I don’t have an inside scoop on this song but just want to say it’s one of Tupac’s greatest written and performed songs. Someone casually listening to it might write it off as just “gangsta rap” but it’s actually an extremely tragic and sad story of how innocence is lost in someone living with chaos around them. Starting with the poverty he experienced, not having a father around, his mom resenting him because he reminds her of his father, and her drug addiction.

He mentions in the first verse asking God for help but to no avail (“pray to my God everyday/ but He don’t listen”) and then starts the second verse with “I thank the Lord for my many blessings” but this is in the midst of his criminal and reckless behavior so this can be interpreted at least a couple of ways; 1) he is referring to a drug LORD that is financing his current lifestyle or 2) he thinks God is now answering his prayers since he is no longer suffering from poverty like he did when he was younger but the entire second verse is about him spiraling out of control and ends with the line “I’m living raw, till they bury me, don’t worry me, I’m high
Living like I ain’t afraid to die”. And the way he delivers that line with passion is really obvious that he’s in pain and leading a life he knows isn’t God-like or God would approve of.

Lastly, the third verse which might be my favorite and maybe the saddest. “I’m starting to lose hope, it seems everybody’s on dope
Mama told me to leave, ‘cause she was broke
Sometimes I choke on the indo, creeping out the window
Alone, on my own, I’m a criminal”

Here he does an AMAZING job of simultaneously speaking about the crack epidemic as a whole but also specifically talking about his mom being addicted to dope… “it seems everybody’s on dope/ mama told me to leave cus she was broke”. And “broke” in this instance is no longer referring to money and poverty (although that was probably still the case) but to her being broke mentally because of the addiction. Absolutely genius.

And then he says “sometimes i choke on the indo” which can easily be mistaken as him coughing from the weed smoke but it actually means he is crying (while high on indo weed) because of the current relationship between he and his mom and her and her addiction. Listen to how he delivers the word “choke”, his voice actually cracks to emphasize what he means.

In conclusion I just want to say that 2pac was a genius. His writing and the way he DELIVERED the lyrics were second to none. There’s so much more I could say about this song but I just wanted to highlight these points as I feel like they are incredible and probably overlooked by most.