Even though Tupac will forever be known as a West Coast legend, Makaveli was actually born in Harlem, New York and moved to California as a teenager.
The myth that stems from Tupac raising the banner for the Left Coast carries over to the Outlawz. Fellow Outlaw E.D.I. Mean tells “Myths Exposed” why the East Coast group is often remembered as representing the West Side.
“I guess it stems from that era when we was in the so-called East Coast-West Coast beef,” he says. “In all actuality, we all from the East Coast. There’s only one member of the Outlawz that was born out here in California. Some of y’all might know that. It’s Young Noble. Young Noble was actually born out here, but raised in Jersey.”
E.D.I. Mean says that there is an underlying myth and that those who know the Outlawz aren’t from California have their own misconception of the group.
“Then the other side of that is that they thought the Outlawz, the group the Outlawz was from Jersey, which is not all the way true,” he says. “A lot of us were, Kadafi, Hussein Fatal, rest in peace, of course, Napoleon and Young Nobel both from Jersey, Montclair and Irvington respectively. But me, Kastro and ‘Pac were all from New York City. I was from Brooklyn, ‘Pac, Kastro from Harlem and the Bronx.”
Tupac was vocal about his support of the West Coast and his music reflected that with songs like “California Love” and “To Live and Die in LA.” The Outlawz joined Tupac on some songs throughout his career, including multiple songs on The Don Killuminati (The 7 Day Theory) and the Biggie Smalls diss track “Hit Em Up.” E.D.I. Mean explains how fans translated this into thinking they were all West Coast rappers, but each member had his own identity and the group itself had a different sound without Tupac.
“It would pigeonhole us sometimes and it would kinda throw people for a loop,” he says. “The myth had people confused because when it got down to our music without ‘Pac, it had a definite East Coast kinda tinge to it. So people were confused. A lot of the fan base were expecting a bunch of little ‘Pacs or West Coast dudes, but that wasn’t the case. We were who we were. We never tried to sound like ‘Pac or emulate his sound. We just did our own thing.”