A major new TV series about the activism of Tupac Shakur and his mother Afeni has been commissioned.
The five-part Outlaw: The Saga Of Afeni And Tupac Shakur will be shown by the FX channel.
Outlaw will be directed by Allen Hughes, who previously directed the acclaimed 2017 docuseries The Defiant Ones, which focused on the careers of Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Hughes also directed music videos for Tupac, as well as NWA. After directing music videos, Hughes went on to direct classic hip-hop films Menace II Society and Dead Presidents.
Afeni Shakur was an activist, who was a member of the Black Panther movement. She later became an author.
Tupac’s feelings towards his mother were encapsulated in his 1995 song ‘Dear Mama’.
Tupac was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996, while Afeni died of a heart attack in 2016.
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FX has commissioned a second documentary series on hip-hop. The six-part Hip Hop Untold will focus on six as-yet-unnamed power brokers in the rap game. Rather than artists, FX says the industry players focused on will be behind-the-scenes figures who help influence music.
Hip Hop Untold is being created by Malcolm Spellman, who previously worked on hip-hop drama Empire.
Other new factual FX series on the way include true crime saga A Wilderness Of Error. Based on the book of the same name by Errol Morris, the six-part series focuses on army surgeon Jeffrey MacDonald, who was convicted of murdering his wife and two daughters in 1970.