Shakur’s mother “never kept a secret from and always kept it real with him”(Genius). In verse three Shakur is pouring him a cup of liquor and “reminisces” about his rough childhood. However, at the same time, when it doesn’t work out your peers become a role model for you because they have your back mentally and physically to make it out the hard life.
This is an important phrase in the song because in a black community there are fathers that leave their family’s which leaves the mother as a father figure. When Shakur decided to move out of his house he needed some money so he started to “slang” drugs and be with the thugs and started to make a living on that making money, to help his mom with paying rent and giving her gifts like “I hope you got the diamond necklace I sent to you”. Shakur says he “turn to the thugs even though they sold drugs they showed a young brother love. He said this because all he wanted was for his father to be part of his life and have him guide him in the right way. The second verse describes his life without a father figure that impacted him when Shakur’s father died, he didn’t have no feelings for him “cause my anger wouldn’t let me feel for a stranger”. Shakur ends the verse with “there is no way I can pay you back, but the plan is to show you that I understand’’. He sings his mother’s praise and appreciates everything his mother has done for him. For example, he says “For a woman it ain’t easy trying to raise a man. At the end of this verse Shakur explains he understands the tough situation his mom was going through. He states, “I reminisce on the stress I caused, it was hell hugging on my mama from a jail cell”. However, despite his mother’s struggles, Shakur realizes that he also contributed to his mother’s stress over his own actions. Before graduating he was evicted from his household and was forced to move to Marin City, California to live with a family friend.
Shakur’s mother could not keep a job to care for her family. Shakur admits “When things went wrong, we’d blame mama” and speaks about how his mother was a “crack fiend” and on welfare. Many listeners related to this issue then and even today as numerous young men continue to fall victim to crime and drugs in their communities. For example, he tells the audience how he was “suspended from school” and hung out with “big boys breaking all the rules”. He goes on to explain that his actions as a kid did not help the relationship between the two. Shakur says, “when I was young me and my mom had beef, seventeen years old, kicked out on the streets”. The first verse of the song focuses on how the relationship between Shakur and his mother was off to a rocky start. This is the thesis of the whole song, in which you see how Shakur places no one above his mother. For example, he sings, “sweet lady, place no one above ya, you are appreciated”. Tupac Shakur shows how the mystical bond between a mother and her child is hard to separate. Instead of using his “Gangster Rap” style of music, he chose a meaningful sound for his listeners to understand his situation with his mother. The song has a very sad piano tune mixed in with a rap beat.
This style of music was rare during that time period.
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