photos and archival footage,”just like I know that it won’t come in mine.”

The difficulty of telling Tupac and Afeni Shakur’s story wasn’t lost on Hughes. Shakur, a quarter century after his murder, is a folk hero whose life has been immortalized on film for years. How could Hughes tell a story many believed they already knew everything about?

“It was really challenging and difficult to figure out a way to tell [their stories] in a different, dynamic way. I don’t feel like Afeni has been chronicled,” Hughes said. “So, that part I knew would be a revelation, and that would be the access point and the prism to see the whole journey through. I felt that the perception was that there were too many Tupac things out. So I had to fight that perception, and seeing through Afeni’s journey was the way to do that.”

Dear Mama is a comprehensive, uncomfortable, frustrating, emotional and necessary examination of the legacies of both Tupac and Afeni Shakur. In part, that’s because it’s more than a standard birth-to-death retelling of their story. They were notable figures in every significant discourse regarding the treatment of Black people in America since the Civil Rights Movement — the Black Panther Party, women’s liberation, the war on drugs and poverty and the rise of hip-hop. 

“Social, cultural and political is everything. So if you’re not contextualizing that way, then you’re not doing your job,” said Hughes. “So you could see that in Afeni’s journey, you could see that in Tupac. Where was she in the timeline of just Black people in America … and then to that end, Tupac, you have to ask those same questions. People take [the story] into their heart in a more fuller way when you take them on that journey, that colorful journey.

Afeni and Tupac Shakur were from two different generations of Black freedom fighters — and many times their own worst enemies. But mother and son inherited the same war. And going to war, on however many fronts, was the family business. Surviving was never the point of the mission. Changing the world as much as they could was the goal.

Hughes and his brother, Albert, are figures in Shakur’s narrative. The two directed many of his earliest videos, including “ Trapped ” and “ Brenda’s Got a Baby .” They also made the difficult choice to remove Shakur from their 1993 film, Menace II Society . This decision led to Hughes getting jumped that same year by Shakur and members of his entourage. Shakur not only boasted about the event on Yo! MTV Raps , but also served jail time for it. It’s taken Hughes almost a lifetime to come to peace with the moment and how it not only changed his life and career, but also Shakur’s. All of which is discussed in the series.

It is unfair to reduce both Shakur and Hughes to their darkest moment together, though. Back then, Hughes didn’t focus on the altercation. He had too much else going on. Menace II Society was headed to the Cannes Film Festival. The soundtrack was receiving rave reviews. Over time, the altercation became a thing of the past. Shakur, a simultaneous supernova and moving tragedy, was killed in 1996. In 2013, Hughes went on Sway in the Morning and gave a blow-by-blow account of the altercation. But even that accounting, he noted, lacked context. It wasn’t until his work on the 2017 documentary, The Defiant Ones , when he really began to unlock his true emotions. Dear Mama helped him sort through them even more.

“The real healing and cathartic experience didn’t happen till I made this. And it wasn’t overnight, and it wasn’t like a year ago. It was just the last few weeks,” he said. “I hope there’s more of these. I hope there’s more people telling stories they were in and maybe it seems odd. As long as you open your heart up and you’re willing to take the bullets, too, which I am. Then something magical can potentially happen about uncovering what wasn’t uncovered initially.”

That magic in Dear Mama begins with a bang. The first episode opens with the backstory of Shakur’s introspective hit record, “ Dear Mama .” Though it was released in 1995, the earliest version of the song was recorded in 1994 — the same year Shakur’s star power ballooned following the success of movies like Juice and Poetic Justice , which paired him with Janet Jackson. “ Keep Ya Head Up ” and “ I Get Around ,” both singles from Pac’s 1993 album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. , added to his growing résumé, which also included the titles activist and revolutionary. His mother’s involvement in the Black Panther Party was the foundation of Shakur’s politics and his commitment to the Black community. Which is why, when he saw two white men harassing a Black motorist late one night in Atlanta, he intervened.

It was Halloween 1993 and Shakur initially attempted to defuse the situation. But when one of the white men hit the Black motorist and brandished a gun, things escalated. After grabbing his own gun, Shakur got down on one knee, like a marksman, and shot both men. He’d later learn they were off-duty police officers.

Later that night, as law enforcement surrounded the hotel where he and his entourage were staying, Shakur attempted to quell a panicked room by playing a song he’d just recorded. That song was “Dear Mama.”

The series smartly juxtaposes the peaks and valleys of mother and son’s lives with the complexities of America. With the gift of hindsight a quarter century after Shakur’s death and nearly seven years after Afeni’s, it can be said America hurt Afeni. Afeni hurt Tupac. Society tried to suffocate Tupac. And in turn, Shakur’s energy often missed its mark.

“Part of [Allen] wanting to really do this piece was about healing, was about honesty, was about all of us looking at what happened,” Leila Steinberg, Shakur’s first manager, told SiriusXM’s The Last Mile Radio last month. “I’m just saying this to say he’s done an incredible piece. I’m in my 60s now. We really blew it. We made a lot of mistakes. Tupac was not always right. Matter of fact, he was so passionate and so emotional and so often not emotionally literate, not able to control his emotions. So he let his anger speak first and then later he would apologize or acknowledge things. So if we’re gonna heal, we have to be honest.”

Tupac and Afeni Shakur’s stories can be told individually and they have been. Yet, as Dear Mama reveals, its more effective to weave them together. In 1971, Afeni Shakur successfully defended herself in t he Panther 21 trial , in which 21 members of the Black Panther Party were charged with conspiring to attack numerous targets around New York City. A month later, Shakur was born. Dear Mama also shares Shakur’s last words after being shot in Las Vegas (he allegedly told a cop, “F— you”), the sexism Afeni Shakur faced inside the Black Panther Party, her eventual crack addiction and the pain and fracture it caused on her and her son.

Though he only lived 25 years, Shakur’s life felt longer. He never allowed himself to slow down. He wanted to change the trajectory of his life by controlling the only thing he believed he could: the present. Part of that came from how he grew up with his mother, who often left him while she advocated for Black liberation. Later, he continued to live in the moment as her addiction crippled her and their relationship. Ultimately, Shakur saw the world like his mother saw it: as an ugly canvas that could only be painted with brushes of revolution and resistance.

Perhaps what Dear Mama does best is show how much their relationship bent and stretched — but never broke. You come to understand why Shakur was angry at society over the treatment of his mother and so many other “fallen soldiers.”

“What about all these other soldiers sitting in jail? Where they kids at? Don’t none of you motherf—ers give a f— about them!” Shakur raged at the 1993 Black Expo in Indiana. “Little Latasha [Harlins] got a bullet in her motherf—ing back and ain’t ‘nar one of you do a motherf—ing thing!”

You come to understand why, in moments of stress, he once shot up a Mercedes-Benz (no one was in it). You’ll ask yourself why he could defend the Black man getting harassed by cops — but didn’t do more to defend Ayanna Jackson the night of her sexual assault (a regret that would follow Shakur the rest of his life). You also understand why Shakur’s delusions became his reality — like why he believed his former friend The Notorious B.I.G. set him up in the 1994 Quad Studios shooting, or why he felt the need to attack Southside Crip Orlando Anderson shortly after the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight in September 1996, a move that many speculate led directly to his demise. He was never as mad at his mother as much as he was angry at the world. In Dear Mama you learn how far off course Afeni Shakur’s life went until her son helped get her back on track. And you understand how much they needed each other as Shakur’s life became more chaotic as his time in the public light grew.

The pain in Afeni Shakur’s voice when she talks about just how much she wanted to protect her son is palpable. You feel the haziness that still comes with discussing Shakur’s decision to join Death Row Records — and why, even to this day, many are angry at those who didn’t do enough to protect Shakur from himself. And there’s a familiar sense of loyalty when Shakur speaks about his mother, despite their trials.

In many ways, all they had was each another. During Shakur’s dark nights in a maximum security penitentiary for sexual assault, the stories of his mother and her fight provided light in the darkest chapter of his life. The fight is a critical through line for Dear Mama . But at its core, the series is about a mother trying to figure out how to be the best mother she can be — and a son trying to figure out how to be the best son. So when his mother checked out of rehab, Shakur hired her as his publicist — experience be damned. And when Shakur, with a lung removed and his finger shot off, fought for his life in a Las Vegas hospital, his mother ultimately decided to let her son discover if heaven indeed had a ghetto.

“The only other person I can compare it to is when you read a biography on Richard Pryor and you go, ‘Wow, one week in this dude’s life was like a year,’ ” said Hughes. “Literally, that’s how they led their lives. So when people feel like his story’s been told, I’m sure you can for the next hundred years, tell many Tupac stories and they’ll all be fresh.”

Justin Tinsley is a senior culture writer for Andscape. He firmly believes “Cash Money Records takin’ ova for da ’99 and da 2000” is the single most impactful statement of his generation.

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Dear Mama: Season 1 Reviews

Tupac Shakur’s song about his mother, which gives this series its name, is a tearjerker, and this fascinating series fleshes out that complex relationship.

Full Review | Feb 5, 2024

It is hardly the kind of feelgood, blemish-free music documentary that many viewers may expect; instead, it is a sharply defined portrait of two revolutionaries and their still-impactful lives.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 1, 2023

If you had any questions as to who Tupac & his mother Afeni Shakur were, they're answered here in vivid detail. Director Allen Hughes knocks this documentary series out of the park weaving back and forth between their lives & the Black Panther movement.

Full Review | Original Score: 9.5/10 | May 19, 2023

One of the most thorough, sensitive portraits I’ve seen of an artist who has by now been eulogized for longer than he was alive—and of the remarkable woman who created him.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2023

Director Allen Hughes (Menace II Society), gives the documentary a compelling structure, style, and propulsive editing that keeps the series fun to watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 26, 2023

Dear Mama feels like the Tupac Shakur documentary of record as it connects the rapper’s enduring legacy to the philosophies at work in his upbringing and presents its story in a challenging, rewarding nonlinear fashion.

Full Review | Apr 25, 2023

Ambition can be a messy act of passion, and throughout an eye-opening and sometimes disorienting five hours, we come to share Hughes’ intricate admiration for the Shakurs and their impact across movements and generations.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 25, 2023

Beyond its intimate and nuanced portrayal of their relationship, “Dear Mama” miniaturizes a huge swath of Black life without diluting it.

Full Review | Apr 24, 2023

Tackles the contradictions of its subject in a fruitful way.

Full Review | Apr 20, 2023

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‘dear mama’ director allen hughes on tupac shakur’s legacy: “he lived more in a day than most in a year”.

Hughes explains why he depicted the life of the rapper and actor alongside his activist mother, Afeni Shakur: "I absolutely believe this is the definitive story."

By Cori Murray

Cori Murray

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By the time the fifth and final episode of FX/Hulu’s Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur ends, director Allen Hughes comes from behind the camera and embraces Afeni’s sister, Glo, with a generous hug. She can no longer hold back the flood of tears recalling the harrowing yet remarkable lives of her sister and only nephew. Her voice, direct and booming throughout the docuseries, finally cracks. “We were left to tell the story,” says Glo, rising up out of frame because she’s said all she can say.

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Through a series of interviews with Afeni’s former Black Panther Party comrades, Hughes explores how her civil rights activism informed Tupac’s core values, but also addresses the negative external forces that encumbered the poet turned rapper. The director encountered those forces firsthand. Hughes’ relationship with Tupac began in 1992, when he directed Tupac’s first videos, “Trapped” and “Brenda’s Got a Baby.” On these sets Hughes saw the magnetism that would immediately draw people, for better or worse, to Tupac. Their bond would remain intact until one fateful incident in 1993, when Hughes was viciously attacked by the gang members who infiltrated Tupac’s inner circle. Hughes would not speak to Tupac again. Dear Mama includes a rare moment in which the documentarian takes the hot seat and finally shares what happened. The revelation is brief but illuminates the complexity of the late star.

It’s been almost 27 years since Tupac’s death. What made you want to tell the story of Tupac and Afeni Shakur now?

I was raised by a single mother who was an activist. She was on the forefront of the feminist and women’s rights movements. I related to that, as well as for the part of my adolescence, the first eight, 10 years of my life, when we were on welfare. I can relate to the poverty struggle. But I always felt like I wanted to understand Tupac. I think he’s one of the most misunderstood figures of the 20th century. I figured I would discover him through his mother. I can’t find him through hip-hop, I can’t find him through a murder investigation or all that shit that’s been done before — I can only access him through Afeni. I was surprised by what a revelation she was because I didn’t know any[thing] about her before I started.

You had so much never-before-seen footage. Why approach it as a series rather than a feature?

There were a lot of people going, “Why are you telling this in five parts? He’s only 25.” I keep telling people it’s about his mother too, it’s about Panther history. There’s civil rights history in there. We’re going back to the ’60s through the ’70s, through the ’80s up into the ’90s. It’s a dual narrative. I knew there was no way to achieve that in a feature. It would be impossible to really do the deep dive.

As a young filmmaker, what drew you to Tupac?

Let’s segue to when Tupac’s crew assaulted you after he felt slighted because you didn’t put him in Menace II Society . In Dear Mama , you say you didn’t want to speak to him afterward. How did you reconcile with someone who was once a friend to you, especially since he had passed?

When that happened, I went to the hospital. You can imagine 10, 15 dudes rolling you up like a burrito. It was not pretty. I was angry with him because I’m like, “Why did you have to take it there?” I offered to meet him personally one-on-one in the park. And that’s why I ended up going to court, because he wouldn’t meet me. He wasn’t ready, obviously. A couple of weeks later, me and my brother are at Cannes. We’re all over TV, on the Today show. We have the hottest movie in town. There was no time for me to think about [the assault], and I never really, to be frank, felt traumatized by it.

Years later, I was cutting [the 2017 doc series] The Defiant Ones , and Tupac was in part three. He just kept taking the movie over; for months he would take the whole narrative over. I’m like, “This movie’s not about him. What is going on?” We were wrestling with him, and that was the first time a lightbulb went off [that I should move past our history and fully tell Tupac’s story].

Now that the docuseries is streaming, do you feel you have done right by Tupac?

But a Black woman’s history? I wondered out loud: “How the fuck was I never taught about this woman and what she was doing in that courtroom?” [When she was 24, Afeni Shakur represented herself in a 1970-71 trial involving several counts of conspiracy, for which she was acquitted.] Being right there in the forefront with her brothers and sisters of the civil rights movement — that narrative alone, and her self-possession and off-the-charts intelligence, warrants a chapter in these history books. I was always precious, especially recently, about Black history and people of color having their history erased, but I’m even more sensitive to women of color’s history being erased. That’s the thing that’s been fucking me up recently, because I’m seeing the reaction to the film now and what people are saying about her, and how they’re respecting her as a woman and her journey. It hurts my heart.

One last thing: Do you think you’ve told the definitive story of Tupac Shakur’s life?

I absolutely believe this is the definitive story on Tupac and his journey. But he lived more in one day than most of us live in a year. I’m sure there are other stories that will come that will be equally revealing. There’s so many narratives there, as well as Afeni’s. I think when someone’s that dynamic and that complex and that fiery, this, as of now, is the definitive story.

This story first appeared in a May stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe .

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Tupac & Afeni Shakur "Dear Mama" Doc: Episode 1 Review

Tupac & Afeni Shakur's Dear Mama documentary recently premiered, and it has fans buzzing. It has been nearly 27 years since the unsolved murder of Tupac Shakur, and the mythology has continued since. This Allen Hughes docuseries s heds light on the history and background of the infamous West Coast legend. Hughes is best known for his scripted films, such as Menace II Society and Dead Presidents , which offered insightful depictions of Black men. His introduction into documentary filmmaking with his twin brother Albert, American Pimp , did not live up to expectations.

However, since pursuing solo projects, Allen has found his stride with The Defiant Ones , a Grammy-winning and Emmy-nominated docuseries chronicling the successful partnership between Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Allen Hughes's impressive documentary work has solidified his status as one of his generation's most innovative and skilled filmmakers.

Hughes & Dear Mama

Hughes returns with his latest project, Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur, a five-hour docuseries that examines the role of Black activism in Shakur's life and its blend into his music. In this ambitious series, Hughes parallels the lives of Tupac and his mother, Afeni, an outspoken leader in the Black Panther Party. Hughes delivers a complete account of the rapper by interweaving his story with his mother's. Dear Mama offers real insights into the impact of the Shakur family across movements and generations. The series constructs an experience that offers an intimate and nuanced portrayal of their relationship. With Dear Mama , Hughes again proves his gifted and imaginative approach to documentary filmmaking.

Episode 1: "Panther Power"

At 17 years old, Tupac faced many challenges, including poverty and familial struggles. He pursued his dream of using poetry and music to spread his mother's message of social activism. At the same time, Afeni, a well-known Black Panther activist, was haunted by her past. She worried about how it might impact Tupac's promising future. Despite his difficulties, Tupac remained committed to his goals and continued using his art to advocate for vital issues.

The first episode of Dear Mama , "Panther Power," starts with the impactful story behind one of Tupac's most beloved songs. The rapper's activism and revolutionary spirit, inspired by his mother's involvement with the Panthers, drove him to intervene during a violent incident. He witnessed two white men harassing a Black motorist in Atlanta in 1993 on Halloween night.

Despite the victim attempting to calm the situation, one of the men hit the motorist and pointed a gun. Tupac witnessed the event, grabbed his weapon, and shot both assailants. It was later learned that the attackers were off-duty police officers. As law enforcement surrounded the hotel where Tupac and his friends stayed, he attempted to comfort the tense room by playing a song he had just recorded: "Dear Mama." The song showcases Tupac's musical talent and deep love and appreciation for his mother. Although the show portrays the shooting incident as legendary, it also exposes Tupac's troubled past and struggles as a young Black man.

Lawsuit Against Oakland Police

The first episode concludes just as powerfully as it began with the jaywalking arrest of Tupac. Following his arrest and beating for jaywalking, Shakur filed a well-known lawsuit against the Oakland Police. He sought $10 million in damages. The film emphasizes the poignant and heartwarming realization that even though he was enraged by the incident, he longed for his mother's counsel.

Unfortunately, she was undergoing treatment in rehab at the time. Regarding sensitive subjects like violence, it can be tricky to strike the right tone. That's undoubtedly a challenge Hughes faces when analyzing the tumultuous life of Tupac. While glorifying some of the more violent moments in his past may not sit well with some viewers, it's a reminder that Tupac's life teemed with complexities and contradictions . It's up to the viewer to grapple with that truth. By taking on this complicated subject matter, Dear Mama forces viewers to confront the darker side of Tupac's legacy, even as it celebrates his enduring impact on popular culture.

The premiere episode, which debuted on April 21, is now FX's most-watched unscripted series premiere in the network's history. The Dear Mama Hulu release date also performed exceptionally well.

Sweet Lady, Don't You Know We Love You?

Afeni's story is captivating, from her leadership in the Black Panther Party to her imprisonment while pregnant with Tupac. She also battled addiction and financial struggles that contributed to her family's constant displacement. What sets Dear Mama apart is its unconventional, non-linear narrative approach that weaves events from Afeni's and Tupac's lives. Through interviews with former Black Panther colleagues and family members, the film offers valuable insights into how Afeni's influence helped shape her son's myth-building approach to storytelling.

Despite her flaws, Afeni was a fierce advocate for justice and equality. She played a significant role in the movements of the late 20th century. The story of Afeni Shakur is one of courage and resilience. Her influence on her son Tupac's life is undeniable.

Personal & Poignant

The documentary takes a profoundly personal approach. It features a diverse cast of individuals who share their stories about the mother and son. From Tupac's peers and cousins to his former collaborators at Death Row Records, the film provides a multifaceted perspective on the complex and enigmatic figures. Ultimately, the purpose behind Hughes's documentary is the argument about Tupac's constant drive. Additionally, it sheds light on Pac's desire to protect people who are wronged, no matter the personal cost. The next Dear Mama Hulu release date for new episodes is April 28th.

Tupac's aunt and Afeni's sister, Glo, summarizes this mission by stating in the documentary, "Where did Tupac get the myth-building from? Afeni. And 'Feni wanted the story told. Correctly. That means blemishes and all, so people can understand that whole thing of what makes a human being."

[ VIA ][ VIA ]

• 2pac Shakur
• Tupac Shakur

Canada's Documentary Magazine

Dear Mama Review: Of Mothers and Sons

Dear Mama (USA, 65 min.) Dir. Allen Hughes Programme: Primetime

At TIFF 2022, FX unveiled the opening episode of Dear Mama , which is set to air this fall. This five-part documentary series on the life and legacy of hip-hop icon Tupac Amaru Shakur is a virtuoso weave of histories that develops into a profoundly moving experience. Director Allen Hughes ( The Defiant Ones , Menace II Society ) tackles his subject with a dazzlingly layered approach that intertwines Shakur’s story with that of his mother, Afeni Shakur. This approach offers a deeper context for audiences to appreciate the Shakurs and their shared bond. It also envelopes the viewer in the socially conscious environment in which Tupac grew up.

The series is named after one of Shakur’s most famous songs, a tribute to his mother. The song “Dear Mama” is a testament to their struggles, including their rift during Afeni’s addiction to cocaine, and the love that endures despite the challenges. The song is also widely regarded as an anthem to single mothers everywhere, especially women who give their all for their families despite poverty and social indifference.

Distinguished as one of the most influential rappers, Shakur died from gunshot wounds at age 25 in 1996 and remains one of music’s top-selling artists. Much of his music addresses societal inequalities, and, as this documentary makes clear, he found his own ways to battle injustice and oppression.

Afeni Shakur, meanwhile, was a seminal figure in her son’s life, but also in the civil rights struggle. She was a Black Panther Party member who was pregnant with Tupac when she defended herself during a trial as a member of Panther 21. She was accused of orchestrating the bombing of New York police stations and an education office in 1969. She is also credited with effectively campaigning for patients’ rights in hospitals .

The key to Dear Mama is Hughes’ consistent focus through the lens of Afeni Shakur’s past. Afeni taught her son to question and to debate, even challenging his intellect with articles from the New York Times . Tupac learned from Afeni to hate oppression, not people.

Deftly combining candid interviews with archival footage, Hughes fashions an intensely intimate yet far-reaching experience. Personal recollections by family members and friends mix with archival footage of Tupac’s career and Black Panther news items.

There’s a restless energy underpinning Dear Mama that emanates from the very subject itself, one that matches the duo’s challenges against the injustice they witnessed. This force informs every frame of the deeply resonant documentary. Afeni and Tupac Shakur may be gone, but Hughes triumphantly conjures their fighting spirits. What makes this series so poignant is how Dear Mama is not just a retelling of history, but a vital chronicle whose place exists in the here and now.

Dear Mama premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

• Allen Hughes
• Black Panthers
• Tupac Shakur

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Directed by Allen Hughes

There is no stronger love.

Explore the history of activist Afeni Shakur and hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, two voices that could not be silenced. Told through the eyes of the people who knew them best, this series is an intimate wide-angle portrait of the most inspiring and dangerous mother-son duo in American history, whose unified message of freedom, equality, persecution and justice are more relevant today than ever.

Tupac Shakur Afeni Shakur Gloria Cox

Director Director

Allen Hughes

Writers Writers

Allen Hughes Lasse Järvi

Editor Editor

Lasse Järvi

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Nelson George Quincy Jones III Adel 'Future' Nur Staci Robinson Jamal Joseph Ted Skillman Charles D. King Peter Nelson Lasse Järvi Allen Hughes

Defiant Ones Media Group Amaru Entertainment DreamCrew Interscope Films MACRO

Popular reviews

Review by Ian Curran 2

Even though we’ve long since passed the cultural saturation point of Tupac content, I’ll still pretty much watch anything about him.

Following his amazing portrait of the lives and times that helped shape Tupac in The Defiant Ones, Allen Hughes is once again trying to understand the enigma of raps most controversial figure. This time around Hughes is looking at how the myth of Pac was constructed and encouraged by his mother. It’s an interesting look at how men’s sense of their own masculinity can be shaped in powerful ways by the women in their lives.

A man don’t need no man. 😂

Review by Jack 🔜 #TIFF24

What a journey.

I was hesitant to watch an extended documentary series on Tupac. I've been burned out by the lack of nuance regarding to portraying hip-hop artists in a flawed light. However, that is not the case with this mini-docuseries.

Tupac Amaru Shakur (a.k.a 2Pac/Makaveli) was named after a descendant of the last Incan cacique. Both figures have similar stories regarding to their struggles as a cultural leader. 2Pac's mother is the center of this documentary for good reasons. Mainly because Afeni Shakur was part of the Black Panther Party. An organization which was vilified and murdered by the hands of the U.S Government in the late 60s. Afeni had 2Pac in her womb while she was being targeted…

Review by Tinker ★★★★★

Well this is the end all, be all of the Afeni & Tupac Shakur story. There wasn’t a better person to direct this than Allen Hughes, not only for his talent but for his connection as well.  What I wouldn’t give to pick his brain on how and why he made the choices he made for this.  I’ve missed Pac since the day all this bullshit happened. He’s been gone longer than the time he spent on this earth too. That’s insane. He meant so much to me growing up and still continues to do so. That ol’ ‘who would you pick dead or alive to have dinner with?’ Tupac is definitely on my list.  He left us with so much, that we are still continuously inspired and moved by him. Truly a great one of a kind human being. This documentary captures exactly that. 

Keep ya head up 

Review by Lindsey Krahn ★★★★½

This was a phenomenal documentary series. I was drawn in to the history, the details, the interviews, the imagery, the music.. Not only did I reminisce, I also learned so damn much, both about Tupac and his mother Afeni, that I knew little or nothing about. An explosive and painfully honest documentary that took me to school. This piece enlightened me, it gave me goosebumps, had me in my feels and gave us a different glimpse into the man that was Tupac. Some of my favorite moments were the shots where he didn't know the camera was on him ... in these moments you could see the character slip. You got to see for a brief moment into the eyes…

Review by Alexander Budnick ★★★★★

a true poet, artist, activist, prodigy, and a tortured soul freed from this earth too early in life. Filled with an abundance of heart and struggle that enlightens not only the influence and change he made as a rapper, and rather sheds the spotlight on the matter of soul as a young educated black man influenced by his mother's ideology as a black panther and how he learned to adapt in an institutionalized society to become an icon that people look up to through the spirit of his songwriting. Highly recommend giving a watch if you are interested in knowing the true spirit and god-gifted touch of Tupac Amaru Shakur and his mother Afeni Shakur.

Review by Markus ★★★★

„Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender…“ - Tupac Shakur

Review by laviieboheme ★★★★

“Ambition. Ambition. Money. More money. He believed that he could absorb that crap, and not let it become part of him. He could use it as a means to an end.”

An insightful look into the late and great Tupac and Afeni Shakur. There have been multiple biopics but they mainly focus on him as an artist. I appreciate the shift and focus and that Afeni is in the spotlight. There are a lot more people whose stories deserves to be told.

Review by cronrat ★★★★★ 3

This shit had me emotional. Such an incredible doco series and an extremely powerful story. Tupac is one of the most iconic artists in hip hop and this series gives so much insight into not only his life and legacy and how impactful it was but also the woman that raised him through her own immense struggles and made him into the person he was. I often found myself forgetting how young Tupac was during most of the footage in this doc honestly, it’s wild how mature he was beyond his years and how powerfully his voice spoke to so many. Iconic and moving story, this absolutely slapped, 100% recommend

Review by Kristin Myrtle

Afeni Shakur... what a woman! ❤️❤️❤️

Review by Keith Adams Jr. ★★★★

Quickie Review  We all know about the story of Tupac Shakur. We know his legacy in hip-hop and pop culture and black culture. But his story couldn’t have been told without telling the story of the woman who brought him into the world. Allen Hughes, the co-director of Menace II Society, Dead Presidents and The Book of Eli , chronicles the story of the late rapper/actor and his mother Afeni in this 5-part FX documentary series that serves dual purposes: it tells the story of Afeni Shakur, a black woman who gained a large purpose in the community by becoming a member of the Black Panthers and an even larger purpose in her life by becoming a mother of a young…

Review by tazz13 ★★★★½

I'm a huge 2Pac fan and this is one of the best documentaries I've seen. It focuses on his life and career and his relationship with his mother, while having some time devoted to her as well. Five episodes was about the perfect length and it features interviews with a wide variety of people like Snoop and Mike Tyson. Pretty much a must see if you like 2Pac or just want to see why he was such an enigmatic and influential figure. The dopest of soundtracks too, obviously.

Review by Socorro Hernandez ★★★★★

Really great documentary any fan of Tupac or music ingenral should watch it had me fucked up on the last episode Rip Both 🙏

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Dear Mama: episode guide, trailer, premise and everything we know about the Tupac docuseries

A deep dive into the legacy of mother and son, Afeni and Tupac Shakur.

In what is perhaps long overdue, the life contributions of Tupac and Afeni Shakur get the docuseries treatment in Dear Mama . 

Arguably the most prolific rapper to date, Tupac’s legacy extends far beyond his impact on music. Yes, he’s sold over 75 million records, was the first solo hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and has written lyrics that countless people around the world can recite. However, he was also heavily in tune with the many ills of society and lent his voice to championing the cause of the disenfranchised. 

It’s this social activism component of his life that he undoubtedly inherited from Afeni. His mother was a well-known political activist and member of the Black Panther Party who certainly was not above fighting for well-worthy causes. 

So just what is Dear Mama going to cover? Here’s everything we know. 

When is the next episode of Dear Mama? 

The next episode of Dear Mama airs on Friday, May 12, at 10 pm ET/PT on FX. The episode becomes available to stream the next day on Hulu . 

While the series is headed to Disney Plus in the UK, as of now there is no official word as to when that will be. As more information becomes available, we can pass along the update here. 

Dear Mama episode guide

Here is an episode guide for the docuseries. Episode 5 premieres on May 12. 

Episode 1: "Panther Power" "Tupac Shakur navigates school, poverty and family, while dreaming of using poetry and music to spread the message of his mother, noted Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur; haunted by her past, Afeni fears how it will affect Tupac's promising future."

Episode 2: "Changes" "Tupac bursts onto the scene, but trying to be a mainstream star and a militant activist comes at a cost; Afeni's activism lands her and her Panther comrades in the center of a political show trial that could end with all of them in prison."  Episode 3: "So Many Tears" "Tupac's legal troubles escalate, with multiple different arrests, culminating in his being charged with sexual assault in New York. Afeni is the voice of the New York Panther 21, defending herself at trial. The two trials have different results."

Episode 4: "Ambitionz Az a Ridah" "Tupac spends nearly a year at the Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora. He leaves hardened by the experience and immediately joins Death Row Records."

Episode 5: "Until the End of Time" "After attending a Tyson fight in Las Vegas, Tupac is shot and killed. Afeni is paralyzed with grief after the death of her son. She manages to secure Tupac's legacy."

Here is a video promo for episode 5. 

Dear Mama premise 

Here is the official synopsis for the docuseries: 

"From Allen Hughes, the award-winning director of critically acclaimed The Defiant Ones , comes FX’s Dear Mama , a deeply personal five-part series that defies the conventions of traditional documentary storytelling to share an illuminating saga of mother and son, Afeni and Tupac Shakur.

"Afeni Shakur was a revolutionary, an intellect and a voice for the people. She became a feminist darling of the '70s, a female leader in the movement amidst the macho milieu of the Black Panther Party. Tupac was a rapper and poet, a political visionary and philosopher who became known as one of the greatest rap artists of all time. In addition to becoming a global sex symbol and media favorite for his outspoken and sometimes outrageous antics, he would eventually become the poster child for modern Black activism. Their story chronicles the possibilities and contradictions of the United States from a time of revolutionary fervor to Hip Hop culture’s most ostentatious decade.

"FX’s Dear Mama is both an audio and visual experience. Tupac's timeless message is undeniable as beats evaporate into soundscapes and his lyrics revealed to be mantras of passion and politics. It eschews strict chronology for a style that slides back and forth in time, finding linkages between mother and son, 1970s and 1990s, Black activism and Hip Hop, that highlight how much has and has not changed in the struggle for human rights. Through this technique, the eras speak to each other and melt time away, shifting the dual narratives into one definitive portrait of a global superstar and the woman who shaped him, forever linked by love and fate."

Dear Mama Trailer

Check out the official trailer for Dear Mama. 

Dear Mama director

Directing the documentary is well-established director Allen Hughes in Hollywood. He’s previously lent his talents to Broken City , The Book of Eli and to Emmy-nominated The Defiant Ones . 

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Terrell Smith has a diverse writing background having penned material for a wide array of clients including the federal government and Bravo television personalities.  When he’s not writing as Terrell, he’s writing under his pseudonym Tavion Scott, creating scripts for his audio drama podcasts. Terrell is a huge fan of great storytelling when it comes to television and film. Some of his favorite shows include  The Crown ,  WandaVision , Abbot Elementary   and  Godfather of Harlem .  And a fun fact is he's completely dialed into the TLC  90 Day Fiancé  universe. 

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“Dear Mama:” The Story Behind Tupac Shakur’s Hit Song about His Mother

A new docuseries about Tupac and his mother, Afeni Shakur, reexamines the relationship at the center of one of Tupac’s most celebrated songs.

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A new five-part docuseries, also called Dear Mama , reexamines the relationship between mother and son that Tupac first laid to bare in one of his most celebrated songs. The series highlights Tupac and Afeni’s estrangement and recon ciliation, as well as Afeni’s political activism and efforts to overcome her drug addiction. The first two episodes premiere today on FX at 10 p.m. ET/PT and stream on Hulu Saturday.

Here is the story behind the song “Dear Mama” and the mother-son relationship that inspired it.

Who Was Afeni Shakur?

Afeni Shakur was a political activist and member of the Black Panther Party before her son Tupac was born. She was part of the Panther 21, a group of 21 Black Panther members arrested in 1969 for allegedly planning coordinated bombings and rifle attacks on police stations and offices in New York City.

The youngest of the group at age 22, Afeni faced a possible 300-year sentence if convicted. She was the first for whom the Black Panther Party raised bail so that she could help raise more money to have the others released. During her trial, Afeni represented herself, interviewing several witnesses on the stand.

Her cross-examination revealed that undercover police officers who had infiltrated the Black Panther Party had not actually witnessed any criminal activity. The Washington Post wrote that Afeni “demolished” the case, and the Panther 21 were acquitted in May 1971. She gave birth to Tupac one month later.

Tupac’s father, Billy Garland, lost contact with Afeni when Tupac was 5, and Tupac would not see him again until he was 23. Raising Tupac and his half-sister alone , Afeni worked as a paralegal before falling into a crack cocaine addiction in the early 1980s. The family had to move often, living off welfare because she could not keep a job, according to Vanity Fair .

Estranged, Then Reconciled

By 1989, Afeni and her children were living in California, and Tupac left home because he was “tired of watching his mother wither away,” according to People . As Tupac first began to achieve success as a rapper, Afeni was unaware of his career until friends told her. “I didn’t know what was happening to my son,” she said . “I thought, ‘What am I doing?’”

Afeni became determined to break her drug habit, which she finally did after moving back to New York City in 1991 and attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings. She and Tupac reconciled, and they remained close until his death in September 1996.

Moved by everything his mother had overcome in her life, Tupac started to write “Dear Mama,” in which he described living in poverty as a child, his mother’s drug habit, their estrangement, and their eventual reconciliation. In part of the song, he raps:

Even as a crack fiend, Mama You always was a black queen, Mama I finally understand For a woman it ain’t easy tryin’ to raise a man You always was committed A poor single mother on welfare, tell me how you did it There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan Is to show you that I understand: you are appreciated.

In the song, Shakur also discusses the lack of a father figure during his childhood and the fact that he and his younger sister wrongly blamed Afeni for his absence, writing: “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.”

After writing it, he shared the lyrics with his longtime friend Jada Pinkett , whose mother had also struggled with drug addiction, according to the 2008 book Tupac Remembered: Bearing Witness to a Life and Legacy . “When I heard ‘Dear Mama,’ it gave me a rush of emotions; it still does when I hear it,” Pinkett said. “I marvel at his ability to be in a situation where he could reveal that about his mother. He could share the pain and the loss and the love and the undeniable connection that you have to your mother, no matter what’s going on.”

The Success of “Dear Mama”

“Dear Mama” was the lead track from Me Against the World (1995), one of Tupac’s most celebrated albums. Tupac was serving a prison sentence for a sexual assault case at the time “Dear Mama” was released as a single on February 21, 1995. It became his first top 10 song on the Billboard Hot 100 and would go on to become certified triple-platinum.

Describing the song in October 1995, Tupac said , “I wrote it for my mama because I love her and I felt I owed her something deep.”

The tribute is still considered one of his best songs and continues to receive acclaim long after the rapper’s death. Rolling Stone ranked it No. 18 on its “50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time” list, and a BBC poll of critics found it to be among the 10 greatest hip-hop songs ever released.

In 2010, “Dear Mama” was inducted into the Library of Congress Recording Registry , which preserves “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant works.” It was only the third hip-hop song to be inducted, following Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” and Public Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet.”

When “Dear Mama” was honored by the Library of Congress, Afeni reflected on her relationship with her son and the song’s broader appeal. “It could have been any song, but I’m honored they chose ‘Dear Mama’ in particular,’” she said . “It is a song that spoke not just to me but every mother that has been in that situation, and there have been millions of us. Tupac recognized our struggle, and he is still our hero.”

How to Watch Dear Mama

The first two episodes of Dear Mama premiere tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX. You can also watch them on Hulu starting Saturday. The final three episodes will release weekly on Fridays and stream next day on Hulu.

Colin McEvoy joined the Biography.com staff in 2023, and before that had spent 16 years as a journalist, writer, and communications professional. He is the author of two true crime books: Love Me or Else and Fatal Jealousy . He is also an avid film buff, reader, and lover of great stories.

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Common Sense Media Review

Complex Tupac docuseries depicts violence, drug use.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Dear Mama is an in-depth docuseries about the life and career of Tupac Shakur. The series focuses on the complexities and contradictions within Tupac's life, from his activism and history with the Black Panthers to his experiences with violence and drugs. The documentary also uses…

Why Age 15+?

Descriptions of violent acts, including gun violence and sexual assault. Guns ar

Profanity is used throughout, including "f--k," "s--t," "bitch," as well as freq

Drug use is discussed throughout, including marijuana, crack, and heroin. Occasi

In 1995, Tupac was convicted of sexual assault, and his trial is covered. Other

Promotes Tupac's music and films.

Any Positive Content?

Positive messages about authenticity, compassion, and perseverance.

Shows positive sides of Tupac Shakur, including his artistry and activism, as we

In addition to focusing on Tupac's life and career, Dear Mama goes in depth on B

Violence & Scariness

Descriptions of violent acts, including gun violence and sexual assault. Guns are frequently shown and discussed, and the effects of gun violence (including some dead bodies) are shown in archival photos and video. In 1995, Tupac was convicted of sexual assault, and his trial is covered.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Profanity is used throughout, including "f--k," "s--t," "bitch," as well as frequent uses of "n---a" and some uses of the N-word.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drug use is discussed throughout, including marijuana, crack, and heroin. Occasionally marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol use are shown in archival photos and video.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

In 1995, Tupac was convicted of sexual assault, and his trial is covered. Other sexual content is limited to simple depictions of flirting and dating.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive messages.

Positive messages about authenticity, compassion , and perseverance .

Positive Role Models

Shows positive sides of Tupac Shakur, including his artistry and activism, as well as loyalty, empathy, and courage.

Diverse Representations

In addition to focusing on Tupac's life and career, Dear Mama goes in depth on Black activism and the last 50-60 years of Black American history.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Dear Mama is an in-depth docuseries about the life and career of Tupac Shakur. The series focuses on the complexities and contradictions within Tupac's life, from his activism and history with the Black Panthers to his experiences with violence and drugs. The documentary also uses Tupac's life and work as a window into American cultural history, with an emphasis on racism and Black activism. Expect descriptions of violent acts, including gun violence and sexual assault. Guns are frequently shown and discussed, and the effects of gun violence (including some dead bodies) are shown in archival photos and video. Drug use is discussed throughout, including marijuana, crack, and heroin. Profanity also is used throughout, including "f--k," "s--t," "bitch," as well as frequent uses of "n---a" and some uses of the N-word.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (2)

Based on 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

DEAR MAMA tells the parallel stories of Tupac Shakur and his activist mother, Afeni Shakur. Afeni's work with the Black Panthers in the 1960s and '70s had a profound influence on Tupac's life and music. The docuseries traces a line from that to Tupac becoming an icon after his death at 25, and uses his story as a lens into American cultural history from the 1960s forward.

Is It Any Good?

This series takes an unflinching look at the contradictions in Tupac's life and career, how they infused his music, and how he became one of the most revered American artists after his death at 25. Dear Mama is not the type of sanitized, PR-heavy music documentary that tends to get made these days. Instead, it goes in-depth on both the negative and positive aspects of Tupac's character, and uses his relationship with his mother Afeni Shakur, an important historical figure in her own right, as a window into recent American history. Director Allen Hughes ( Menace II Society ), gives the documentary a compelling structure, style, and propulsive editing that keeps the series fun to watch. He features interviews with stars like Dr. Dre and Eminem, but also spends a great deal of time with pivotal figures in Tupac and Afeni's lives, like members of the original Black Panther Party, who are able to give insight into not only the Shakurs, but American cultural history. The result is a documentary with a vital perspective that looks at an important artist both critically and empathetically.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about their familiarity with Tupac Shakur's work. What inspired you to watch the docuseries? What did you learn about Tupac from the series? How does knowing his story affect how you experience his music?

What was Tupac's relationship with the Black Panther Party? How did the Black Panther Party affect Tupac's perspective? What are some of the ideals he tried to live by? How successful was he in living up to those?

Why does the documentary want to focus on both the positive and negative aspects of Tupac's life? As a viewer or fan, how do you balance the positive or negative aspects of an artist's personal life with your enjoyment of their music? When an artist is problematic, how does that change your experience of their work?

• Premiere date : April 21, 2023
• Cast : Tupac Shakur
• Genre : Educational
• Topics : Activism , History , Music and Sing-Along
• TV rating : TV-MA
• Last updated : May 1, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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