Dear Mama: Afeni Shakur’s Calling Was to “Keep our Babies Alive.”

“Rest Well to my Aunt Afeni Shakur,” wrote Young Noble, a member of the legendary West Coast rap crew The Outlawz, in a heartfelt Instagram post yesterday honoring the late civil rights activist and former political prisoner. “She passed away 5yrs ago this day in 2016. I’m honored to have known her and got to hug her many times and tell her I love her ❤️ I think back to when her son passed away she was the strong 1 who kept us all calm and gave us direction. She begged all The Outlawz to come live with her in Atl for a few months to clear our minds & be together she told us the most important thing was for us to stay together!”

There is a lot to unpack in this statement. The son she’s speaking about is of course Tupac Amaru Shakur, the legendary rapper who brought Young Noble into the Outlawz just as he began recording under the name Makaveli. Making his debut on The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Young Noble was just 18 years old when he recorded classic tracks like “Hail Mary” and “Bomb First (My Reply)” with Pac and the rest of The Outlawz during the first week of August 1996. On the evening of September 7, Pac was struck by four bullets and died six days later at the age of 25. Even as she grieved the loss of her son, Afeni invited his partners in rhyme to come stay with her in Atlanta. Three of the five accepted the invitation.

“Me, Edi, Napoleon & Kastro agreed to come,” Young Noble wrote on IG yesterday. “Kadafi & Fatal decided they would rather stay in New Jersey and sell drugs then Kadafi gets killed 2 months after Pac on Nov 10, 1996. She was tryna save our lives we was outta control SMH.”

Trying to save lives—specifically young, Black lives—was Afeni Shakur’s focus, before Black Lives Matter was a hashtag. Before Twitter, actually. And way before 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was murdered by Louisville police in her own home, before 13-year-old Adam Toledo was shot dead by a Chicago cop, before 20-year-old Daunte Wright was gunned down by a police officer in Minnesota, before 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was gunned down by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio. Before all of that, Afeni was committed to, as she put it, “keeping our babies alive.”

“You take a lemon and you make lemonade,” said Afeni Shakur Davis, speaking in…