This Thug's Life: An Unapologetically Black Story

Summary

FOR THE FIRST TIME, HIP-HOP LEGEND MOPREME SHAKUR TELLS HIS REVELATORY STORY OF A LIFE LIVED AS THE SON OF ONE OF THE MOST PIVOTAL ACTIVISTS OF THE BLACK LIBERATION MOVEMENT, AND THE BROTHER OF TUPAC, THE RAP SUPERSTAR YOU ONLY THINK YOU KNOW.

Maurice. Little Mutulu. Mogie. Mocedes. ’Preme. Wycked. Mopreme Shakur has been known by many names. Fitting for a multi-hyphenate like Mo: hip hop artist and sole surviving member of T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. and Outlaw Immortalz, soldier, writer, husband and father, filmmaker, record producer, and the big brother of, and co-collaborator with, the legendary Tupac Shakur, the greatest rapper of all time. The one thing Mo hasn’t done—until now—is tell his story, one of complex family relationships, fame, tragedy, politics, musical innovation, and brotherly love.

Born in Flushing, New York, in 1967 and raised in South Jamaica, Queens, Mo got an early education in what it meant to be a man of righteous New Afrikan values imparted by his activist and healer father, Mutulu. The son of a revolutionary, Mo’s childhood was rife with upheavals, inspiration, dramatic highs and lows, and unbreakable bonds of love. None stronger than when he met his new baby brother Tupac. Mutulu said, “This is your brother. Hold his hand.” Over the more than two decades that followed, Mopreme never let go. As Tupac rose to transcendent heights in the industry, Mo was on Pac’s team as writer and collaborator, producer, stagehand, and sibling confidante. Everything Pac did, Mo was there—right up until the day Pac’s life was cut short in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.

In his memoir, Mo shares not just an intimately personal story of family, but also one of resilience, a quest for racial justice informed by decades of struggle for Black liberation long before the Black Lives Matter movement, and of two brothers who rose from the streets to become icons. It’s insightful, inspirational, powerful, and authentically and unapologetically Black. As Mo himself would say: dig that!

“I have known Mo for years, and his memoir captures exactly what it’s like to sit down and listen to the man tell stories: he really brings us back to the ‘90s—and to Tupac—in full color. His voice is authentic, honest, and uniquely his. I learned new things about Mo, Pac, and the Shakurs, but most of all I loved being brought back to that unique and beautiful time in our lives.”—Jada Pinkett Smith