Perhaps T-Pain overlooked “Dear Mama” when talking to Akademiks earlier this week about 2Pac. The moving song, which is taken from 1995’s Me Against The World, is a frank and passionate message to the late Afeni Shakur that gives listeners a clear picture of 2Pac’s turbulent life and all he went through with his mother.
Nearly 30 years later, “Dear Mama” is still able to cut across racial, gender, and age barriers. A video of a 3-year-old youngster with autism rapping the song word for word appeared again on Monday (July 11). The youngster raps while holding a ring pop. “And even though we had different daddies, the same drama/When things went wrong we’d blame Mama/I reminisce on the stress I caused, it was hell/Huggin’ on my mama from a jail cell.
“And who’d think in elementary, hey/I’d see the penitentiary one day?/And runnin’ from the police, that’s right/Mama catch me, put a whoopin’ to my backside/And 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.”
He finished the verse with the line, “You are appreciated.”
T-Pain thinks that if 2Pac had survived the gunshot that claimed his life in 1996, things would be quite different now, especially if social media had been existed. 2Pac is known as one of the most productive MCs of the 1990s.
“‘Pac would’ve gotten killed sooner [if social media existed] and he would’ve gotten his ass ate the fuck up lyrically,” T-Pain said, to which Akademiks replied, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What!?” T-Pain continued, “Lyricism wise, ‘Pac would’ve got ridiculously murdered. Bro, ‘Pac was a crazy lyricist in our time because ain’t nobody else have no platform.”
