"Dear Mama" is released

Why it matters

The Tony! Toni! Toné! sample on "Dear Mama" is from a 1976 song called "In All My Wildest Dreams," by Joe Sample (not Tony! Toni! Toné!; that part of the credit floats around). The Spinners sample is from "Sadie." Both samples lay underneath Tupac's verses like a quilt, soft and warm and not getting in the way of the words. The verses themselves are the part you remember. Tupac, twenty-three years old, sitting in a studio in 1995, writes about his mother the way most rappers do not write about anyone: with full credit for everything she did to keep him fed, full acknowledgment of the addiction that took some of her years, and full forgiveness because nothing is gained from refusing to forgive. The song is not soft. It is honest. The chorus ("there's no way I can pay you back") is sung by a backing vocalist (Reggie Green) in a tone that lands somewhere between gospel and apology. You can hear, in this song, the part of Tupac that the gangsta-rap framing of his career often missed. That part of him was real. He wrote it down. Here it is.