Tupac Shakur’s Family: All About the Legendary Late Rapper’s Parents and Siblings

Tupac Shakur’s legacy is often thought of as the lasting impact he left on the hip hop community following his death in 1996. But the rapper also left behind a large family — including his parents, Billy Garland and Afeni Shakur, stepfather Mutulu Shakur and several half-siblings — who help keep the slain artist’s memory alive.

Tupac was born on June 16, 1971, to two Black Panther activists, Afeni Shakur (born Alice Williams) and Billy Garland. But from the moment of his birth, Tupac’s childhood was full of turmoil: Both Afeni and Garland were married to other people at the time Tupac was conceived, and Afeni spent the majority of her pregnancy in prison. Garland had no contact with Tupac from the time he was 5 years old until he was an adult, and Afeni raised Tupac and his half-sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, as a single mother.

Afeni, Tupac and Sekyiwa moved frequently — from New York to Baltimore to California — and lived in poverty while Afeni battled an addiction to crack cocaine. Tupac eventually had a fallout with his mother over her drug addiction and left home in 1989 to pursue his music. Years later, Afeni admitted to PEOPLE in 1997 that being a single mother to Tupac and Sekyiwa had its difficulties.

“There was no stability,” she recalled. “I was smoking and screwing up my life.”

And though Tupac’s upbringing had its challenges, it would inspire his future lyrics as a rapper and a musician. In his 1995 hit “Dear Mama,” he crafted lyrics that spoke about Afeni’s perseverance and resilience as a single mother to two children.

“You always was committed/ A poor single mother on welfare, tell me how you did it,” Tupac rapped in the iconic song. “There’s no way I can pay you back/ But the plan is to show you that I understand/ You are appreciated.”

Following Tupac’s murder in 1996 (which remains unsolved, though an arrest was made in October 2023), his family members have worked to keep his legacy alive and seek justice for his death. Here is everything to know about the family Tupac left behind.

Afeni wed for the first time in November 1968

Tupac’s mother Afeni was born Alice Fay Williams on Jan. 10, 1947, in Lumberton, N.C. When she was 9 years old, Afeni’s mother, Rose, left her husband and moved Afeni and her older sister to New York.

Afeni joined the Black Panther organization in 1964. There, she met a fellow Party member named Lumumba Shakur. They got married and Afeni changed her name from Alice Williams to Afeni Shakur.

“I never wanted to get married,” Afeni told The New York Times in July 1970. “I never wanted to be just a housewife … But with my husband it was different. We did things together. I was a revolutionary and he was a revolutionary.”

Garland and Afeni met at a Black Panther Party meeting in 1969

While Afeni was married to Lumumba, she met Tupac’s biological father Billy Garland at a friend’s apartment in Manhattan. Around the same time as Afeni and Garland’s initial meeting, Afeni and her husband Lumumba were among the “New York 21,” a group of Black Panthers who were accused (and later acquitted) of plotting bombings in New York City, according to The New York Times. Afeni was arrested and spent several months in jail; she was released in the summer of 1970 on bail, per TIME.

While out on bail, Afeni and Garland had a brief affair in 1970 — which led to Afeni becoming pregnant with Tupac. However, she had had “four or five” miscarriages previously, she revealed to PEOPLE, and didn’t expect to carry the pregnancy to term. But Afeni remained pregnant and, after her bail was revoked, she spent the majority of her pregnancy back in jail and on trial. Afeni was acquitted and subsequently released from prison in May 1971, when she was eight months pregnant with Tupac.

Afeni gave birth a month later, on June 16, 1971, to a son she named Parish Lesane Crooks. (She renamed him Tupac Amaru Shakur a year later.) Her marriage to Lumumba ended shortly after her son’s birth, when it became clear he was not the biological father (as he was conceived while Lumumba was in prison).

Afeni married Tupac’s stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, in 1975

In 1975, Tupac’s mother married for a second time to Mutulu Shakur, a political activist with the Black Liberation Army and acupuncturist. The same year, Mutulu and Afeni welcomed a daughter named Sekyiwa together, according to BET. Mutulu became Tupac’s stepfather; the future rapper was just 4 years old when they wed.

Mutulu worked at Lincoln Detox, a community detox center in the Bronx, where he taught political education classes and earned a doctorate in acupuncture, according to the New York Amsterdam News. He went on to develop the center’s acupuncture protocol — now known as acudetox, the Washington Post reported — that was used to help treat drug addiction and other traumas.

Afeni and Mutulu divorced in 1982 after seven years of marriage. However, Tupac maintained a relationship with Mutulu despite their split and reportedly considered him a father figure for most of his life, according to BET.

Garland and Tupac didn’t speak for nearly 20 years

Tupac’s biological father, Garland, was not present for Tupac’s childhood; in fact, the rapper believed he was dead for the majority of his life.

“No love from my daddy cause the coward wasn’t there / He passed away and I didn’t cry, ’cause my anger wouldn’t let me feel for a stranger,” Tupac rapped in his iconic 1995 hit “Dear Mama.”

It wasn’t until 1994, after Tupac was shot at Quad Studios in New York, that the rapper reunited with his biological father.

Garland sought to inherit half of Tupac’s estate after his death in 1996

Following Tupac’s death in 1996, Garland sued Afeni for half of his son’s estate — disputing Afeni’s claim on Tupac’s death certificate that his father was deceased, per XXL Magazine.

While DNA testing confirmed that Garland was Tupac’s biological father, a Los Angeles judge denied Garland’s attempt to claim half of the slain rapper’s estate, the Los Angeles Times reported. The judge ruled at the time that Garland did not stand to inherit anything from his deceased son because his contributions to his support and care over the years were “miniscule.”

Afeni spoke to PEOPLE in 1997 about Garland’s lack of parental involvement in Tupac’s life. She revealed that she rarely saw Garland after Tupac was conceived and referred to him variously as “garbage,” a “gold digger” and the “designated sperm donor.”

Garland also opened up to XXL Magazine about his absence during Tupac’s childhood.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that I could’ve been a better father,” he told the magazine in 2011. “There’s no doubt. I have to bear the burden of that, because maybe there was something I could’ve said or have done, maybe, that might not have led to the path that his life has led to. So I have to bear the burden of that.”

Mutulu spent 37 years in federal prison before his death in July 2023

Tupac’s stepfather, Mutulu, was considered the leader of a group of Black Liberation Army members who carried out the October 1981 robbery of a Brinks truck in Nanuet, N.Y. that left an armed guard and two police officers dead. He was placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and evaded capture for more than five years until his arrest in 1986. Mutulu was convicted on racketeering charges in 1988 and sentenced to 60 years in prison.

In December 2022, after serving more than 37 years in prison, Mutulu was released on parole due to his declining health. The former acupuncturist and political activist had been diagnosed with Stage 3 multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, and the parole commission determined he was “no longer physically capable of committing any federal, state or local crime.” Mutulu had made two prior requests — in 2016 and April 2022 — that were denied.

In July 2023, nearly seven months after his release from prison, Mutulu died at the age of 72.

“Mutulu transitioned free and with his family thanks to all of us,” Jomo Muhammad, an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement that helped advocate for Mutulu’s release from prison, told NBC News. “That gives our hearts a bit of peace.”

Afeni inspired Tupac’s 1995 hit song “Dear Mama”

Though Tupac had a complicated relationship with his mother (the two had a fallout over her crack addiction in the 1980s and eventually reconciled after she got clean in 1991), her life inspired one of his most iconic songs: 1995’s “Dear Mama.”

The hit track, which was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2010, provides an autobiographical look into Afeni’s life and Tupac’s upbringing, from growing up in poverty to Afeni’s battle with drug addiction. But despite their struggles, Tupac praised his mother and her spirit in the song’s lyrics.

“Ain’t a woman alive that could take my mother’s place,” he rapped on the song.

For Afeni, “Dear Mama” was always an emotional listen — particularly after Tupac’s death.

“Can I listen to it without crying?” she posed to PEOPLE in 1997. “No. It gets worse every time. It gets harder, it really does. That song gets deeper and deeper.”

Afeni died in May 2016

Tupac’s mother, Afeni, died on May 3, 2016, after a possible cardiac arrest in her Sausalito, Calif. home. She was 69.

Following Tupac’s death in 1996, Afeni dedicated the rest of her life to keeping her son’s legacy alive. She founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation to bring creative arts training to young people and also helped create the Broadway musical Holler If Ya Hear Me in 2014, which featured Tupac’s music. Afeni also served as the CEO of Amaru Entertainment, Inc., a record and film production company she founded in Atlanta to produce Tupac’s unreleased works.

“Whatever it is I’m doing I do because my son was murdered, and he was not able to complete his work,” she told CBS News in 2003. “So as his mother, my whole job and responsibility is to see to it that that happens for him, and I do that with love.”

Tupac grew up close with his sister Sekyiwa

Sekyiwa (who goes by “Set”) currently serves as the president of The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, which was founded by her mother Afeni following Tupac’s death in 1996.

Afeni has spent the majority of her career working as an advocate for various causes. After becoming a teen mother to two children in high school, she graduated from college in Atlanta and became a program coordinator for Teens On The Rise, an HIV and pregnancy prevention program. At the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, she began as a student liaison and program coordinator for 23 years before stepping into her current role as president and acting CEO.

In addition to her work on Tupac’s foundation, Sekyiwa also served as her brother’s representative when he was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2023.

“Tupac knew deep down that he was always meant for something great, and as his little sister, I had the privilege to watch that greatness unfold,” she said about her late brother in an emotional speech at the ceremony.

Tupac’s stepbrother Mopreme Shakur is also a rapper

Mopreme Shakur, who is Tupac’s stepfather Mutulu’s son from a previous relationship, is also a rapper — and even collaborated with Tupac while he was alive.

After appearing on Tupac’s 1993 song “Papa’z Song” under the rapper name Wycked, Mopreme and Tupac formed the group Thug Life — along with rappers Big Syke, Macadoshis and Rated R. In 1994, they released an album, Thug Life: Volume 1, that went gold. Mopreme was also an original member of Tupac’s hip-hop group Outlawz, but dropped out shortly after Tupac’s death, according to Complex.

Sekyiwa continues to seek justice for Tupac’s murder

Following the October 2023 arrest in connection with Tupac’s 1996 murder, Sekyiwa spoke out about seeking “justice” for their slain brother.

After 27 years of dead ends in Tupac’s cold case murder, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested in Las Vegas and charged with one count of murder with a gang enhancement. The Las Vegas Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said in a press conference at the time of the arrest that Davis is considered the “on-ground, on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of Tupac, per the Associated Press.

Following the news of the arrest, Sekyiwa made a statement on her social media.

“This is no doubt a pivotal moment. The silence of the past 27 years surrounding this case has spoken loudly in our community,” she wrote. “It’s important to me that the world, the country, the justice system, and our people acknowledge the gravity of the passing of this man, my brother, my mother’s son, my father’s son. His life and death matters, and should not go unsolved or unrecognized, so yes, today is a victory but I will reserve judgment until all the facts and legal proceedings are complete.”

Tupac has other half-siblings through his father

Tupac’s biological father, Garland, had other sons and daughters in addition to the rapper.

Tupac’s half-sister Takerra Allen, is an author who has written multiple novels. His late half-sister N’Neka Garland was an Emmy-winning television producer on General Hospital and died in March 2023 from a heart attack. She was 49, Variety reported.