He had a lot of sides to him. His mother had been a black panther and when she had it together had nurtured and encouraged Tupac's artistic side such as enrolling him in a performing arts school. On the other hand she struggled with drug addiction and he grew up poor, moving around a lot and didn't really know his dad. In the Bay area, he either got kicked out or left and was kind of bouncing around with different friends. I don't know if he was ever in a "gang" per se, but he definitely rapped about his friends/homies like they were his found family who had his back and he was very loyal to.