Exploring Tupac Shakur’s “Dear Mama”
By Sean Hanel
• Song written to his mother, Afeni Shakur,
as a way of forgiving her for the pain she
caused through her addiction.
• Writes it to show that he understands all
that his mother has done for him. Tupac
knows that it was not easy for Afeni to
raise two kids with no support (“You are
Appreciated…”)
Why is this important to our HEL Class???
• Toni Morrison Explains,
– “First of all, they’re changing the language, although
nobody admits it, but that’s where the energy comes
from…It is the necessity for young people to talk to one
another in language that is not the fake language of the
press.”
• Michael Eric Dyson, a professor at University of
Pennsylvania and author of over 10 books,
including “Holla if you Hear Me : searching for
Tupac Shakur”, has this to say about HipHop/Rap:
– “Given its universal popularity and its troubling effects,
hip-hop is a vital cultural language that we had all better
learn. To ignore its genius, to romanticize its deficits, or
to bash it with undiscerning generalities is to risk the
opportunity to engage our children about perhaps the
most important cultural force in their lives.”
The Word Mama
• Comes from Zulu umama and Xhosa
umama mother
• The OED gives such definitions as,
– A respectful title for a woman, preceding
a name
• Ex. “The first lady of jazz, Mama Ella”
– A respectful or familiar form of address
to:
• Any adult woman (“Nice and easy, mama”)
• One’s Own Mother (as used by Tupac in
“Dear Mama”)
– A mother; a middle-aged black woman.
• “Outside there are several aged mamas
selling the same wares from the old-style
stalls.”
Other Connotations of Mama
• According to the OED,
– “The status of the word mama was always the same as that of
Papa. In the 18th century, ma’mma was used by the higher classes,
and among them to have been freely used not only by children but
by adults of both sexes.” Today, it has become archaic in Britain,
although it is used by children. It has now found widespread use in
America.
• Other common uses are:
– Slang. A wife, a girlfriend; a sexually attractive woman; a
promiscuous woman.
• Ex. Black Eyed Peas song, “Hey Mama”
– Slang. A feminine partner in a homosexual relationship.
• “Mama, a lesbian of the feminine type, especially one living or
consorting with a papa or daddy.”
Beef…It’s what’s for dinner
• The flesh of an ox, bull, or cow, used as food. Often
preceded by words indicating the exact part of the
animal, e.g. sirloin, ribs of beef, etc.
“Oh, we got Beef?” –Master P
• The OED does not address the
slang use of the word beef,
however it is commonly used to
indicate a problem between two
people or groups.
– The most infamous “beef” in rap was
between the East and West coast rap
scenes. This stemmed from an
incident in which Tupac was shot 5
times in a New York recording studio
(Bad Boy Records). This incident
started a “beef” between Tupac and
such rappers as Notorious BIG, Sean
“Puffy” Combs (founder of Bad Boy
Records), and Jay-Z
Here is a picture of
a DVD entitled
“BEEF”. Apparently
it Narrates the East
Coast/West Coast
rap feud that took
place in the late
1990’s
VS
The Definition of “Crack”
• OED says,
– “An imitation of the sharp sound caused
by the sudden breaking of anything hard”
• “A sudden sharp and loud noise as of
something breaking or bursting; e.g. the crack
of a rifle, a whip, of breaking ice, bones, etc.”
– Ex. “Work 'til we break our back and you hear
the crack of the bone” – Rapper Talib Kweli in
his song “Get By”
– “A break in which the parts still remain in
contact; a partial fracture.”
– “An opening between floor-boards or in a
floor”
The other kind of Crack
• Here we find the 20th definition of crack, the last one
hidden at the bottom of the OED page,
– A potent, crystalline form of cocaine made by heating a mixture
of it with baking powder and water until it is hard, and breaking it
into small pieces which are inhaled or smoked for their
stimulating effect. (slang origin).
• “The cocaine freebase, the purest and most dangerous form of
coke, goes by a number of street names crack, rock, pasta, basa
and is smoked in a pipe rather than snorted.” –San Francisco
Chronicle, December 6, 1985.
Brother
• Results from the OED,
– The word applied to a male being to express his
relationship to others (male or female) as the child of
the same parent or parents.
• The son of the same parents. But often extended to include
one who has either parent in common with another
– Said affectionately of one regarded or treated as a
brother; one who fills the place of a brother.
• “Man to man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that” –
Burns, 1795
Tha Otha Brotha
• slang (orig. U.S.). Chiefly in AfricanAmerican use: a (fellow) black man. Also in
extended use: a fellow non-white man
(used esp. as an expression of solidarity).
– “Bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you.” –
2pac in his song “Changes”
• “Rufus, Brint, and Meekus were like
brothers to me. And when I say brother, I
don't mean, like, an actual brother, but I
mean it like the way black people use it.
Which is more meaningful I think.” – Derek
Zoolander in the film, “Zoolander”
• The word “Thuggee” is a North Indian word. A British
General named Sleeman made it his mission to
eradicate thugs in India. The word most likely traveled to
the US through his popular nonfiction account of India.
– Originally referred to band of disciples of the goddess
Kali who would attach themselves to merchant
caravans, claiming some talent like cooking. They
would then drug the merchants, and then strangle
them with a handkerchief called a rumal and steal all
of their goods.
• Today, Thug has a specific resonance in Black Culture.
– “It sounds perfect in musical terms, it is better than gangster,
which puts you too much in the lineage of the Mafia. This is
an alternative kind of thug; it’s ‘our’ kind of thug. It’s a
unique word; it is known and not known a the same time. It
has flavor to it.” –Vijay Prashad, a cultural critic
– Tupac gave the words THUG LIFE his own meaning by
assigning it the acronym, The Hate U Gave Little Infants
F#cks Everyone. Tupac believes that the negative way
children are raised and treated, will eventually come back to
society in that negative way.
• Finally, Tupac explains Thug Life in an Interview for MTV,
– “It’s not thugging like I’m robbing people, ‘cause that’s not
what I’m doing, I mean like I’m not scared to say how I
feel. Part of being [a thug] is to stand up for your
responsibilities and say this is what I do even though I know
people are going to hate me…I want to be real with myself”
Now Sit and Listen…