March 14th will mark twenty years since the release of Tupac Shakur’s third (and arguably his best) album, Me Against The World. Released while he was serving his prison sentence at Clinton Correctional facility for a sexual assault conviction, MATW vaulted onto the Billboard 200, giving Pac a #1 album and making him the first artist to have a #1 debut while behind bars. RELATED: Take A Closer Look Inside Tupac Shakur’s Exhibit At The Grammy Museum [PHOTOS] Much of that success was due to the albums platinum first single “Dear Mama,” the poignant open letter to his mother Afeni Shakur. Built on samples of The Spinner’s “Sadie” and Joe Samples “All My Wildest Dreams,” Pac praised his mother while acknowledging her faults: “Even as a crack fiend, mama/you was always a Black Queen, mama.” The accompanying video was filmed while Tupac was incarcerated and sadly foreshadowed a life without him, his mother flipping through photo albums and reminiscing on their past relationship. Director Lionel Martin employed flashbacks to recreate the portraits Pac painted in his lyrics and cast model and magazine editor Tracii McGregor to play Afeni in her younger days. Having appeared in videos for Mint Condition, Coolio and Ice ...
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