Tupac and his activist mother Afeni Shakur are the focus of the new documentary.
Seminal filmmaker Allen Hughes is working on a new five-part series for FX Networks called Outlaw: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur. FX Networks confirmed the project yesterday (6 August). The series will focus on Tupac and his mother Afeni Shakur’s relationship but also promises to recount Afeni’s activism. She was an author and a former member of the Black Panther Party, known for her activism against social and racial injustices in America.
Hughes is most famous for directing classics like Menace II Society and Dead Presidents. He also directed early hip-hop music videos for artists like N.W.A and Tupac. Most recently Hughes was behind the successful HBO documentary The Defiant Ones which followed the intersecting careers of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, featuring interviews with Eminem, Ice Cube and Patti Smith.
Outlaw will be shown on FX Networks although a release date is not yet known. According to the official show description, Outlaw “is an intimate wide-angle portrait of the most inspiring and dangerous mother-son duo in American history, whose unified message of freedom, equality, persecution and justice are more relevant today than ever.”
The west coast rapper was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996. Afeni died in 2016 of cardiac arrest.
Revisit our feature:10 Hip-Hop Documentaries That Are Absolutely Essential.