In September 1996 young men stood guard outside a hospital room in Las Vegas. Taking turns with Death Row video director Gobi Rahimi, members of the Outlawz watched over the room where Tupac lay after the shooting, fearing the shooters might come back. They were childhood friends, cousins and chosen brothers, and Tupac had turned them into rappers himself.
The Outlawz were his own crew. They were at his side through the war year of 1996, in the studio, on stage and on the night in Las Vegas. In later years the group also read the name as an acronym: “Operating Under Thug Laws As Warriors.” That is a backronym, an explanation invented after the fact, not the origin of the name.
The roots are in New Jersey, not Los Angeles
The Outlawz story begins on the East Coast. In 1992 Tupac’s cousin Katari Cox (Kastro), Cox’s school friend Malcolm Greenidge and Tupac’s godbrother Yafeu Fula formed a rap trio. They called themselves Thoro Headz and Young Thugz, with Fula rapping as “Young Hollywood.”
Their first appearance on record came on February 4, 1993: Flex, the B-side of Tupac’s single Holler If Ya Hear Me. The B-side was the extra track on the flip side of a single.
Dramacydal becomes the Outlaw Immortalz
In late 1993 Mutah Beale, a friend of the Fula family, joined. The group was now Dramacydal and rapped on Me Against the World (1995), on the title track and on Outlaw.
When Tupac got out of prison in October 1995 and signed with Death Row, he built the Outlaw Immortalz from them. The lineup included Hussein Fatal and Yaki Kadafi (who also performed as the duo Fatal-N-Felony), Big Syke and Mopreme from Thug Life, and the Dramacydal members. Their official debut was When We Ride on All Eyez on Me.
Dictators’ names, chosen to provoke
Tupac gave each member the name of a dictator or enemy of the United States. He himself framed the provocation as an image of fighters against a system. For himself he chose Makaveli, after Niccolò Machiavelli.
| Name | Real name | Named after | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Makaveli | Tupac Shakur | Niccolò Machiavelli | died September 13, 1996 |
| Yaki Kadafi | Yafeu Akiyele Fula | Muammar Gaddafi | died November 10, 1996 |
| E.D.I. Mean | Malcolm Greenidge | Idi Amin | stayed to the end |
| Kastro | Katari Cox | Fidel Castro | Tupac’s cousin, left in 2009 |
| Napoleon | Mutah Beale | Napoleon Bonaparte | left after converting to Islam |
| Hussein Fatal | Bruce Washington Jr. | Saddam Hussein | died July 10, 2015 |
| Mussolini | Tyruss Himes (Big Syke) | Benito Mussolini | left early 1996, died December 5, 2016 |
| Komani | Maurice Shakur (Mopreme) | Ruhollah Khomeini | Tupac’s stepbrother, left early 1996 |
| Storm | Donna Harkness | – | the only woman, left after 1996 |
| Young Noble | Rufus Cooper III | – | last member Tupac brought in, died July 4, 2025 |
Young Ritzy, aka Gonzoe, is also occasionally listed as a later member. He was part of the circle at times after 1996 but does not appear consistently in membership lists.
1996: On the records, in the video, in the car behind
In 1996 the Outlawz were wherever Tupac was. Hussein Fatal, Kadafi and E.D.I. Mean rapped on Hit ‘Em Up, the June 1996 diss aimed at Bad Boy, a song built to attack its target head-on. Kastro and Napoleon appeared in the video.
On All Eyez on Me they were heard on When We Ride, All About U, Tradin’ War Stories and Thug Passion, among others. On the posthumous The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, released after Tupac’s death, they shaped the whole album, from Hail Mary to Bomb First (My Second Reply).
On the night of September 7, 1996, Kadafi was riding with bodyguards in the car directly behind Suge Knight’s BMW, in which Tupac was shot in Las Vegas. In the days that followed, members of the Outlawz kept the hospital watch described above.
Kadafi: like a younger brother to Tupac
Yafeu Fula was the son of Yaasmyn Fula, a close friend of Tupac’s mother Afeni. To Tupac he was like a younger brother. After Tupac’s death he went back to New Jersey with Hussein Fatal.
Las Vegas police wanted to interview him as a possible eyewitness. On November 10, 1996, Kadafi was shot dead in Orange, New Jersey. He was 19.
Carrying on without Tupac
The group carried on. In 1997 the Outlawz were on the soundtrack to Tupac’s last film, Gang Related. On December 21, 1999, Still I Rise came out, a joint album by 2Pac and the Outlawz built from unreleased recordings.
It entered the Billboard 200, the main US album chart, at No. 7, later peaked at No. 6 and was certified platinum in February 2000. The Outlawz then founded their own label, Outlaw Recordz, and released Ride wit Us or Collide wit Us (2000), Novakane (2001) and Neva Surrenda: The Rap-A-Lot Sessions (2002).
Later came Outlaw 4 Life: 2005 A.P. and Perfect Timing (2011), among others. Joint projects with members of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony followed, including Thug Brothers 2 by Young Noble and Krayzie Bone in 2017.
Separate paths, early deaths
Hussein Fatal refused to stay with Death Row after Tupac’s death and is not on Still I Rise. He released solo albums and rejoined the Outlawz in 2010. On July 10, 2015, he died in a car crash in Banks County, Georgia, aged 42.
Napoleon had witnessed the murder of his parents at the age of three. He turned to Islam from Ramadan 2001 on, stepped away from music over the following years and now works as a motivational speaker. His book is called Life Is Raw. Accounts of when he left the group differ: April 2003 is often given, other sources say 2005.
Kastro left the group in 2009. Big Syke died of natural causes on December 5, 2016, aged 48. Young Noble took his own life in the Atlanta area on July 4, 2025; he was 47. His death marked the end of the Outlawz as an active group. Their voices remain on the records, on Hit ‘Em Up and Hail Mary, right next to his.
More on individual members: Big Syke, Mopreme Shakur, Kastro. How Tupac built the group out of Thug Life is told under Thug Life.