From the project Uncuffed:
While serving a sentence of life-without-parole, Stevie J. Stevenson lost touch with most of his children. Then, he found out that one of his sons had become a star: the artist Tyga, whose albums have hit number one on the rap charts.
"Everybody in prison has a story about, say, gang banging, drug dealing, car stealing, everything that we did. But the most exciting, memorable, life-changing moment was on November 19, 1989, when I was in the delivery room and I seen a womb open up and life come out of there."
Stevenson, now at Solano State Prison, spoke to "Uncuffed" producer Spoon Jackson about the relationship that inspired Tyga’s song "Dad’s Letter."
In the interview, Stevenson also describes a 2016 tweet in which Tyga said he saw Tupac as his father figure, more so than his biological father. Tyga followed up by posting a “letter from my real father” and his own response.
Tyga’s management did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
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KALW’s radio training program in California prisons is supported by the California Arts Council, with funding from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The producers fact-check content to the best of their ability. All content is approved by a prison information officer.
Uncuffed is a project in which KALW editors train incarcerated people to report stories from inside prison. A CDCR official listened to and approved the audio for this story prior to broadcast.
Email KALW's Uncuffed editors.
Write to the Uncuffed producers at Solano State Prison:
Uncuffed
Level 3 Education / Media Lab
P.O. Box 4000
Vacaville, CA
95696-4000
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