Afeni Shakur, the mother of iconic rapper Tupac Shakur, who was famously mentioned in one of his songs as a “crack fiend mama,” had connections with some dubious individuals before her passing from cardiac arrest at age 69 in 2016, sources have revealed.

Afeni spent several years residing in the Kappas Marina houseboat community in northern Sausalito. This area is adjacent to the notorious Gate Six section, known for its eclectic and at times unsettling atmosphere.

Despite being located near one of the wealthiest areas in the United States, just north of San Francisco, this part of Sausalito has retained a gritty charm. It has been considered somewhat rough due to its history of drug activity, which began in the 1970s and peaked in the early 2000s.

“Afeni lived on a houseboat behind the liquor store,” a local resident shared. “Back then, the area was notorious for being populated with crack addicts and eccentric individuals you would typically avoid.”

‘Afeni lived in a houseboat behind the liquor store,’ a source who lives in the area told  Daily Mail. ‘It used to be full of crack heads and weirdos that you would not want to interact with.

‘One lady was a weird druggy hater nicknamed The Insect. Another was a drug dealer people called Psycho Steve who would dole out crack and was always high.

‘If you were a decent person, you stayed clear of this area. You wanted drugs though? You went there.’

Tupac Shakur’s mother Afeni mixed with some ‘dangerous people’ before she died of a cardiac arrest at age 69 in 2016, Daily Mail has learned

The rapper’s troubled mom spent several years in the Kappas Marina houseboat community in northern Sausalito

Tupac Shakur pictured in 1996; he died in 1996 in Nevada

The source, who lives in Gate Six, said Afeni resided in a ‘small, funky houseboat with a view of Tiburon and San Francisco’ where she would hang out with the locals.

‘Her place was behind the liquor store that is still there,’ the source said. 

‘She was known as Tupac’s mom – they called her Pac’s mama – and people liked talking to her, she was a mini celebrity in the neighborhood because of all her crazy stories,’ said the source.

The Bohemian houseboat community in Sausalito has a rich history: it’s where author Shel Silverstein once lived, where Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay was written and where Three’s Company star Suzanne Somers resides before she found fame. 

The scenic houseboat area has also been a backdrop for movies like Chevy Chase’s Foul Play with Goldie Hawn and the TV series The Streets Of San Francisco.

It is also where Robert Downey Jr’s alcoholic character from the movie Zodiac resided. And more recently it is where Jennifer Garner’s series The Last Thing He Told Me season one was filmed.

These days the drug addicts have been shooed away so millionaires can take over the floating homes: those houseboats that used to rent for $500 a month now sell for $1 million a pop.

Afeni moved to the Bay Area in the late 1980s after residing in Baltimore. 

She and her son lived in the Marin City neighborhood – which is across the 101 freeway from the Kappas Marina and Gate Six in Sausalito – in 1988 but a year later he moved out due to fighting with his mother, he claimed.

His next home was in Oakland then Los Angeles. He was killed in Nevada in 1996.

Shakur and his mother seen in the 1990s

Though it is nestled in one of the wealthiest towns in the United States, this north Sausalito section was grungy at the time, and still is to a degree. That is because drugs started to be dealt in the area beginning in the 1970s, reaching its zenith in the early 2000s

‘Afeni lived in a houseboat behind the liquor store,’ a source tells Daily Mail. ‘It used to be full of crack heads and weirdos that you would not want to interact with’; the homes near Shakur’s

Jennifer Garner filmed The Last Thing He Told Me in a nearby houseboat community in Sausalito

This is the liquor store that is in front of Shakur’s houseboat; it faces the 101 freeway. These days it is called the New Bait Shop Market

Next to the liquor store is the Bayside Cafe that has been in business for decades

‘If you were a decent person, you stayed clear of this area. You wanted drugs though? You went there,’ said the local’ Tupac seen in March 1994

Afeni died at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California in May 2016, after going into cardiac arrest earlier in the evening; she was 69. Greenbrae is about eight miles from the Kappas Marina.

Tupac paid tribute to her in his song Dear Mama where he mentioned her drug problems. 

‘And even as a crack fiend mama, you always was a black queen mama, I finally understand for a woman it ain’t easy tryin’ to raise a man, you always was committed, a poor single mother on welfare tell me how you did it, there’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan is to show you that I understand you are appreciated.’

He was murdered at age 25 in 1996.

Political and social activist and Black Panther member Afeni seen holding a camera at a session of the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1970

Shakur was assassinated in 1996 aged just 25 

After her rap star son’s death, Afeni took over her son’s estate. She was also the executive producer of the film about her son’s life, All Eyez on Me.

Afeni was born in 1947 in North Carolina. In 1958, when she was 11, the family moved to the South Bronx.

Williams attended the Bronx High School of Science and High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan but dropped out after one term.

She became a member of a Bronx street gang called the Disciples then joined the Black Panther Party when they opened an office in Harlem in 1968.

There she met Lumumba Shakur, and they wed in November 1968.

 On June 16, 1971, she gave birth to her son, Lesane Parish Crooks, who was later renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur.

Shakur’s marriage fell apart when it was discovered that Lumumba was not the biological father of her son. His biological father was Billy Garland.

Tupac lived in this apartment building in Marin City, California, near Sausalito, in 1988; it is across the 101 freeway from where his mom lived on a houseboat

The rapper seen with Jada Pinkett in 1996. He also dated Madonna in 1993

In April 1969, she and 20 other Black Panthers were arrested and charged with several counts of conspiracy to bomb police stations and other public places in New York.

The pre-trial started in February 1970 and the actual trial commenced on September 8, 1970.

Charges brought against her and the other members of the Black Panther Party were attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to bomb buildings, and conspiracy.

In her autobiography, Shakur wrote, ‘I was young. I was arrogant. And I was brilliant in court… because I thought this was the last time I could speak. The last time before they locked me up forever… I was writing my own obituary.’

She and the others in the ‘Panther 21’ were acquitted in May 1971 after an eight-month trial. But she still had to spend two years in the New York Women’s House of Detention before being acquitted.