A 1988 interview with then 17-year-old Tamalpais High School senior Tupac Shakur reveals a young man with exceptional charisma and eloquence. He has wisdom beyond his years, and the courage to speak truth to power.
“We’re not being taught to deal with the world as it is,” he says. “We’re being taught to deal with this fairyland, which we’re not even living in anymore. That’s why my mother taught me to analyze society and not be quiet. If there’s something in my mind, speak it.”
Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, was a political activist and member of the Black Panther Party. She and 20 other members were arrested in New York City in 1969 on trumped-up charges of conspiracy to bomb police stations and other public buildings. After her acquittal in 1971, Afeni’s life as a single mother was difficult, and she struggled with drug addiction through the 1980s.
In 1996, she mourned Tupac’s murder in a drive-by shooting, a crime that remains unsolved.
FX’s five-part documentary series Dear Mama is a deep dive into Tupac and Afeni’s relationship, and how Afeni’s revolutionary mind influenced her son as an artist, poet, rapper, actor, activist and icon. In addition to interviews with Afeni before her death in 2016, the series also includes interviews with Mike Tyson, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem, and recollections from Afeni and Tupac’s close friends and family.
There are also moments when Dear Mama director Allen Hughes has to turn the camera on himself. Hughes and his brother, Albert, directed two of Tupac’s music videos in the early 1990s. Tupac and members of his crew assaulted the Hughes brothers after they fired him from the film Menace II Society. Tupac served 15 days in jail for the offense.
“That’s pretty surreal to do a narrative that you were a part of, and then to have it be so personal,” Allen Hughes says. “I didn’t want to do it at first. And then I realized, @#$%, I never processed the trauma, but we have to take ownership of all of our collective journey. This is part of us. So how do we decant this?”
Dear Mama debuts on FX Friday, April 21, at 10pm ET/PT with the first two episodes. Subsequent episodes premiere Fridays at 10pm ET/PT through May 12. All episodes stream on Hulu.