Tupac Shakur was a man of many ideas. When forming the Outlawz in 1995, the prolific MC picked aliases for each member in the collective. Kurupt and Daz, who worked closely with 'Pac on All Eyez on Me, and Buckshot, who recorded with Shakur for the One Nation album, also got nicknames. XXL caught up with the remaining Outlawz members, Kurupt, Daz and Buck to get the back-story behind the nicknames 'Pac gave them.

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ HUSSEIN FATAL'S BACK-STORY

loading...

Hussein Fatal
Basically he [Tupac] wanted everybody to have a name of all of them dictators that America didn’t like and shit. That was basically how he came up with the names. My shit definitely fit. I couldn’t have thought of a better name. At that time he [Saddam Hussein] was on top of the world as far as being bold and all this wild shit he was on. I thought my name fit. It definitely wasn’t a problem. When I got with ‘Pac I already came from a place where I already felt like I was the Saddam Hussein of that place. So it was like, when I got over there and picking all the dictator names and Fatal Hussein came up for me I ain’t say shit. I welcomed that name with open arms ‘cause that’s the type of shit I was on back then. I was on some Saddam Hussein shit, terrorizing the hood basically.

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ YOUNG NOBLE'S BACK-STORY

loading...

Young Noble
I already had my name. He [Tupac] was like, “the name is perfect. It fits you.” I was the last dude to be in the group, seven members. ‘Pac felt like we was complete at that point being seven of us. My name was already Noble from the hood. I used to rap back in the day, but I used to spray paint a lot too. He tried to make me run with Noble Drew Ali. I never really ran with it, though. I was the only one who had my name like that. He was like your shit is perfect so I didn’t get the dictator name. I just got Noble, you feel me?

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ E.D.I. MEAN'S BACK-STORY

loading...

E.D.I. Mean
‘Pac gave me the name E.D. because of the physical comparisons between me and Idi Amin. We both fat dudes and shit, dark-skinned. So he was like, E.D. fits you perfect. And also he wanted me to have that kind of mentality as opposed to how it was before. I was really on some laid back shit. He wanted me to be on some more aggressive shit as far as the music and life itself, so it was like, “You gon be E.D.” I was with that. I ain’t have a problem with that because Idi Amin was always a beast throughout history. He stood up for his people, for his country and he was greedy. He had a bad side to him to and I got a bad side to me. He knew what he was doing when he was doing it.

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ KURUPT'S BACK-STORY

loading...

Kurupt aka Young Gotti
He said, "I’m gonna be Makaveli. E.D. is gonna be E.D.I. Mean. Mutah is gonna be Napoleon, Yaki’s gonna be Yaki Khadafi, Fatal’s gonna be Fatal Hussein. You know what, K is gonna be K-Kastro. Kurupt, I don’t even know your name." It was just me and the Outlawz and ‘Pac. And then he was like, “Kurupt, I know who you wanna be, couz. You gon' be Gotti, Kurupt Young Gotti. I said, “Fuck it. I'ma be Kurupt Young Gotti. That’s who I’ma be. When I went back to Snoop’s house. I was like, “Yo, ‘Pac said we gon have the aliases. We gon do our regular shit, but we gon have our aliases and make an alias album. Like me, I’m Young Gotti. Daz said, “I’m Dillinger.” Snoop said, “shit, if that’s y’all I’m Corleone ‘cause I’m a boss.” That’s how we came up with our aliases. I changed my name from Kurupt the Kingpin to Kurupt Young Gotti because ‘Pac gave me that name Young Gotti. He passed away and I’ll never change it.

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ DAZ DILLINGER'S BACK-STORY

loading...

Daz Dillinger fka Dat Nigga Daz
Tupac said, “I want y’all to be a part of my Outlaw gang. We gotta get y’all some names now.” I picked mine out on my own as far as the Dillinger. I told ‘Pac, “Yea, I’ll be Daz Dillinger.” That’s what it was.

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ BUCKSHOT'S BACK-STORY

loading...

Buckshot
I don’t know. From the first day that I met him he just was calling me that. I thought it was real. I don’t know, it’s one of those things that you don’t pay attention to it until somebody brings it to the light. And then it’s like, “Oh ok, I see that there’s a respect level. For him to call me that it’s like saying that you pass my inspection. I’m not just gon' big up nobody or promote nobody period, so you pass my inspection that enables me to say I accept you and you’re a cool dude.

More From XXL