New docuseries explores relationship between late rap star Tupac Shakur and his mother

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The story of Tupac Shakur and his mother is about to unfold in a new five-episode docuseries. It's called "Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur."

People who knew them best, help tell this very tough story.

Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas in 1996. He was only 25. The docuseries explores not only his life but his mother's, too.

His mother, Afeni Shakur, was was an activist, a Black Panther and a single mother.

At the premiere for "Dear Mama," Tupac's good friend and fellow rapper Snoop Dogg shared his thoughts on the docuseries.

"People need to see the relationship between mother and son, and how difficult it was in that era to raise a Black man and the great job that she did, and how they maintained their relationship through the hardships. And that's what life is about," Snoop said.

The film's director, Allen Hughes, was also at the premiere.

"I ultimately walked away with a deep compassion for Tupac that I just didn't have it like that before, and understanding of his journey," Hughes said. "I'm glad that deciding to go through his mother's narrative is the way I thought I would discover him. And boy, did I discover him. But a lot more with her. She's the revelation."

Snoop Dogg said Tupac's mother was a great woman and inspirational. She always supported him and told him what he was doing wrong and right.

"She was like everybody's mama," the rapper said.

This docuseries is honest about drug abuse, poverty, imprisonment and more.

Consulting producer Jamal Joseph said they didn't want the series to be slanted one way or another.

"It is the good, the bad and the unfiltered in terms of who they really were, and with that I think you take away your own feelings about who they were," Joseph said.

"The moments that you spend with us in the docuseries hopefully feel like moments that you're really living with them," Joseph added. "And that you'll miss them and shed a tear wishing they were still in the world."

The docuseries premieres Friday on FX and will be available to stream on Hulu.