Young Noble, member of Tupac Shakur’s Outlawz group, has died aged 47
Outlawz member Young Noble has passed away at the age of 47. The rapper, who was part of Tupac Shakur‘s rap group, reportedly committed suicide.
The California MC (real name Rufus Lee Cooper III) died in Atlanta, Georgia on the morning of July 4th from a gunshot wound that appeared to be self-inflicted.
Noble suffered a heart attack in 2021. According to TMZ, he showed no signs of illness around the time of his death, recently playing basketball with his friends.
The rapper joined Outlawz in 1996 and was the last person Tupac added to the group. He appeared on Pac’s 1996 album, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, featuring on the songs ‘Bomb First (My Second Reply)’, ‘Hail Mary’, ‘Life of an Outlaw’, and ‘Just Like Daddy’.
Noble also released several solo albums, including 2002’s Noble Justice, 2012’s Son of God and 2016’s Powerful.
During an interview with The Art of Dialogue last year, Noble discussed being in the hospital with Tupac after he was shot in 1996, remembering his final days.
“I was right there, front and centre,” he said. “To this day, let them tell it, he’s still alive underground like Bin Laden or in Cuba, but nah, he really died. I really was in the hospital. I really saw him with tubes in his body. I really saw his body full of fluid. He wasn’t skinny with the six-pack; his body was full. He really fucking died on us.
“He probably could have lived. His momma said, ‘Nah, fuck all that.’ He lost his finger, he was gonna lose a lung, they were gonna do all these surgeries. You know how strong your momma gotta be to say, ‘I don’t want my son to endure no more pain in this world. Y’all tear him down.’”
He added, “That shit is devastating. She let her son go. ‘Pac ain’t die; Afeni said, ‘Let my son fly.’”