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The FX docuseries Dear Mama is set to premiere on Friday, April 21, 2023, at 10 pm ET/PT on FX and will stream the following day via Hulu. The premiere of the five-part series will include episodes 1 and 2, with one new episode each subsequent week. The much-anticipated show will showcase the relationship between the late hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur and his mother, Afeni.
Tupac's third studio album, Me Against the World, had a number of hits, but its ninth song, titled Dear Mama, held a special place in the rapper's heart. He was never shy in talking about his life and upbringing in his music, especially regarding his mother.
Dear Mama on FX: Tupac was kicked out of his house by his mother, Afeni, when he was 17
The song gave intimate details about Tupac's life and his bittersweet relationship with his mother. His family was poor, and Afeni was addicted to crack cocaine. His mother threw him out of the house when he was 17. Even after such turmoil, the rapper explained his love and deep respect for his mother, conquering over bad memories.
The song opens with,
“When I was young, me and my mama had beef, 17 years old, kicked out on the streets. Though back at the time, I never thought I'd see her face; ain't a woman alive that could take my mama's place.”
The term beef means conflict. Around this time, Tupac assumed that he was not going to see his mother again. But he went on to explain that no woman could replace her.
Afeni Shakur raised him and his sister, Sekiywa Shakur, as a single mother. Tupac revealed that she was a former Black Panther and did the best she could with whatever she had. She was flawed, but it was due to the circumstances.
He even talked about Afeni's addiction to crack cocaine during his adolescence and how she was absent from his life before she underwent treatment in 1990.
“Even as a crack fiend, mama, you always was a Black queen, mama.”
The rapper was thankful to his mother because she kept him and his sister fed and protected despite living in poverty for most of his childhood. Tupac hardly performed the song live, but this unforgettable track keeps on echoing within the hearts of music lovers. It is usually on repeat on radio stations and music channels during Mother's Day.
In 2016, VH1 created its Dear Mama special, letting celebs like Ciara, Ashanti, and Halle Berry pay homage to their mothers on TV. Afeni Shakur died from cardiac arrest in 2016.
What is Dear Mama about?
Dear Mama on FX will exhibit the complicated and interpersonal relationship between Tupac and his mother, Afeni Shakur. She was a revolutionary and a voice for the people.
The official synopsis of the show reads,
“From award-winning director Allen Hughes (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. Their story chronicles the possibilities and contradictions of the U.S. from a time of revolutionary fervor to Hip Hop culture’s most ostentatious decade.”
The FX show is produced by A Defiant Ones Media Group Production and An Amaru Entertainment Production in association with MACRO and DreamCrew Entertainment.
Dear Mama is set to premiere on Friday, April 21, 2023, at 10 pm ET/PT on FX and will stream the following day via Hulu.
