The Outlawz

West Coast rappers Outlawz built their initial identity almost entirely around ties to 2Pac. Their earliest wider exposure arrived via scattered appearances on the Makaveli album, which introduced them to a broader rap audience. Recognition expanded in 1999 when they shared billing on the posthumous 2Pac release Still I Rise, extending their brief connection to the late artist. Only in late 2000 did the group secure clearance for their own debut, Ride wit Us or Collide wit Us, issued through Outlaw Recordz and distributed by Koch. The record’s artwork foregrounded 2Pac’s likeness and included repeated nods to the fallen icon, capitalizing on Outlawz’s image as his supposed protégés.

Neither that project nor the follow-up Novakane, which surfaced a year later on the same Outlaw Recordz/Koch imprint, achieved notable commercial traction. Although the collective preserved 2Pac’s signature West Coast thug and gangsta approach, the members displayed only middling lyrical abilities and leaned excessively on their prior association, often lapsing into routine thug themes. Compounding these shortcomings, they lacked connections to the West Coast’s stronger production talents and maintained no formal links to Snoop Dogg’s Dogghouse circle or the Bay Area network surrounding E-40 and Spice 1. In 2006, member Young Noble paired with Layzie Bone for the Real Talk label release Thug Brothers; the same imprint later issued the Outlawz project Against All Oddz that year.