Critical, Commercial Success and Impact
The song topped the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart for five weeks, the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles for one week, and peaked at number 9 on the Hot 100. It also topped the Hot Dance Music Maxi-Singles sales chart for 4 weeks. The single was certified Platinum by the RIAA on July 13, 1995.
It is considered by many to be 2Pac's most emotional and most respected song, and is praised by many artists (Eminem mentions it as his favorite song), even by many artists who are not involved in the hip-hop business. It was selected as one of many songs you must hear and download in the musical reference book 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die: And 10,001 You Must Download. In 1998, the song appeared on 2Pac's Greatest Hits. The official remix is produced by Nitty and features Anthony Hamilton on the 2006 release Pac's Life.
Snoop Dogg said in an interview that this song displayed an introspective side of 2Pac, which made him different from other rappers, because "he went inside", something other rappers were hesitant or unable to do.
The song appeared on Fox series New York Undercover episode "Manchild".
Read more about this topic: Dear Mama
Famous quotes containing the words commercial, success and/or impact:
“A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking the right tone for every occasion.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“On the whole, the great success of marriage in the States is due partly to the fact that no American man is ever idle, and partly to the fact that no American wife is considered responsible for the quality of her husband’s dinners.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“One can describe a landscape in many different words and sentences, but one would not normally cut up a picture of a landscape and rearrange it in different patterns in order to describe it in different ways. Because a photograph is not composed of discrete units strung out in a linear row of meaningful pieces, we do not understand it by looking at one element after another in a set sequence. The photograph is understood in one act of seeing; it is perceived in a gestalt.”
—Joshua Meyrowitz, U.S. educator, media critic. “The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors,” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, Oxford University Press (1985)