Tupac and Mopreme were not related by blood. But they shared a sister, a father figure and a band that gave the attitude called “THUG LIFE” its name.
Family
Mopreme Shakur was born Maurice Harding on August 16, 1967. He is the son of Mutulu Shakur from an earlier relationship and is sometimes credited as “Mutulu Shakur Jr.” When Mutulu married Afeni Shakur in 1975, Mopreme became Tupac’s stepbrother; he and Sekyiwa share the same father. He is occasionally described wrongly as a son of Billy Garland, or as Tupac’s “half-brother”strictly speaking, the two were stepbrothers.
Making music with Tupac
He made his first record in 1990 as “Mocedes the Mellow” on Tony! Toni! Toné!‘s single Feels Good. On Tupac’s album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. (1993) he raps as Wycked on Papa’z Song, a track about absent fathers.
That same year Tupac and Mopreme formed the group THUG LIFE with Big Syke, Macadoshis and Rated R. Their only album, Thug Life: Volume 1, came out in 1994 and went gold. Mopreme co-wrote many of the lyrics. He was an original member of Tupac’s group the Outlawz under the name Komani, but left shortly after Tupac’s death over money disputes with Death Row.
Marin City, 1992
On August 22, 1992, Marin City celebrated its 50th anniversary with a festival at which Tupac performed. During a clash between Tupac’s entourage and local residents, shots were fired; six-year-old Qa’id Walker-Teal was fatally hit in the head. The bullet came from a pistol registered to Tupac. Maurice Harding was briefly arrested on suspicion of having fired it, but he was never charged, as prosecutors could not find witnesses. The boy’s parents sued Tupac and Harding for damages. The first phase of the case opened in November 1995; according to later reports it ended in a settlement.
After 1996
Mopreme later released mixtapes such as Evolution of a Thug Life N.I.G.G.A. (2005) and in 2008 served as a consultant on an episode of BET’s American Gangster about his father. He campaigned for years for Mutulu’s release. When his terminally ill father was freed in December 2022, Mopreme said: “I think being free does a lot for the spirit.” Mutulu died in July 2023.
Since then Mopreme has taken a more prominent role for the family. In an October 2024 interview he said the family had hired attorney Alex Spiro to get to the truth about Tupac’s death. On April 28, 2026, as administrator of Mutulu’s estate, he filed a wrongful death suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, against Duane “Keffe D” Davis and up to 100 as yet unidentified co-conspirators listed as “John Does 1-100.” A Las Vegas jury found Davis guilty of Tupac’s murder on August 31, 2026; sentencing is set for October 13, 2026, and Davis has said he will appeal. The civil suit is pending (as of October 2026).
Also in 2026, his memoir This Thug’s Life was published.