“Dear Mama”entered into the National Recording Registry

Tupac Shakur’s classic Hip-Hop track “Dear Mama” was one of 25 records selected by the Library of Congress to be entered into the National Recording Registry. Shakur joined legends like Little Richard (“Tutti Frutti”), Willie Nelson (Red Headed Stranger), Bill Cosby (I Started Out As a Child), R.E.M. (“Radio Free America”), Howlin’ Wolfe (Smokestack Lightning) The Staple Singers (Soul Folk in Action) and others. “In this moving and eloquent homage to both his own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference, Tupac Shakur unflinchingly forgives his mother who, despite a cocaine habit, ‘never kept a secret, always stayed real,’ stated Librarian of Congress’ James H. Billington. “The song displays further evidence of hip hop as a musically sophisticated and varied genre that can artfully encompass a wide variety of themes and musical influences.”

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