Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni & Tupac Shakur is set to arrive on FX in April, and ahead of its release, the television company dropped a second trailer for the docuseries on Wednesday (March 22), which further details late hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur and the relationship he had with his activist mother, Afeni Shakur, who died in 2016.
Early footage of a teenage Shakur plays in the trailer, and highlights him talking about his mother’s teachings. “My mother taught me to analyze society and not be quiet. My mother was a Black Panther and she was really involved in the movement,” he said.
Baby photos of the rap great and black-and-white shots of Afeni sharing knowledge of the Black Panther’s message to crowds, being escorted by police and sitting in for hearings are also included. “It was very difficult for me to be a mom, but I knew very well how to protect my children,” she explains, adding that she did not want him to know what it was like to go to jail, as she’d been many times herself. “I think my mother knew that freedom wouldn’t come in her lifetime, just like I know that it won’t come in mine,” Tupac says, shortly after.
Afeni’s Black Panther work resulted in her and Tupac having an awkward relationship at times, the rapper shared as a teen: “We never spent time together because she was always speaking and going to colleges. And then after that was over, it was more time spent with me. And we were both just like ‘You’re my mother,’ and she was like, ‘You’re my son, and what do we do?’”
Ultimately, Afeni moved her family out to Baltimore in 1984, where Tupac’s life took a rough turn. “My mama was a crack addict. I ended up in Baltimore on welfare with no lights on,” adult Tupac angrily tells a crowd of people.
Dear Mama is “told through the eyes of the people who knew them best,” a previous news release from FX stated. “An intimate wide-angle portrait of the most inspiring and dangerous mother-son duo in American history, whose unified message of freedom, equality, persecution and justice are more relevant today than ever.”
The documentary series, which was announced in 2019, is scheduled to arrive on April 21 on FX, and will later stream on Hulu.
Watch the new trailer for Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni & Tupac Shakur above.
