Early Tupac Collaborator Shares Original Version Of “Dear Mama”

As far as Tupac‘s most iconic material is concerned, “Dear Mama,” in its showcase of Pac’s softer side, particularly at a time when his character was being eviscerated by the media, stands as something well beyond the musical realm. An ode to his mother, the late Afeni Shakur who passed early this week, “Dear Mama” was a rare glimpse at Pac’s deceptively-sentimental self, particularly at a time when he was locked for an alleged sexual assault, which he fought vehemently against. And while, that tributary has certainly received its fair share of burn over the last few days, and rightfully so, early Pac collaborator, DJ King Assassin, has pulled the veil off the original version of the song, which bears a sample of Ice Cube protege and Lench Mob affiliate Yo-Yo’s line from “This Is A Man’s World.”

Listen to the original version of Tupac’s “Dear Mama” below and dig into the the backstory from DJ King Assassin for some context.

“The original version of ‘Dear Mama’ was far different than the version that was released, as far as the hook was constructed. Originally, the hook was a sample of a song from the legendary rapper and friend of both of ours named Yo-Yo, from Ice Cube’s [Da] Lench Mob. The sample was ‘Wouldn’t be a damn thang without a woman,’ which was taken from the original song from Ice Cube’s ‘This Is A Man’s World,’ with the scratching done, of course, by yours truly DJ King Assassin. The day after we had finished up on everything we were in Echo Sound in L.A. when Tupac comes in the studio very upset and proceeds to explain to us that we had to take out Yo-Yo’s part because a person by the name of Pat Charbonet would not give us the clearance to use that part in the song, so we had no choice but to take it out and that’s where even the Richard Pryor excerpt, which you will hear, is completely off the released version of the song.”