Dear Mama

"Dear Mama" is a song by American rapper 2Pac from his third studio album, Me Against the World (1995). It was released on February 9, 1995, as the lead single from the album. Dedicated to his mother, Afeni Shakur, Shakur details his childhood poverty and his mother's addiction to crack cocaine, but argues that his love and deep respect for his mother supersede bad memories. The song became his first top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number nine. It also topped the Hot Rap Singles and Hot Dance Music Maxi-Singles, and made success in three other US charts. As of March 2021, "Dear Mama" is certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Dear Mama" has been consistently ranked among the best of its genre, appearing on numerous "greatest" lists. In 2009, the song was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, who deemed it a work that is "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States", making it the first hip-hop recording by a soloist to be inducted. In a press release, the organization called the song "a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper's own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference."