It’s Mother’s Day this weekend, and this year, we’re celebrating with hip-hop. We know, it’s not exactly a genre commonly associated with showering women with love and respect, but here and there you’ll find a touching track that defies expectations and breaks down the hip-hop stereotypes.

Here are five of our favourite rap songs about mothers for the special day this Sunday.

‘Dear Mama’ – Tupac

We defy you to find one song in hip-hop history more beautiful and heartwarming than ‘Pac’s ‘Dear Mama’, dedicated to his mother, activist and Black Panther member Afeni Shakur. The track details Tupac’s history with his mother, how hard she fought to provide for him as a boy, and how, though he can never pay her back, he wants her to understand how grateful he truly is.

While the message seems standard for some, the particularly remarkable thing about it is who it came from: Tupac, a gangsta rapper best known for glorifying sex, drugs and the thug life. Special mention also goes to Tupac’s earlier track ‘Keep Ya Head Up’, a similarly emotional, proud song celebrating the rights and freedom of women – black mothers in particular.

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‘Ms Jackson’ – Outkast

‘Ms Jackson’ was Outkast’s first massive no. 1 hit and it’s made even better with the knowledge that it’s completely true too – Andre 3000 wrote the song to apologise to the real Ms Jackson, real name Kolleen Wright. He really did have “a special thing goin’ on” with her daughter, one Erykah Badu.

Andre wrote the song for Wright because he was too nervous to approach her and apologise in person. Luckily, she loved the song – and yes, he really was “present on the first day of school, and graduation.”

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‘Dance’ – Nas

This heartbreaking track was written after Nas’ mother passed away in 2002. The track honours his mother, Fannie Ann Jones: “I’m thankful to ever know a woman so real.” Like Tupac, he thanks his mother for the work she put into raising her “ghetto kids in the hood” and wishes he could have one more dance with her. The song ends with a mournful cornet tribute from Nas’ father, jazz musician Olu Dara. It’s a gorgeous tribute to his late mother and a poignant moment in hip-hop history.

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‘I Love My Momma’ – Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg is without doubt one of the worst offenders in hip-hop history when it comes to misogyny and sexist lyrics. That said, there are a handful of really lovely tracks in his back catalogue – and ‘I Love My Momma’ is one of the best.

The final track on his 1999 album No Limit Top Dogg, it features Snoop thanking his mother for her tough love (“The first one to hold me, the first one to scold me”), for educating him (“You taught me how to read and write”) and for being “The queen in my life”.

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‘Hey Mama’ – Kanye West

We finally arrive at Yeezy’s ‘Hey Mama’, a gorgeous singalong ballad from 2005’s Late Registration. While Kanye West isn’t always considered to be a friendly, loving guy, this track is one of the most uplifting in his career, dedicated to his mother Donda West, an English professor.

He thanks his mother for pushing him to get an education, apologises for acting up, and tells her all about the stuff he’ll buy her when he’s really rich and famous. The most important message – one particularly relevant to this weekend – is, “It don’t gotta be Mother’s Day, or your birthday, for me to just call and say’ Hey Mama’”. Tragically, his mother passed away two years later. In 2012, Kanye named his creative agency DONDA in her honour.