“Dear Mama” is the song that made it OK to admit: even if they kill people and sell drugs, deep down, thugs are all sensitive mama’s boys.

It was the third hip-hop act ever (after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message”“ and Public Enemy’s album, Fear of a Black Planet) to be placed in the Library of Congress.

Tupac’s mom, Afeni Shakur, died on May 2nd, 2016.

Watch Tupac talk about this song in the video below:

Look around you in this studio right now. I have women working on my music. They understand where I’m coming from. So does my mama. I always play my music for her before it comes out. Why do you think I wrote ‘Dear Mama’? I wrote it for my mama because I love her and I felt I owed her something deep. (2Pac, 1995)

To see annotations on this song by the cast and author of the Broadway musical Holler If Ya Hear Me, which tells a powerful story of today using Pac’s music, see here

In Eminem’s tribute letter 2Pac he states that even though he had a bad relationship with his Mom; “I could put ‘Dear Mama’ in and damn near be in tears.”