Afeni Shakur, mother to the rapper Tupac Shakur, died the evening of Monday, May 2. She was 69 years old.
Before gangsta rap and any eyez were on her son, Afeni Shakur (nee Alice Fay Williams) joined the Black Panther movement in 1964 while living in the Bronx. She began to write articles for the Panther Post and worked as part of the party’s media apparatus in its heyday. The group, she told biographer Jasmine Guy, “”took my rage and channeled it. They educated my mind and gave me direction.”
Shakur famously defended herself when she and twenty of her fellow Panthers were on trial for conspiracy to bomb police stations, department stores, and other public places throughout New York City in 1969. Despite her lack of formal legal training, many point to Shakur as the pivotal force in defending the group, which won a marathon trial 1971 trial.
Tupac was born later that year and rose quickly to fame before his tragic death at the age of 25 on September 15, 1996. Thanks to Afeni, some of his estate funds went to the establishment of a charitable organization, the Tupac Amaru Foundation for the Arts.
Afeni is a near-constant presence weaved throughout her son’s work. “And I realize Momma really paid the price/She nearly gave her life to raise me right,” he raps on “Keep Ya Head Up.” “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” features the line, “Mama, come rescue me, I’m suicidal, thinking thoughts/I’m innocent, so there’ll be bullets flying when I’m caught.” She is a constant foil woven throughout his lyrics—a place for reflection and contemplation in his pathos-filled lyrics.
With Mother’s Day approaching, MusiQology felt it only fitting to pay tribute to a woman who was hugely responsible for one of the most influential rappers of all time; this playlist features songs that make reference to her from her son’s catalogue. These tracks (with one notable exception and a few relevant interludes from us) are all drawn from Tupac’s posthumous releases, which were produced under her supervision as part of Amaru Entertainment, a holding company she founded to protect her late son’s catalogue. Her passing is a great loss; as Tupac said on “Dear Mama,” “Ain’t a woman alive that could take my mama’s place.”
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