Known as “Little Mutulu,” Mopreme Shakur was born to political activist father Mutulu Shakur and mother Sharan Harding in South Jamaica, Queens. He was raised in South Jamaica for most of his life with the exception of a few years as a child, when Mopreme lived with his father Mutulu, his father’s wife Afeni and their children, Tupac and Sekyiwa, in Harlem. Their father’s activity as an armed combatant with the Black Liberation Army and membership in the Republic of New Afrika, including his role in the liberation of Assata Shakur and allegations of his connection to a Brinks robbery, made him a target of Cointel-Pro, a series of FBI counterintelligence programs that were designed to create dissidence and division within the Civil Rights Movement, sending Mutulu into hiding and separating Mopreme from his siblings. But stars are destined to shine and fate was already written that Tupac and Mopreme would create history together.

Mopreme started rapping at an early age on the streets in Queens – it was his dream, his passion and it would ultimately become his life. Mopreme spent some time in the military, and after being stationed in Ford Ord in Monterrey, CA, he completed his service honorably and moved to Oakland, where he began to work on his professional career as a rapper. In 1990, he hooked up with Tony! Toni! Tone! With the group, he recorded his first multi-Platinum hit, Feels Good, where he was featured as Mocedes and penned the famous phrase, “Tony! Toni! Tone! has done it again!” While in Oakland working on his career as an artist, his brother was just across the Bay in Marin City. The two reunited while Tupac was still an unknown young rapper trying to come up with the collective Digital Underground. After reuniting with his brother, the two set out to build an empire and put all of their energy into developing their careers in music and film.

On Pappaz Song, Mopreme is the only other rapper featured on Tupac’s demo for his solo deal. While they worked on Tupac’s debut album, the brothers started developing group concepts. In 1993, Pappaz Song was released as a single on Tupac’s sophomore Strictly for My Niggaz album. While recording Strictly, the brothers’ vision as collaborators crystallized. They formed the group THUG LIFE, which included Mopreme, Tupac, Big Syke, Rated R and Macadocious.

Ever present as a mentor, even while imprisoned, their father Mutulu was instrumental in developing the Thug Code, which worked as a framework for the brothers’ vision to create a social movement with the group as the voice. Mopreme oversaw the THUG LIFE Vol. 1 album project while collaborating on Tupac’s solo material and assisting on set as he was concentrating on his film career.

The THUG LIFE album debuted number four on Billboard, reaching Gold in only a few weeks and producing the well-known hits: Bury Me A G (also on the Tupac Resurrection soundtrack), Pour Out A Little Liquor, Cradle to the Grave, and Straight Ballin’. Mopreme is featured on six of the ten songs on the album.

As a member of THUG LIFE, Mopreme toured on the Thugs for Life Tour in 1994 and performed with Tupac until his death in 1996. Because Tupac was incarcerated shortly after the Thugs For Life Tour, Mopreme began to work as a featured artist on independent projects. After Tupac’s release in 1995, Mopreme assisted Tupac on the multi-Platinum All Eyez On Me project, where he was ultimately featured on When We Ride. While working on All Eyez On Me, Tupac formed the Outlaw Immortalz, which included Tupac (Makavelli), Big Syke (Mussolini), Yaki (Kadafi), Fatal (Hussein), Katari (Kastro), Edi, Napoleon, and Mopreme, who was known as Komeni. A few months after forming the Outlawz, Young Noble joined the click.

Following Tupac’s death, Mopreme grieved, finally deciding to reemerge in the industry in 2000. At that time, Mopreme and Big Syke began the Thug Law project, which featured artists from both THUG LIFE and the Outlawz and produced two albums on the D3 label. Mopreme has also been featured on two DVDs about the life of his brother, Thug Angel and Biggie & Tupac. Both he and his music appeared in the feature documentary Tupac Resurrection.

Mopreme has been featured as a writer, performer or both on all of his brother’s albums that were released during Tupac’s short life. Mopreme also appears as a writer and rapper on many of his brother’s solo posthumous material and the recordings he oversaw for THUG LIFE make up a sizable portion of Tupac’s solo posthumous work. Throughout his career, Mopreme’s work has contributed significantly to the legacies of Tupac Shakur, THUG LIFE and the Outlaw Immortalz. He is the only surviving member of both groups.

He released “Assassin & Mopreme Shakur Present: Black & Brown Pride” (2007). He appeared in and is an Executive Producer and featured artist on the soundtrack accompanying the documentary “Tupac Assassination” (Eyecon/Universal, 2007). Mopreme was a consulting producer on an episode of the hit TV show “American Gangster” (BET, 2009) entitled, “Mutulu Shakur and the Republic of New Afrika.” He appeared in the role of Angel in the independent film “Parkside” along with Luis Guzman (2011). Mopreme is the Music Supervisor of the documentary, “A Million Spokes,” (The Doc Channel, 2010) and is featured in the “Thug Angel” series produced by QD3 (MTV/Fuse). Mopreme took his fifth acting role in the independent feature “3 Day Notice” alongside Noel G, Michael Collier, Yung Joc and others. Mopreme’s record “What’s Next” was featured in the Broadway musical, “Holler If Ya Hear Me,” premiering at the Palace Theatre in June 2014. Mopreme is the Music Supervisor and Co-Executive Producer of the feature films “Lucky Girl” (BET, 2016) and “My BFF” (BET, 2018). For television, Mopreme produced a 6-part docu-series “Who Killed Tupac?” (A&E, 2017), “Unsung Hollywood” (TV One, 2017), “Hip HopEvolution” (Netflix, 2017- 2019) and was a Consulting Producer on the hit, 10-part scripted series, “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.” (USA, 2018 & Netflix). Most recently, Mopreme served as a producer on the feature film “Dope Is Death” (Vice, 2021) which subsequently screened at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music and continued to have theatrical screenings throughout 2023 in celebration of his father’s release after nearly 37 years of incarceration.

Mopreme is writing his memoir, “This Thug’s Life,” (2026, Kensington) and producing a new music project. He is currently producing a feature documentary, “T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. Project” (wt) about the influence of T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. in music, popular culture, politics and beyond. He is producing a scripted series following the multi generational story of the Shakur family. He is also developing a video game and three feature films. Get to know the legend and understand the legacy!