Among Tupac’s cousins, Katari Cox is the best known, as Kastro of the Outlawz. He was a teenager when Tupac brought him into the studio, and he stayed loyal to the Outlawz for decades after Tupac’s death.
Family
Katari Terrance Cox was born on December 30, 1976, and grew up in New York. He is described as the son of Afeni’s older sister Gloria Jean, known as “Glo.” Glo belonged to the family’s innermost circle; Staci Robinson’s authorized Tupac biography is dedicated to her. In 1997 Vanity Fair simply described the young Outlawz as “Tupac’s teenage cousins,” who came and went at his house in Calabasas.
From K-Dog to Kastro
As a kid, Katari rapped under the name K-Dog with his friend Malcolm Greenidge, later E.D.I. Mean, and with Yafeu Fula, later Yaki Kadafi. Katari is also said to have introduced E.D.I. to Tupac. The boys were already in the studio during the sessions for Tupac’s album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. (1993). With Mutah, later Napoleon, they became the group Dramacydal.
K-Dog can be heard on Outlaw from Me Against the World (1995), and on Tradin’ War Stories, When We Ride and Thug Passion from All Eyez on Me (1996). During those sessions Tupac gave his young crew new names after figures the U.S. regarded as enemies: K-Dog became Kastro, after Fidel Castro. The group was now called the Outlawz.
With the Outlawz
Kastro appears in the video for the diss track Hit ‘Em Up (June 1996), though he does not rap on it, and raps on the Makaveli album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, including on Hail Mary and Life of an Outlaw.
After Tupac’s death in September 1996 and Yaki Kadafi’s death two months later, the Outlawz stayed together. Kastro appeared on numerous posthumous Tupac songs and on every Outlawz album, starting with Still I Rise (1999). In 2002 he released the duo album Blood Brothers with E.D.I. In 2009 he tried going solo, but returned to the group in 2010. In the mid-2000s he formed the core of the group with E.D.I. Mean and Young Noble, as was reported at the time.
Further Claims
It is said that Katari often visited Tupac in prison and, after the shooting in Las Vegas, waited outside the hospital without a break for the six days until his death. There is no independent evidence for this, so it is not presented here as fact. The birth year is sometimes given as 1977; based on the information available today, it is 1976.