2Pac’s legacy’s continues to reach new heights as the new FX docuseries Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni & Tupac Shakur has shattered a network record.
On Friday (April 28), The Wrap reported that the five-part docuseries now has the most watched premiere episode for an unscripted series in FX’s 28-year history. Dear Mama premiered on FX on Friday (April 21).
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“It’s only fitting that Allen Hughes definitive piece on Tupac and Afeni Shakur delivered a record performance for us and it speaks to Tupac’s enduring legacy,” Nick Grad, president of FX Entertainment, said in a statement. “Allen’s examination of Tupac viewed through the prism of his mother Afeni is a fascinating take that really gets beneath the education and experience that shaped his life and inspired him to become one of the greatest artists ever.”
The docuseries is about the dynamic mother-son relationship between Afeni Shakur, who was a revolutionary and a member of the Black Panther Party, and 2Pac, who is arguably one of the greatest rappers of all time.
Dear Mama was directed by Allen Hughes, who has directed legendary film such as 1993’s Menace To Society, and 1995’s Dead Presidents, as well as the four-part Netflix docuseries The Defiant Ones, which tells the story of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.
2Pac’s former manger, Leila Steinburg, recently spoke about the riveting docuseries, telling SiriusXM’s The Last Mile Radio that Dear Mama offers comfort to “‘Pac’s fans and loved ones, and gives an honest picture of the prolific rapper’s life.”
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“Well, I wanted to say something about Dear Mama. Last year, [director] Alan Hughes reached out to me and said he was doing the five-part series on FX that’s coming out…April 21st…. Part of [Alan] wanting to really do this piece was about healing, was about honesty, was about all of us looking at what happened. And, so I’m just saying this to say, he’s done an incredible piece,” she said.
Steinburg also noted that along with his sometimes erratic behavior that the music industry was responsible for ‘Pac’s downfall.
“2Pac was not always right. Matter of fact, he was so passionate and so emotional and so often not emotionally literate, not able to control his emotions. And so he let his anger speak first and then later he would apologize or acknowledge things,” she said.
Steinburg continued: “I have to sit here as someone who was close to 2Pac until his death, who was present many times when I no longer worked with him in a managerial capacity. I was at lots of video shoots that he did. I was in the studio at Can-Am when he was with Suge [Knight]. And this industry is so destructive, that if I point the finger, I would say that executives and this industry had more to do with his collapse than anything.”
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2Pac was fatally shot on September 7, 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was only 25 years old.
