2Pac’s biological father has spoken out about his disdain for the Allen Hughes directed Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni & Tupac Shakur docuseries which premiered on Hulu back in April.
In a sit-down interview with The Art Of Dialogue on Saturday (June 3), Billy Garland revealed that he initially denied wanting to sit down to speak with Allen Hughes in an interview about 2Pac, but was persuaded by him, even though he didn’t know the actual footage would be used for Dear Mama.
We did an interview for about two hours,” Garland said. “After I saw the interview in the documentary, I was slightly disappointed, let’s just say that. I didn’t like it. It was more about something else, than about 2Pac, if you know what I’m saying. If I knew it was about ‘Dear Mama,’ I might’ve still did it, but I probably wouldn’t have. Not for nothing.”
Billy Garland then defended 2Pac against Allen Hughes calling him a “delusional mythmaker” prior to the documentary being made. Garland also said 2Pac wasn’t “bi-polar,” but rather he was reacting because “people were betraying him” throughout the timeline of his success in music.
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Although Billy Garland did not like how the documentary turned out, critics recently gave the five-part docuseries a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which came after the FX series already shattered TV records.
The new perfect score was unveiled earlier this month, with critics such as TIME, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter praising the sensitive approach to 2Pac’s legacy taken by the director Allen Hughes.
One of the most thorough, sensitive portraits I’ve seen of an artist who has by now been eulogized for longer than he was alive,” wrote TIME. “And of the remarkable woman who created him.
The docu-series focuses on the mother-son relationship between Afeni Shakur – a revolutionary and member of the Black Panther Party – and 2Pac Shakur. It was the most-watched premiere episode for an unscripted series in FX’s 28-year history.
It’s only fitting that Allen Hughes definitive piece on Tupac and Afeni Shakur delivered a record performance for us and it speaks to Tupac’s enduring legacy,” Nick Grad, president of FX Entertainment, said in a statement. “Allen’s examination of Tupac viewed through the prism of his mother Afeni is a fascinating take that really gets beneath the education and experience that shaped his life and inspired him to become one of the greatest artists ever.”
