“Anybody who knows Tupac knows that he and his mother are like twins,” Hughes said, adding that it was important to highlight Afeni as "an authentic Black woman" who championed her son and was a huge influence on the perspective he shared in his songs. Afeni was active in the Black Panther Party at the end of the 1960's in Harlem where she became a section leader of the Harlem chapter and wrote the newsletter The Panther Post. She was arrested for conspiracy to bomb police stations and other public places in 1969. Her son Tupac began his career as political rap artist 2Pac with his 1991 release 2pacalypse Now. He embraced the edgier and more aggressive style of rap in the mid 1990's with his Death Row Records debut All Eyez On Me.

According to FX, Dear Mama is a five-part documentary series “told through the eyes of the people who knew them best. An intimate wide-angle portrait of the most inspiring and dangerous mother-son duo in American history, whose unified message of freedom, equality, persecution and justice are more relevant today than ever.”

In a trailer for the series, Afeni explains the guiding principles with which she raised Pac. "It was my responsibility to teach Tupac how to survive his reality,” she says in the clip. “So, Tupac do something wrong? Take his little sorry self in that corner, get The New York Times and let’s have a debate about it… Not a discussion; a debate. Let me hear what your idea is… Stand up, defend it.” Tupac died as a result of injuries sustained in a Las Vegas shooting on September 13, 1996. Afeni died May 2, 2016.