Thug Life (group)

This article is about the hip hop group. For other uses, see Thug life.

Thug Life was an American hip hop group that consisted of 2Pac, Big Syke, Mopreme, Macadoshis, and The Rated R. They released one album, 1994's Thug Life, Volume I, before disbanding in 1995.^[1]

Thug Life
From left to right: Big Syke, Mopreme, 2Pac, Macadoshis, The Rated R
Background information
Genres	West Coast hip hop gangsta rap G-funk
Years active	1993–1995
Labels	Out da Gutta Interscope Atlantic
Past members	Tupac Shakur (deceased) Big Syke (deceased) Mopreme Shakur Macadoshis The Rated R

Etymology

According to Tupac Shakur, the name refers to the acronym: "The Hate U Gave Little Infants, Fuck Everybody".§^[2] It represents the idea that the racism and marginalization experienced by black youth ends up negatively affecting society.^[3]

History

Big Syke was a Crips gang member and Macadoshis was a drug dealer during the 1990s. Tupac, Randy "Stretch" Walker and Princess Mel formed Thug Life in 1992 with Tyruss "Little Psycho" Himes.^[4] They recorded a song also titled "Thug Life". Soon Little Psycho joined the group, under the name Syke. Later Macadoshis and The Rated R joined the group. They signed with Interscope Records and recorded an LP titled Thug Life, Volume I. Tupac's stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, later joined the group. It is also speculated that 2Pac and Thug Life were supposed to sign to Eazy-E's Ruthless Records. In 1993, 2Pac and Eazy-E met up to talk about signing. Eazy liked the demo tape that 2Pac had brought with him. He wanted 2Pac to change his group name because he didn't want two groups with the same name. The other "thug" group was Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. This never came into fruition because of Eazy-E's passing from AIDS on March 26, 1995.

Thug Life, Volume I

On September 26, 1994, Thug Life, Volume I was released.

The first single and video was "Pour Out a Little Liquor" (which originally appeared on the Above the Rim soundtrack, released six months earlier), which was a Tupac solo song.

Tupac performed "Out on Bail" at the 1994 Source Awards.^[5] The album was originally released on Shakur's label Out da Gutta. Tupac's mother's label, Amaru Entertainment, has since gained the rights to the album.

The track "How Long Will They Mourn Me?" appeared on Tupac's 1998 Greatest Hits album.

Thug Life, Volume I had sold 478,419 copies in the United States as of 2011.^[6]

Members

• Tupac Shakur (d. 1996)
• Big Syke (a.k.a. Little Psycho or Mussolini) (d. 2016)
• Mopreme Shakur (a.k.a. Mocedes, The Wycked, Komani or Mo' Khomani)
• Macadoshis (a.k.a. The Original Mac 10)
• The Rated R (a.k.a. Super Star, Runner)

Discography

Studio albums

• Thug Life, Volume I (1994) #42 Billboard 200; #6 R&B/Hip-Hop

Singles