The first lyrics in 2Pac’s first top-10 song on the Billboard Hot 100? 

“You are appreciated.”

That is the theme of “Dear Mama,” 2Pac’s best-selling single on his album, “Me Against the World.” Released on Feb. 21, 1995, the triple Platinum track was written about his mother, Afeni Shakur, and divulged the appreciation 2Pac had for her. 

“I wrote it for my mama because I love her and I felt I owed her something deep,” 2Pac said in an interview with the LA Times after the release of “Me Against the World.”

Unlike some of his other songs, “Dear Mama” is relaxed, slower, and more like spoken poetry than hip-hop (2Pac was not just a rapper, he was also a poet). Each line, each stanza, was crafted carefully to relay a message of love and recognition: “When I was sick as a little kid/To keep me happy, there’s no limit to the things you did/And all my childhood memories/Are full of all the sweet things you did for me.”

Despite his image as a drug dealer and violent criminal, 2Pac didn’t shy away from being publicly proud of his mother. And compared to other songs he has written (“California Love” or “Hail Mary”), “Dear Mama” seems candid the entire time. It wasn’t written for the public, it wasn’t written to boost his gangster image: it was written simply for his mother.

Despite being estranged for several years before the song was released, 2Pac realizes her hard work and sacrifice in the song. Afeni was a drug addict and a single mom to two children. 2Pac acknowledges this by calling her “a black queen” despite her substance abuse, which caused her to be absent for most of his childhood. Additionally, a month before he was born, Afeni was a political activist for the Black Panther Party and represented herself in court during the Panther 21 trials. True queen behavior.

”It is a song that spoke not just to me, but every mother that has been in that situation [of poverty and addiction as a single mother], and there have been millions of us,” Afeni said in a statement after “Dear Mama” was posthumously preserved in the Recording Registry in the Library of Congress. “Tupac recognized our struggle, and he is still our hero.”

30 years later, in a different century, his message of love is still relevant. In fact, despite knowing and loving “California Love” (which was first introduced to me by my mom) for years, it was “Dear Mama” that made me a fan of 2Pac’s music as a whole.

As a woman living in the predominantly white North Shore, it is hard to see how I could relate to 2Pac’s music. But despite our contrasting upbringings, there is one thing I can relate to: his respect for women, and his adoration of his mother.

For me, listening to this song is an ever-present reminder of how hard my mom works. Despite seeing her every day, I will never get the full picture of her dedication to make my family happy. 

And yes, my mom did not represent herself in court, nor was she a civil rights activist or struggled with addiction (not counting an addiction to mangoes). Yet, similarly to Afeni, my mom works hard, and sometimes when I forget that, “Dear Mama” is a clear reminder of what a mom can go through.

Today, both Afeni and 2Pac are not alive anymore. Yet Afeni’s hard work and 2Pac’s love for her are immortalized in “Dear Mama,” a song that I find almost as amazing as my mom.

The final verse of “Dear Mama?”

“Don’t ya know we love ya?”

Not spelled very well, but certainly true.