Napoleon's path to Islam (part 2): Tupac's death

Archive note: This post appeared on November 18, 2007, on the site’s blog (then Thuglove.de / United-Tupac.Com). It continued the interview with Napoleon of the Outlawz (part 1). Here are the key points.

What Napoleon said

At 14 or 15, Napoleon said, he went from the ghetto to living among millionaires in Los Angeles. At Death Row he lost control, drank heavily and partied every night. Music was being made at the same time, including with Tupac: the young rappers appeared on All Eyez on Me. Tupac, he said, was like a father to him, someone who got him out of the ghetto and took care of his family.

One moment shortly before Tupac’s death stayed with Napoleon: at his house by the beach, Tupac said that now that he had all this, he did not want to die anymore. A week or two later he was shot in Las Vegas. Soon afterward Yaki Kadafi died too. These losses forced him to ask what happens after death. He did not belong to any religion then, he said, but believed in a higher power.

Context

The basic facts check out: All Eyez on Me was released on February 13, 1996, was later certified diamond in the US and features several future Outlawz members. Yaki Kadafi was shot dead in Orange, New Jersey, on November 10, 1996, two months after Tupac. Napoleon’s memories of conversations with Tupac are his personal account and cannot be independently verified. The ages in the interview are approximate; based on his birth year, Napoleon was about 18 in 1996.

What happened next

An announced third part has not survived in the site’s archive. By his own account, Napoleon embraced Islam in 2001, encouraged by a Muslim music producer. Since then he has worked as a motivational speaker and has lived at times in Saudi Arabia, where he made headlines in 2014 and 2017 with a coffee business. A documentary about his life, Napoleon: Life of an Outlaw (directed by Jonathan Abdilla), came out in 2019.