Tupac Shakur introduced the Outlawz back in 1995 after his release from prison and there’s a common misconception of the group’s West Coast origins since their introduction by the late Hip Hop great.
Outlawz member E.D.I Mean (formerly EDIDON) breaks down this myth in an interview with Unique Access.
“I guess that stems from that era when we was in the so-called ‘East Coast, West Coast’ beef,” EDI says of people assuming they were West Coast rappers. “In all actuality, we from the East Coast except for one member that was born out here as some of y’all may know and thats Young Noble, he was actually born out here but was raised in Jersey.”
All of the group’s members are from the East Coast, including Tupac who was born in Harlem, New York although he repped for California pretty hard. This caused some confusion with fans when they checked out their music outside of the music they did with Tupac.
“It would pigeon hole us sometimes and it would kind of throw people for a loop,” he says. “The myth had people confused because when it got down to like our music without Pac it had a definite East Coast tinge to it.”
This past week marked the 20th anniversary of the influential rap star’s death after he died in Las Vegas on September 13, 1996, six days after being shot on the strip. Several notable members of the Hip Hop community banded together to pay their respects to his life and legacy as an artist. The HipHopDX staff also shared their personal experiences on how Makaveli’s music inspired them to become transfixed within rap culture.
Check out the full interview of EDIDON discussing this myth on Unique Access below.
“But I’m from Jerz, we don’t play that Shit..”
-Bomb First
Every day one Pac fan knows the Outlawz weren’t from the West
Big syke
Pac discovered him around the thug life album time frame
Yesir
Actually weren’t they on the Me Against the World Album…… just had a different name for the group?
yea they were called dramcydal
No shit? I always thought that was some East Coast cats.
Four of them were: EDI Mean, Napoleon (who is a Muslim now and doesn’t rap anymore), Kastro, and Kadaffi (RIP). They were called Dramacydal and the Young Thugz among other names he gave them because they were all loosely related to him and he took care of them because their home situations were fucked up. The Outlawz were those 4 with Fatal (RIP too) added to the group, and then Young Noble took his place right before Pac got killed because he crashed a Range Rover and Pac kicked him out of the group for doing stupid shit.
Man. I wish Junior MAFIA had enough sense to stick together like these cats do. I respect the hell out of The Outlawz because they remained loyal to ‘Pac. And truth be told Biggie my top rapper. *Sidebar* V. Hernandez, if your pussy was a movie, it’d be The Hurt Locker. You still coo doe.
My baby is alive❤❤❤❤❤
G.O.A.T.