Case study three : Tupac

Dear mama is a hip hop track made by the American artist Tupac and was released in 1995 as part of Interscope records. The music video is 4 minutes and 41 seconds long.

Dear mama is a music video by Tupac dedicated to his mother, who was part of the Black Panthers which was a political organization. It shows footage an actor replicating Tupac when he was younger and how he’s (single) mum would struggle yet still try providing for him and his other siblings. It also shows at the beginning her time in jail. The overall music video shows the extents to which his mother goes to take care of him while growing up and that he understands it wasn’t easy.

Themes and motifs include poverty and struggle. These are both highlighted several times within the footage, showing his mum coming home work late and tired, yet trying to feed them with the ‘scraps’ she has.  

The narrative had no lip syncing and the role of the performer was to replicate Tupac and show his life growing up, and what his mum had to go through raising her children as a single parent

Camera angles were used to help portray the message of the music video. The tilt at 1:42 was particularly effective use of the angle as it shows flowers being put down in the gravestone of his father when the passed away. Then tilts down and shows Tupac (when he was younger) in the scene and shows him not crying, because ‘daddy was a stranger’. When Tupac is shown in the video it grabbed my attention and I felt a sense of empathy.

The target audience is anyone of any age; this timeless track is rated at 4 of the greatest hip hop songs of all time according to about.com. It could particularly appeal to households with single mums. The records were sold at shops at times of release and are now available on iTunes.

The ideas which we can adopt for our music video could be the tilt effect. The way the scene is being shown and another character is introduced into the scene and their emotions are shown in contrast to what is happening in the scene, being emphasized.