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" Dear Mama" is a song by American rapper Tupac Shakur from his third studio album, Me Against the World (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. In the song, Shakur details his childhood poverty and his mother's addiction to crack cocaine, 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 chart for five weeks. As of March 2021, the song is certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA.
"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 by the Library of Congress, 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."
Record producer Tony Pizarro explained;
The song was written shortly before Shakur served a prison term. Upon completion of the track, Shakur phoned longtime friend Jada Pinkett-Smith, 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: When questioned on possible misogyny 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;
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 father mentioned here was Lumumba Shakur who divorced Afeni after finding out Tupac was not his son, Lumumba died later in February 1986. 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 but in the chorus "Sadie" is replaced with "lady".
According to 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..."
The Los Angeles Times praised the tune, writing, "The song attests to Shakur's gift at crystallizing complex emotions in simple stark images." Rolling Stone 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 critics poll, Robert Christgau named "Dear Mama" the eighth best single of 1995.
"Dear Mama" was one of 25 recordings selected for preservation at the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress 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,
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