FX's new five-part docuseries Dear Mama has broken ratings records for the network, as it becomes its most-watched unscripted series premiere. The documentary series, which follows the life of rapper Tupac Shakur and his mother Afeni Shakur, was directed by Menace II Society filmmaker Allen Hughes.

Debuting with a two-episode premiere on FX last Friday April 21, the show attracted an average of 185,000 viewers, with its first episode leading with a 196,000 strong audience. While these numbers fell short of meeting previous record holder Welcome to Wrexham's premiere viewership of 271,000, which made its debut in August 2022, Dear Mama went on to surpass this through streaming numbers and delayed viewings. FX Entertainment president Nick Grad said in a statement "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." He added, "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."

The Series Seeks to Reveal the Man Behind the Icon

When Allen Hughes was first approached by the Shakur estate to develop a documentary on the iconic rapper, who was murdered nearly three decades ago, the filmmaker was at first hesitant, telling Rolling Stone "I didn’t want to go back there” - the pair were close early in the artist's career. However, Hughes ultimately changed his mind, electing to reveal the Tupac he knew in an effort to demystify him as a figure. The director said:

The biggest misconception about Tupac is that when you look at that image, it seems like he’s a rebel without a cause, because he was 25. And there very much was a cause there. Six months before he stepped onto a stage, he was living in abject poverty, not knowing where his next meal would come from. Any great artist is completely delusional, and with those delusions comes the slippery slope of mythmaking versus reality. But there’s all these things [in the series] on human rights, women’s rights. He’s a social-justice warrior, where all three words have equal weight.

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Image via FX

RELATED: 10 Most Underrated FX Shows, RankedTupac's mother was similarly motivated by a cause; Afeni had been a Black Panther and had instilled her sense of social justice and an emphasis on activism into her son. Hughes shared he had told the Shakur family that "the only way I’ll do this is if it’s multiple parts, and it’s just as much about Afeni as it is about Tupac.” In the early stages of development for the series, Hughes discovered that, during the last year of his life, Tupac had also been making a documentary focusing on himself and his mother - footage which Hughes was able to incorporate into the new series.

Dear Mama airs on FX. Watch the trailer below: