3 Things That I Learned From Watching The “Dear Mama” Documentary

Recently, I watched the entire 5 part documentary called “Dear Mama” that talks about the life and career of both Afeni and her legendary son in Tupac Shakur. The documentary also talks about the history of The Original Black Panther Party and how they stood up for black people and provided programs like Free Lunch and even had their own newspaper. It also talked about The Feds role in completely crushing the organization through COINTELPRO and the use of traitorous snitches in the community.

Here are things that I learned from watching the “Dear Mama” documentary

Suge Knight Once Actually Saved Tupac From Near Drowning - In one of the episodes, one of Tupac’s close friends E.D.I Mean from The Outlawz once revealed that Tupac was a terrible swimmer that when Tupac was sinking in the ocean, Suge Knight actually went out of his way to save him by jumping in the ocean and bringing Tupac back to the shore. I was definitely surprised to hear this because I never once heard Tupac even mention this near drowning incident in any of his interviews. I could relate to this because I myself had a near drowning experience during my early childhood years during a field trip that emotionally traumatized me so much that I am legit afraid of deep water like oceans, ponds, and lakes to this very day.

Legendary Actress Jazmine Guy’s Close Friendship With Tupac - In one of the most surprising revelations in the documentary, legendary actress Jasmine Guy revealed that she was a close friend of Tupac. She talked about meeting Afeni for the first time when Tupac was in the hospital recovering from being shot 5 times at a recording studio in New York the night before and she definitely hit it off with Afeni because she loved Afeni’s strong sense of determination and Afeni herself trusted Jasmine to look after Tupac while he was recovering from what happened to him at the recording studio in New York, so Jasmine looked out for him in her apartment complex in NY at that time. What an amazing, sweet, and kind person Jasmine Guy is because I have so much respect for her as an actress and as a person.

Tupac’s Work Ethic - It has been said in a few documentaries prior to “Dear Mama”, but it was confirmed in this documentary by many of Tupac’s closest friends such as Snoop Dogg, E.D.I. Mean, and Ray Luv that Tupac’s work ethic was legendary because they talked about how they would always see him come to the studio to write, record, and produce music for hours and hours nearly every day. They even called him “the hardest working rapper ever” which says a lot about Tupac’s legendary work ethic amongst many of his peers.

The Conclusion - The “Dear Mama” documentary is a very emotional, introspective, and powerful documentary about the relationship between Afeni Shakur and her legendary influential rapper son Tupac Shakur. I really loved that documentary and if you haven’t seen it, you have definitely got to check it out.

By Kwame Shakir