For Tupac, “Thug Life” was first an idea, then a tattoo across his stomach, then a band. He read the two words as an acronym: “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody”the hatred shown to children comes back on everyone. It was meant not as a glorification of crime but as a description: those who grow up with poverty and violence will pass them on.
The code
In 1992 Tupac and his stepfather Mutulu Shakur wrote the “Code of Thug Life,” a 26-point set of rules for the street. No selling drugs to children or pregnant women, no violence at schools, parties or concerts, no attacks on bystanders, families or the elderly; rape and “senseless brutality” were explicitly condemned. The code was meant to contain gang violence rather than end it, an attempt to bring rules into a lawless world.
The group
The core came together in 1992: Tupac, his New York friend Stretch and Big Syke, whose stage name goes back to his childhood nickname “Little Psycho.” Their sessions produced the unreleased song Thug Life. In 1993 Tupac expanded the group with his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, Macadoshis and The Rated R, and placed it with Interscope and his own Out da Gutta label.
Thug Life, Volume I was originally meant to be much longer. Because Interscope, amid the gangsta rap debate, considered many songs too risky, only ten tracks came out on September 26, 1994. Among the cuts were the planned lead single Out on Bail, which the group had already performed live at the 1994 Source Awards, and Runnin’, which also featured The Notorious B.I.G. Producers included Thug Music (Tupac and Stretch), Johnny J, Warren G and Easy Mo Bee.
The first single was Pour Out a Little Liquor, a Tupac solo track that had already appeared on the Above the Rim soundtrack. Cradle to the Grave and How Long Will They Mourn Me? with Nate Dogg followed. The album reached No. 42 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the R&B chart and went gold in January 1996.
The end
From the end of 1994 the group fell apart; by 1995 it was over. On November 30, 1994, Tupac was robbed and shot in New York; the next day he was convicted of sexual abuse, and in February 1995 he began his prison sentence. Stretch, who had been with him during the robbery, became estranged and was shot dead in Queens on November 30, 1995. When Tupac signed with Death Row in October 1995, he built the Outlawz out of his younger friends from Dramacydal. Big Syke and Mopreme came along for a while; Rated R and Macadoshis did not; Macadoshis reportedly did not want to work for Suge Knight.
A second Thug Life album never happened; reportedly Tupac and Big Syke had discussed one. Accounts also often speak of an “alleged rape”; in fact, Tupac was convicted of sexual abuse in December 1994 and acquitted of the more serious charges.