Rhetorical Analysis Of Dear Mama By Tupac

Statistics today would say that most black men up and leave their family when they reach a certain amount of wealth. However, when it comes to the song “Dear mama by Tupac Shakur”, that is not the case. Some men actually look forward to being able to take care of their family. This song was written in tribute to his mother Afeni Shakur. In the song Tupac expresses all of the hardships that he and his siblings had growing up. He also says “Even though I sell rocks it feels good putting money in your mailbox, I love paying rent when the rent’s due, I hope you got that diamond necklace that I sent to you”, This is a perfect example of a real man making sure that his family is taken care of. Contradicting the people who believe most black men walk

out on their families once they reach a certain amount of wealth. Even though Tupac and his little sister had different fathers and neither of them were around, they blamed everything that went wrong on their mother.
Tupac was a very rebellious teenager mainly because his father was around so he didn’t have anyone to teach him how to become a real man. He depended on the local drug dealers to teach him what he thought he needed to know about the world. Even though they sold drugs they showed him the love that he was missing out on from his father.Being rebellious and hanging out with the wrong crowd  led him to be kicked out by the age of seventeen and later on sent to prison.
Even though his mother was a drug addict and couldn’t provide the things he wanted to have growing up, they had a lot of good times that outweighed the bad times.Tupac points out how she picked him up whenever he was down the wrong path, pointing him into the right direction. He also says ‘ain’t no woman alive that can take my mama’s place” which is pretty self-explanatory. Tupac goes beyond all of the bad memories that they had and tries to let her know that he can’t pay her back for all the good she’s done but, that he understands how hard it was being a single mother on welfare while trying to raise a man and that he appreciates her for the way that she raised him and things she sacrificed for him.
This message is deeply conveyed to the audience by Tupac repeatedly saying “there’s no way I can pay you back but the plan is to show you that I understand, you are appreciated”. This song could help all males realize  the importance of thanking and showing their mothers especially single mothers who do the best they could, unconditional love and appreciation for all they did for them. Your life may not be as perfect as you want it to be but there is more to life than money and materialistic things, love and support is most important.  This song is unique compared to the usual gangsta rap music because, it isn’t degrading towards women or advertising violence. Dear Mama is meaningful  and clearly understood. Tupac took a turn and made a change with rap music. Persuading other rappers to do the same by  creating some type of positive message within their songs. For example, Kanye West released his song “Hey mama” in 2005, letting her know how much he loves and appreciates her. Nas released his song “Dance with your mama” in 2005, expressing the feelings he had about her passing away.  One person making a change and trying something new can influence others to do the same.
Based off of the song “dear mama” the main rhetorical strategies that are used would be pathos and ethos.

Using pathos, he expresses his feelings and shows sympathy towards his mother for all hard times that she had trying to raise him as a single mother on welfare. “I shed tears with my baby sister over the years we was poorer than the other little kids”, gives the audience reason to believe that he was ashamed of not having as much as the other little kids in his community. The chorus of the song is another example  of  pathos. It shows the never-ending love and appreciation that he has for his mother. No matter how much they fight or how hard life was for them she’s always there to pick him up when he’s down. “I reminisce on the stress I caused it was hell hugging on my mama from a jail cell”. This shows the people who are listening that  he regrets putting his mother through all the hell that he did by being a rebellious teenager and not appreciating the little things she did for him.  In the beginning of the song Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur explains how she was pregnant with Tupac while she was in jail thinking that she would have him and never be able to see him. She was lucky enough to be released a month before she had him, from then on she had big hopes and goals for him. Later on when Tupac found himself in a jail cell at a young age he says it was hell that he never thought would happen.  The last example of pathos is this verse “I wish I can take the pain away if you can make it through the night there’s a brighter day”. This verse is powerful only because so many people can relate to feeling like nothing in their life would ever change. It gives hope to people who are going through similar struggles and have no one to encourage them to keep  pushing forward it will eventually get easier. When you don’t have anyone to motivate or push you, you begin to ask yourself if it’s all worth it. One image from the video that strengthens this rhetorical strategy

is his mama coming home from work late and trying to put together a meal  for Tupac and his sister out of the little food that they did have left in the house. You can see Tupac refusing to eat the food after she tried so hard to find something to feed them. Children who may have seen this video is probably now more appreciative  of what their mothers do for them.
In addition to him using ethos as another rhetorical strategy, he expresses it by telling the audience that he hung out with the local drug dealers because he didn’t have anyone to show him love or how to be a man. His father’s absence in his life caused him to go down the wrong path looking for love and affection in all of the wrong places. He learned how to be a man based off of the mistakes that he made at a young age within his community. “no love for my daddy because the coward wasn’t there he passed away and I didn’t cry because my anger wouldn’t let me feel for a stranger” Along with this verse is an image of Tupac watching his father be buried with no emotion or affection  in his eyes. This reveals how much his father really meant to him. You can’t love someone you didn’t know. People who have similar experiences of their father not being around may understand this quote the most, while others who actually had a father figure around may see this quote as being harsh or evil.  “They say i’m wrong and i’m heartless but all along I was looking for a father he was gone, I hung around with the thugs and even though they sold drugs they showed a young nigga love”. He doesn’t feel bad about not having any emotion towards his father’s death because, when he was looking for him to be around and show him love and affection he was nowhere to be found. He felt neglected so he hung around  men in his community so he wouldn’t feel the pain of neglect from his father. If his father wouldn’t have lacked being in his life he could have avoided some of the mistakes that he made growing up. He wouldn’t have been caught up in hanging out with the wrong crowd. Guidance is most important at a young age if you aren’t taught right from wrong you have to figure it out on your own  by making mistakes. Any young men or fathers who received this message may look at life a lot differently it may cause men who lack being in their children’s lives to step up and be real fathers so they don’t have to worry about their children being dead or in jail.
The logos used in this song is expressed through images in the video. It shows the changes that he made within himself and his family throughout the years. It was hard in the beginning but him realizing the most important things in life he set his mind towards being a better person for himself and his family.  He learned that it’s not easy for a woman in general to raise children on her own especially a boy. Also when children feel a lack of love they will go out and look for it in the wrong places that can get them caught up in the world. This song taught a life long lesson material things aren’t important love and encouragement is.
One way we can determine the effectiveness of the rhetoric strategies that are used in this song is by simply asking ourselves or others did this song touch them and if so in what kind of way. We can also determine the effectiveness of the strategies by living life and seeing if people in our community or world that we lived in have changed since 2005 which was when this song was released. This all shows that not all black men up and leave their family once they reach a certain amount of wealth they just become appreciative, reflective on their lives,  and determined to continue to build love within their family.