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What a great, albeit quite simple, piece of music.Now a version of the song that is said to predate the popular recording has surfaced courtesy of Tupac’s early collaborator DJ King Assassin. This may not go down in history as one of Tupac’s great works, however if more rappers today took the time to include pieces like this one on their albums the state of women in the rap world might be a lot better off. These subtle attentions to detail must have meant a lot to both Tupac and his mother as it is clear from the production value that this song demanded a great deal of attention. Tupac’s sense of classic “black” music in this tribute to his mother is more than evident with his approach and selection of instruments, though he puts his modern twist on it by sampling the background singers rather than having actual singers in the song. The layers take turns at center stage and then fade out and occasionally drop out completely as we repeat the chorus several times and the song fades out.
#Tupac songs dear mama full
We finally get to hear the full value of the background singers as we get to hear their voice fluctuation naturally instead of the electronic sampling we heard previously. At 4:00 as we approach the final chorus the beat becomes distinctly more prominent as it almost takes center stage.
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At 2:42 the beat drops out again as we come to the end of the second verse and returns as we drop into the chorus’ familiar background singers and vocalist. The guitar voice returns around 1:48 and climbs back to prominence as our main melodic voice. This is accentuated by the removal of the guitar voice and a return to the soundscape we found ourselves in at the beginning of the first verse. At 1:38 we drop into the second verse after a pause in the beat with a slight decrescendo across the board. This continues until about 1:20 when we break into the chorus for the first time and we are introduced to background singers which sound as though they are electronically adjusted to take the harmony lines as a lone singer comes over the top with the melody line and sings the chorus as Tupac enters occasionally with spoken rhythmic interjections. At around 43 seconds the beat drops out as Tupac comes to a poignant moment in the lyrics with “It was hell/huggin on my momma from jail cell” and then at 45 seconds the beat returns with a snap and drops back in to its familiar rhythm. The guitar takes over the melodic center as the song slowly builds. This is in allusion to the song “Sadie” which is not only sampled in this song but is also in a lot of ways the template for this piece.
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At 23 seconds the introduction of guitar to the melodic layers with a very blues/funk timbre. The beat is slightly swung as it hangs near the back of the beat, however it sounds very tight on the beat by comparison to Tupac’s sense of syncopation and backbeat delay. A bright cymbal crash brings in the beat consisting of not only the snaps (now more prevalent) but also ride cymbal, snare, and bass in a standard 2-4 accent pattern with an eighth note pattern on the cymbals. We hear some hints at the rhythm through reverberated snaps as she finishes her monologue the melody crescendos as Tupac enters with lyrics. She talks about being in jail pregnant and getting released just before Tupac’s birth. A spoken intro from Tupac’s mother comes over the top. The introduction opens with subtle harmonic tones with an almost ghostly resonance fading in from the background as an electronic organ plays a simple rhythmic melody. These things combine with Tupac’s lyrics to form not only a tribute song to his mother, but also a song she could be proud of and feel comfortable listening to. This is reinforced with 70’s sounding backup singers filling in the background of the chorus as well as the light male tenor voice characterized in the chorus. The choice of a 70’s sounding blues/funk guitar and an electronic organ speaks to a time gone by and the classic sound of music that his mother would have listened to, possibly this sound represents memories of songs from Tupac’s youth, and his mother’s musical influences on him. The subtle harmonies and melodies and delicate rhythmic choices allude to the softer touch Tupac is trying to present in this, one of his lighter, more delicate works. This song is a tribute song to Tupac’s mother, and in a lot of ways to women and mothers coming up in difficult neighborhoods everywhere.