Ironically, the single was in the Top 20 at the time of his arrest for forcible sodomy of a 20-year-old woman in the fall of 1993. His 1993 hit, “Keep Ya Head Up,” was touted for its pro-women stance. It’s not the first time Shakur has exhibited a sensitive side. “I just thought it was a great song, an emotional song.” “It wasn’t like, ‘Well, Tupac’s in jail, let’s find the most sympathetic song on the record and put it out so that the audience will be sympathetic to him,’ ” Whalley said. “Dear Mama,” a paean to Shakur’s mother, is “a rare expression of love in the rap world,” according to one reviewer, “displaying a sensitivity that outsiders would deny.”īut Tom Whalley, the Interscope executive who signed Shakur to the label in 1990, said the choice of “Dear Mama” as the album’s first single was not made with the intention of presenting the imprisoned rapper in a more positive light. The magazine hit newsstands early last month, as the “Dear Mama” single and video were starting to get airplay.
“I think the Vibe article really says everything he’s feeling and covers all the bases,” she said. He has received other interview requests, she said, but declined them all. Lori Earl, head of publicity at Interscope, said the decision to give only one interview was Shakur’s, but she supported it. Alan Light, editor in chief at Vibe, said reader reaction to the cover story has been stronger than for any other story since the magazine was launched by Quincy Jones and Time Life 18 months ago.