The Death of Tupac Shakur

**Discussion begins at 7:55**

Tupac Shakur was one of the most iconic figures in hip-hop and is remembered for his powerful lyrics and outspoken views on social issues.  His music often addressed themes such as racial inequality, violence, and his own struggles, resonating deeply with fans around the world.   Beyond music, Tupac also had a career in acting, appearing in films like Juice, Poetic Justice, and Above the Rim.  Tupac’s life was tragically cut short when he was shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996. He died from his injuries six days later on September 13, 1996, at the age of 25. The circumstances surrounding his death have led to numerous theories and speculations, involving potential connections to gang rivalries, personal disputes, and even alleged involvement by law enforcement or other figures within the music industry. Despite investigations and various theories, no one has been definitively charged or convicted in connection with his murder.  Almost 30 years later, the case remains unsolved.  As a result, many people theorize that Tupac faked his own death.  Believers point to Tupac's music and public statements, which often included themes of mortality and resilience – which they allege support such conjectures.  What really happened to Tupac on September 7, 1996?

Transcript

Hey guys, welcome back.
Welcome back to another fun episode hosted by your faves.
This is a poll for the audience, because I’m feeling attacked.
Oh, no one’s attacking you, says the type eights.
When you guys are thinking, or when people are talking to you, are you thinking in strictly words?
Do you have visual going on?
What’s going on in your head?
The question is, when you think, do you think in pictures or do you think in words?
I feel like I think in both, like it’s a picture book.
But you don’t-
There’s pictures and then words underneath it.
But you don’t have a constant dialogue going on in your head.
No, I’m always talking in my head.
Oh, didn’t you?
I have a constant dialogue.
I thought earlier you said you did not have a dialogue.
Oh, no, no, no.
My brain doesn’t stop talking.
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s so loud and it’s just so annoying sometimes.
And you can’t scream.
And sometimes I just want to sit in a quiet room because I’ve heard enough.
I definitely feel at the end of my workday that my social battery is drained.
Yeah.
And I have to, like, not speak to anybody.
Yeah.
For a couple hours to, like, recharge.
OK.
Sometimes my brain is just so tired.
And then if there are other people around me, they’re talking.
And then I also have this running thought process in my head.
It just feels loud.
I don’t know if you guys notice this.
Sometimes I have a hard time following conversations.
Yeah.
And I think it’s because half the time I find my dialogue in my head either moves on faster than the conversation or it’s more interesting than the conversation.
Not more interesting, but, like, I’m just like, oh, look over there.
It’s called In A Ten of ADHD.
Yeah.
Kait, you’re my age.
Yeah.
Do you watch TV with subtitles on?
When I want to pay attention.
Yeah, I can’t even like process their word without subtitles.
Yeah.
So I have to I don’t know what they’re saying.
I can’t, which I think is like people older people.
You’re not old, but like people of our generation.
It’s an ADHD thing, though.
Oh, well, I just I went I got my hearing checked and she was like.
Your hearing is fine.
It’s your ability to like like to remove the other sounds from the room and focus on what you want to hear.
That’s the issue.
And I’m like, that’s we’re too young for that.
For me, when I’m watching a movie and I’m trying to pay attention, sometimes the dialogue sounds like that YouTube video or it’s like what English sounds like to non English speakers.
Like they’re talking, but it just sounds like gibberish.
Like you have some receptive.
And yeah, until I have the words to like to line up, which is I also correlate that to why I cannot understand song lyrics until I’ve read the lyric and listen to the song.
Oh, you guys get like that?
No, I only really put on the like it.
So whenever I’m watching like, like House of the Dragon or God, that one’s hard.
Wheel of Time or something like that.
Like that’s another nerd show, fantasy show.
It shows that I think require like, like you don’t know exactly like the words they’re saying because they’re in different like fan fantastical lore.
That’s like when I like to watch it with the dialogue on the on the screen.
So I know like the spelling, how to say it, all of that.
But in normal, everyday television, I don’t have to watch the subtitles.
I like, but also I don’t watch a lot of TV.
So you don’t really have a lot of screen time.
What I was referencing when I said that people on the spectrum think in pictures is like they were like during test, they don’t pick out the information from their head.
Like what they do is they look back in their memory and it’s like picture shots of things.
I do think like that.
And yeah, and the picture from like the book.
I do think like that.
Anyways, to sum up this yapping session, that’s what TikTok calls it now.
We’re just girls who yapp.
I wanted to know what the audience.
Megan didn’t like that.
No, I don’t understand.
Is that what TikTok calls podcasts?
No, like whenever girls get together and talk a lot.
Andrew always says, the hens are clucking.
The hens are clucking.
I like that.
That’s what TikTok says.
We’re having a yapp session.
I love a yapp session.
I’m into it.
Anyways, I wanted to know what everybody else thought.
Am I crazy?
Let us know.
Let us know.
Where can they let us know, Megan?
Guys, just a reminder, don’t forget to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages at 3SchemeQueens.
That’s the number 3 SchemeQueens, all one word.
We’re also on Reddit, same username.
If you want to check out our website, go to 3schemequeens.com and you can find links to our social media accounts, our Buzzsprout page, all of our episodes, additional content, our contact page, and our discussion board, where you can engage with us and share any updates on the topics that we have discussed.
Let us know how we’re doing and what you want to hear next.
There are also opportunities to financially support us.
There are links to buy us a cup of coffee, links to our recently updated merch store, and affiliate links.
And as always, if you choose not to financially support us, we appreciate the follows, the downloads, listens to likes.
Kait, what should the people do?
Scroll on down, leave us a five-star review, leave us a comment, share us with your friends and family, share us on your social media, and thanks for everything, guys.
Yeah.
So is it time for our drink check?
Drink check.
Today, you know, it’s been feeling like, what do they call it, false fall out there?
Yeah, it was like false fall, and now it’s fricking summer again.
So hot out there.
So annoying.
I thought like we had some cooler mornings.
It was like 50 degrees.
It was brought out the fleece.
I was ready for it.
Wah wah.
Just a cold front.
Today, since it was a hot day.
Yeah, we are having a recipe I got from Captain Fred.
We are having bourbon slushie.
Oh my gosh.
It’s so good.
Yeah.
It’s so good.
Was there enough ice there?
It was all ice.
It was like a slushie.
Like you could scoop it with a spoon slushie.
Yeah.
Slush.
It was like slush.
It was good.
Colleen was like, how much bourbon is in this?
Oh, it is.
I mean, I finished mine already during the YAPS.
The recipe comes from Southern Living.
We’ll post it on the website.
Oh, thanks Southern Living.
Today, we’re talking Tupac.
I don’t think a little…
I could name a single song.
I wake up in the morning and I ask myself, is life worth living, should I blast myself?
I don’t think I’ve heard a single Tupac song.
I gotta get paid, well, hey, well, that’s the way it is.
Do do do.
Don’t know that song.
I can’t wait to hear what Colleen has to say about this, because when I was researching it, I messaged her and Kait, and I said something about Puff Daddy, and Colleen said, who?
Who is Puff Daddy?
I’m sorry, Tanisha.
Oh, this was a shout out to Tanisha.
Oh yeah, Tanisha has asked us to do.
Shout out to our lady, Tupac.
Yeah, today.
Via email, she requested this.
Today, we’re talking Tupac.
This was a listener request.
And yeah.
I’d like to formally apologize to all our listeners who were adults in the 90s.
Well, we weren’t adults in the 90s.
How old were you?
Told you it’s like Patch the other day.
He’s like we’re talking about specials and he’s like, were you older than 17?
Mom didn’t have Joey.
Mommy did not have technology when she was in elementary school.
I was like, Patch, I had computer lab.
How old do you think I was?
Yeah, but not like them.
They all make their own iPads.
Yeah, I’ve never seen a floppy disk in his life.
No, he’s never played Oregon Trail.
Oh, no, I loved Oregon Trail.
You know what I like?
Zumbinis.
You ever play the Zumbinis?
Oh, my gosh, I love the Zumbinis.
So, for anyone Colleen’s age, let me tell you about Tupac, okay?
Tupac.
Tupac Shakur was one of the most iconic figures in hip hop and is remembered for his powerful lyrics and outspoken views on social issues.
His music often addressed themes such as racial inequality, violence and his own struggles, resonating deeply with fans around the world.
Beyond music, Tupac also had a career in acting, appearing in films like Juice, Poetic Justice and Above the Rim.
Tupac’s life was tragically cut short when he was shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on September 7th, 1996.
Before you were even born.
Before she was born.
He died from his injuries six days later on September 13th, 1996, at the age of 25.
The circumstances surrounding his death have led to numerous theories and speculations involving potential connections to gang rivalries, personal disputes, and even alleged involvement by law enforcement or other figures within the music industry.
Despite investigations and various theories, no one has been convicted in connection with his murder.
Oh, almost 30 years later, the case remains unsolved.
Cold, if you will.
It is cold, but you know what?
Might be heating up.
We got an update.
Oh, update.
But anyway, as a result, many people theorize that Tupac faked his own death.
Believers point to Tupac’s music and public statements, which often included themes of mortality and resilience, which they allege support such conjectures.
What really happened to Tupac on September 7th, 1996?
Oh.
Okay, guys.
So what do you think about what happened to Tupac?
Do you think he’s alive?
Do you think he’s dead?
Who do you think killed him?
Oh, I got no idea who killed Tupac, but I don’t think he’s alive.
Okay.
Colleen, do you have an opinion?
I don’t really know anything about what happened to him.
Okay.
I don’t even know like government people trying to fight the fact that he is like a representative for people.
I think it was gang-related.
I think I’m probably leaning more towards gang-related.
Okay.
All right.
So let’s start with the players.
Colleen’s already got a lot of questions about Tupac.
Yeah.
Gangs.
So let’s start with the players here.
Okay.
And obviously the biggest one, Tupac.
Tupac.
Second player, Biggie.
He’s down there.
Yeah.
Actually Tupac or his show name is Tupac?
No.
His name is Tupac and I’m going to tell you where that came from.
Okay.
Oh, I didn’t know that his real name was Tupac.
Yeah.
So he sometimes show name spells it Tupac.
Like the number two.
Like the number two.
But it’s T-E-A-C.
But his friends and family called him Poch.
Poch.
I feel like I hear fans call him Poch.
Maybe.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
So Tupac Shakur was born on June 16th, 1971.
Okay.
Tarlem.
Gemini.
Okay.
I texted you guys about this because I was watching the documentary Dear Mama.
And his aunt, they were at talking about if he had mental health issues, which I think he did.
Okay.
Okay.
But and she was like, no, no, no.
Probably what you’re seeing is the Gemini in him where he’s got, he’ll be like really outgoing and then he’s like depressed.
Yeah.
He just has two, his two faces.
Yeah.
And I only know that that is what a Gemini means because I’m friends with you girls.
Yay.
Oh, I’m proud of him.
So he was born in East Harlem, New York City to political activists and Black Panther members.
Oh, this is where Black Panther.
This is where I’m going to admit my very poor education on anything that happened in America after 1930.
I had no idea what the Black Panthers were.
I only knew of the Marvel character.
It always goes back to Marvel.
Wakanda forever.
So that was good.
I don’t know much about the Marvel Black Panthers, but there’s only one.
I just got so offended.
I was like wrong.
One Black Panther.
So this Black Panther Party was big for the 60s and 70s.
So in theory, they had good ideas.
In theory, they were fighting for equal rights and better treatment and all of that.
But they were also influenced by like Marxist thought.
And they would get a little extreme and violent at times.
Like, root of the ideas were all good.
But it just maybe they were they were perceived to be violent or were they actually violent?
Probably dependent on who wrote.
I think there was a little of both.
OK.
But there was definitely the government.
Was trying to shut them down.
And OK, here’s an interesting fact they learn.
Oh, OK.
So he was born to these Black Panther members.
OK.
And one of them was his mom.
Yeah.
I’m going to tell you about the parent, the parentage, because it’s both complicated.
But his mom, actually, they’re living in New York.
And she was like, these hospitals are turning away uninsured black people.
That’s not cool.
So she partnered with a doctor at one of these hospitals.
And they wrote what we now use as our patient rights.
Oh, if you go to a hospital, you have to sign a form.
It’s like, these are your rights.
You have the right to care, so whatever.
And really, Afini Shakur, Tupac’s mom, is responsible for that.
Oh, that’s so cool.
What’s her name again?
Afini.
Afini.
I’ll tell you about the name.
Wow.
Her name should be in more things.
Yeah.
So his mom, Afini, again, was a black panther, and she was arrested as part of the Panther 21.
The Panther 21 refers to a group of 21 members of the Black Panther Party who were arrested in 1969 and charged with conspiracy to bomb various locations in New York City.
There was kind of in one of the documentaries, there was a kind of funny quote from one of the other Black Panther members that they were, the government was like tapping them when they were trying to shut them down and they would call, they did a lot of marijuana.
I would refer to Pot as like Brother Rugee.
So when they arrested all these people and they had all these indictments and stuff, they were looking for Brother Rugee as well.
I thought that is so funny.
They could not figure out what it was.
So these arrests for the Panther 21 were made in the context of heightened tensions and confrontation to the Black Panther Party and law enforcement.
So while these 21 Black Panthers are on trial, they’re like, you know what?
We need to start raising money to get these 21 members out.
So they saved up enough money for bail for one member at first.
And they said, you know who we want out?
We want a Feeny out, Tupac’s mom, because she’ll be the most beneficial in helping with our defense.
So they got a Feeny out.
She had no law background while she acted in her own defense, defended her fellow Panthers.
So this happened in 1969 and Tupac is born in June 1971.
But in like all the former, all the old documentaries I watched, Tupac and like other people are, they act like a Feeny was nine months pregnant when they arrested her.
But it was no where do you’re pregnant now?
So they slowly are able to bail out more and more people as they keep raising money.
But at Feeny was the first and she’s like working on their defense.
In the meantime, she gets pregnant with Tupac.
And then I guess there was some plan where they decided one day, these like 21 people that they weren’t going to show up for court, but no one included a Feeny in that.
Shows up for court and they’re like, you’re under arrest because we’re revoking everyone’s bail because they were no shows.
At this point, she does go back to prison while she’s awaiting the trial and she is pregnant with Tupac at that point.
But good news, the defendants, including Tupac’s mom, were all acquitted of over 150 charges.
And again, thanks in large part to a Feeny who didn’t even have a law degree.
So she gets out and then she gives birth to Tupac.
Now, a Feeny was the second wife, like we’re talking like sister wife here, of Lumumba Shakur.
He was the head of the Black Panthers.
After Tupac’s birth, Lumumba discovers that he isn’t the father.
Oh.
So that dissolves that marriage.
Tupac was initially named Lashane Parish Krups, but when he was a year old, Tupac’s mom changed her name to Afini Shakur, so she took Shakur from her husband.
And then she changed, she named Tupac, Tupac.
So who’s dad?
We’ll get there.
You’re jumping ahead.
He became Tupac Amaru Shakur.
Tupac Amaru was the name of a smarter descendant of the last Incan ruler who led the Peruvian peasants in an unsuccessful rebellion against the Spanish.
Shakur’s mom explained, quote, I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary indigenous people in the world.
I wanted him to know he was a part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood.
Afini seems like a very smart woman.
I would have liked to meet her.
Is she still alive?
She died.
Oh, so Colleen, you asked me who Tupac’s dad really was, right?
Who’s the father?
So Tupac’s real father was Billy Garland.
He was another Black Panther.
He was never part of Tupac’s life until he saw him on TV when Tupac was 20 years old and then he reaches out to him.
So in the meantime, Athene marries Matulu Shakur.
Okay.
So Matulu Shakur is a no relation or husband.
Okay.
Yeah.
But I guess a lot of people adopted the last name Shakur because their leader’s last name was Shakur.
How do you spell Shakur?
S-H-A-K-U-R.
Okay.
So Matulu is really kind of the father figure that Tupac knew, but he spent much of Tupac’s early life in prison.
So Matulu actually spent four years as one of the FBI’s ten most wanted.
Athene gave birth to Tupac’s half sister before the couple divorced in 1982.
So I just like, sorry, is a girl who watched a lot of America’s Most Wanted growing up?
Right.
A lot of cops, a lot of Unsolved Mysteries and a lot of America’s Most Wanted.
Yeah, this watch, this jobs all can pick tracks.
Wait, what did you watch?
Dirty Jobs, American Pickers, Gold Rush, and then the Zombie Show.
And that also.
Oh, that’s so funny.
We watched a lot of Sports Center, this track, Monday Night Football.
Well, is this how this bolted us?
Thank you, Kait.
Today was about this.
Did you watch TGIF?
Yes.
What’s TGIF?
Every Friday, the best.
Step by step.
Boy Meets World.
Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teen.
Yeah.
Yeah, they were like two hours that started at 8 p.m.
It went from 8 to 10.
And every family would like go home and watch it together.
And it was just like it was like family programs.
Sitcoms.
Yeah.
But they’d also have like they’d be like, you know, in sync is guest starring today.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In secret, like the other Brita or whatever.
They like new episodes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Every week.
OK, guys, the reason we got distracted by what we watched is because I just want to share this fun side story because it feels very very, very, very different.
No.
So Matulu Shakur, who was again, the stepfather of Tupac, kind of the one father figure he sort of had in his life.
Yeah.
He was in and out of jail.
He then became one of America’s most wanted in 1981 after robbing a Brinks armored truck during which a police officer and guard were killed.
Oh my goodness.
He flees.
He’s on the list.
1986, he is finally apprehended and he is convicted.
Whoa.
Okay.
So in the meantime, 1984, Athene is struggling with a cocaine addiction.
So she takes the kids to Baltimore, where they lived for three years.
Shakur, Baltimore, not a great place to live if you’ve got a drug habit.
Yeah.
That is so surprising, Megan.
I had no idea.
And this is where Tupac famously attended the Baltimore School for the Arts with Biffle Jada Pinkett.
Oh, Jada Pinkett Smith was his Biffle.
They date?
Apparently, she says no.
So while there, he studied acting, poetry, jazz and ballet.
He performed in Shakespeare’s plays, and he was the mouse king in The Nutcracker.
I love The Nutcracker.
So her addiction persists, and she eventually relocates the family to Marin County in California, where he attended high school, and he was still a theater kid.
He eventually dropped out, but he did earn his GED.
He and his mom had a pretty strained relationship because of all this drug use.
But spoiler alert, fast forward, she does eventually get clean and they do mend fences.
And that’s where the song Dear Mama, Dear Mama comes from, and Kate’s favorites.
So Tupac’s early career included his work with the group Digital Underground.
He was actually a roadie and a backup dancer first, but it sounds like again, he had dropped out.
His mom was in rehab, dropped out, and he’s like, I just need work.
So he starts as this roadie.
And then he gained recognition through his guest appearance on Digital Underground’s same song in 1991, which helped establish his reputation in music.
And as a result, he gets a deal with Interscope Records.
His debut solo album, Tupacalypse Now, the number Tupacalypse Now, was released in November of 1991, the same year he rose to fame in the film Juice.
With the influx of cash for the first time in his life, he opened a bank account.
One day he’s crossed the street to go to the ATM and he’s arrested for jaywalking.
What?
The arrest was violent and did not fit the crime.
Oh my God.
Someone said on one of them that he developed alopecia as a result of the stress from all of this.
And that’s why in his later life, he’s got a bald head.
Yeah.
That’s so sad.
And so this arrest kind of started a string of arrests and caused him to start to become more outspoken in the press about, you know, like, equality.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And injustices.
So between 1991 and 1995, he was arrested eight times.
Wow.
In 1993, he was charged with assault against two off duty white police officers.
In 1984, he was charged with sexual assault against a 19 year old fan.
He was on trial for the sexual assault charge when he entered Quad City Studios in New York City on November 30th, 1994.
It’s like a very pivotal moment, OK?
OK.
So he’s in New York City.
He goes to Quad City Studios and there’s a robbery and he is shot five times.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
To be fair, where did he where was he shot?
I’m about to tell you.
OK.
To be fair, one of those shots was self-inflicted.
Oh, he had his gun down his pants.
That’s funny.
No safety.
He shot himself in the nuts while weapon.
Oh, his nuts.
He was oh, my gosh, that.
Oh, how did they how did they fix that?
He ended up leaving AMA to go to court in a wheelchair because he’s on trial for the sexual assault.
And apparently they told him, like, if you leave, I may you risk losing a testicle.
And he was like, I got to get to court.
So I think he was intact is like the spoiler to that.
Oh, OK.
I don’t.
But maybe not.
I don’t know.
I’m sure it makes me think of Eight Mile, right?
When Cheddar Cheddar, the guy’s name.
Yeah.
He like shoots himself.
Oh, yeah.
Get involved.
Yeah.
Um, that that’s kind of hurt so bad.
But he blamed a lot of people for this Quad City Studio shooting.
We don’t actually know who is responsible.
OK.
But that caused a lot of the tension in his life going forward.
OK.
Accusations he was making against people.
So for the sexual assault, though, he was sentenced.
He’s found guilty.
He was sentenced to one and a half to four and a half years in prison.
OK.
So I will say he was found guilty in a court of law.
We don’t want to question the accuser.
But everything I read and looked at, people say that like there’s no one has ever heard of him like mistreating females.
Everyone kind of praised his treatment of women.
Nobody really believed that he did it.
It sounds like what happened is there was a consensual act performed at a club with this girl.
And then the fan claimed that he had her in a hotel room and he like didn’t let her out.
And somebody else assaulted her.
And he claims that that’s not what happened.
The rate kit was clean.
There was no evidence.
There were like no fingerprints.
It sounds like there’s really not a lot of evidence.
Like a lot of the documentaries imply that there was this cultural feel of thug life.
And like that’s really what this case was about, like hip hop and him and not necessarily what actually happened.
Right.
So not really sure what happened, but the allegation was he was acquitted of many of the charges, but not all of them.
Okay.
And the accusation is that he kind of enabled somebody else to sexually assault someone.
In 1995, he’s released from prison after serving eight months, thanks in part to a $1.4 million bail paid by Shug Knight.
Shug.
Shug is the head of Death Row Records.
So pretty much the story is that Knight offered to finance an appeal in exchange for a three record deal.
Oh.
So he gets out of jail.
Okay.
So Shug, let me tell you about Shug.
A Shug Knight whose full name is Marion Hugh Knight Jr.
was a co-founder and CEO of Death Row Records, a prominent record label in the 90s that played a major role in the rise of Gangsta Rap.
Okay.
In addition to Tupac, Death Row Records was home to influential artists like Dr.
Dre and Snoop Dogg.
Nothing Dr.
Dre’s dead.
He’s living in my basement.
His career has been marked by legal troubles, including charges related to violence and criminal activity.
In 2015, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in a hit and run case resulting in a 28-year prison sentence.
He is known to be a member of the Bloods.
You guys were asking about the Bloods, about gang affiliation earlier.
There was like a 1990s documentary, or like it was like a news, like a dateline type thing.
Yeah.
And Vanilla Ice was on it.
And he talked to Ice Baby.
Yeah.
Colleen, do you know who Vanilla Ice is?
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
Ice, Ice Baby.
She’s staring blankly at us.
I mean, stop.
Collaborate.
I mean, I know this mom.
Oh, I don’t know who he is.
He actually had an HGTV show, I think, for a while.
I know the song.
I don’t know who it is, though.
So, Vanille Ice is this white rapper.
He says that he actually left LA because he was afraid of Suge Knight.
Apparently, Suge Knight claimed that his friend wrote Ice, Ice Baby and was threatening to get him to sign over the rights.
He tells a story about being held over a balcony of a ritzy hotel.
And then Vanilla Ice was so scared for his life, he signed over the rights.
And there’s also allegations that Suge Knight threatened Dr.
Dre’s previous manager to release Dre so that he could.
Wow, this girl is powerful.
Yeah, that should slow mafia action right there.
And then I got two other characters.
I’m going to just kind of tell you about.
And then I’ll give you the timeline of what happened.
Okay.
So Notorious BIG., the biggie.
Kait, you were talking about earlier.
So Notorious BIG was another popular rapper.
Right.
But on the other side, there was a feud.
Isn’t there a theory that it’s like another hip hop star trying to kill Tupac?
Is that Biggie?
Well, so Biggie died.
Like they both died.
They both died pretty quick.
Biggie died too?
Yes.
Yeah.
Every single day.
And I’ll be missing you.
I’ll be missing you.
Biggie.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Wow.
So the more you learn.
Apparently, Biggie asked Shakur to manage him.
Whereupon Shakur advised him that Puff Daddy would make him a star.
Oh.
So Puff Daddy.
What was Biggie involved with if he was involved with Puffy?
You know what I mean?
The point is that Shakur and Biggie were buddies.
Okay.
Okay.
So they remained buddies.
But Shakur is like, you know, I think Puff Daddy will make you a star.
You should go with him.
Okay.
Shakur did welcome him to join his group, Thug Life.
So do you remember like Tupac had Thug Life tattooed on his belly?
Yes.
And again, everyone was like, Thug Life.
We’re just like teaching these kids.
Tupac claims that Thug Life stands for philosophy that he described as a way to overcome adversity and resist systemic oppression.
The acronym Thug Life is often interpreted as the hate you give little infants fucks everybody.
So pretty much what he’s saying is that like when they talk about Thug Life, he’s talking about like, it’s on us within our community to like break the cycle and like be better and we have to police ourselves.
I like Tupac.
Yeah, I like that.
So Biggie instead formed his own side group, the Junior Mafia, which stands for Masters at Finding Intelligent Attitude.
It was formed in the early 90s and it, I think a little Kim was also a member of this group.
Really?
Yeah.
And so a lot of connections to Bad Boy Records with Puff Daddy.
Okay.
So Tupac and Biggie are buddies.
But then when that Qua Studios shooting happened in 94, Biggie had been recording in another studio and Tupac felt like Biggie was his buddy.
Maybe he didn’t set up the shooting, but he knew it was coming and why didn’t he give him a heads up?
Oh.
He actually came out, he made all these public allegations.
He got a little paranoid, if you will.
Yeah.
So he came out and made all of these public allegations against Biggie.
And in fact, in his music videos, there’s like references to like Biggie trying to shoot me.
Whoa.
So that’s really like the downfall of their relationship.
We’ll hear about Biggie a little bit.
OK.
And then the last person I want to tell you about, who’s a character in this timeline, JLo.
No, Colleen doesn’t know about this, that Puff Daddy and JLo dated.
Yeah.
And I’m going to tell you about Puff Daddy allegedly shot someone in a club and JLo was with them.
What?
So Orlando Anderson was a known crip, who was reportedly involved in a robbery at a footlocker store where a death row records medallion was stolen from someone.
And so on the night of Tupac’s death, Tupac actually ran into this guy, recognized him and had a physical altercation with him.
This fight took place in the lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, where Tupac and his entourage were attending a Mike Tyson boxy match.
Tupac and his crew attacked Anderson, who was reportedly beaten in the altercation.
And so we’re going to hear about Orlando as well.
And okay, Orlando.
So what happened on September 7th?
So on September 7th, 1996, Mike Tyson fought Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Mike Tyson is involved in this?
Yeah, everyone’s involved.
Who was it?
Because Mike Tyson and Tupac became buddies.
Tupac used to visit Mike Tyson in prison.
Mike Tyson’s in jail.
He gets out of jail and this fight is-
Mike Tyson was in jail?
Yeah.
And this is-
Wait, is Mike Tyson the one who built off that guy’s ear?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And he’s now a talk show.
So Mike Tyson had just got out of jail.
And so this fight was sort of like his big return to heavyweight prominence.
Tyson wins in a technical knockout in the first round.
So he wins his heavyweight championship in like a minute or something.
Yeah.
Okay.
So Tupac attends this heavyweight boxing match.
The match ends very early because it’s just like a total knockout.
Boom, boom.
Yeah.
And everyone exits into the MGM lobby.
And then the Orlando Anderson kerfuffle occurs.
So I reference that where Tupac-
Kerfuffle.
Tupac recognizes him in the MGM lobby.
Yeah.
And there’s all these videos on the surveillance of him and like others just coming after Orlando.
So then his bodyguard gets him out, and they go back to their hotel to change.
And then they decide to head to this club.
It’s Shug’s Club, Club 662.
And that’s where everyone’s going to go hang out.
They’re going to have a big party with all their famous buddies.
So Tupac and Shug go change, and they leave to head out to this club.
And there are paparazzi shots of them in the car together at 1055.
They’re in one car, and they have an entourage following them.
Tupac’s bodyguard said that as they were leaving the lexer, Tupac hands him the keys to his car and says, I’m gonna ride with Shug, but we’re gonna be drinking.
So you drive behind me and you can DDS.
Well, he’s like he’s passenger princessing.
Okay.
But he’s got two pockets.
He’s passenger princessing, but his bodyguard is not in the car with them.
His bodyguard is following in a car because it sounds like the plan was like, hey, when we all get too drunk, you’re gonna be furring us home.
So 1110 PM is when the shooting occurs.
So they’re on the Las Vegas strip at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Cabal Lane.
The Unsolved Mysteries episode I watched recently, that’s from the 90s, says that they were chatting up two girls.
That’s mostly the story, but there’s another documentary that describes a different setup.
Regardless, it sounds like there was someone from Shug’s entourage in front of them, which was rare, and then Tupac is in the passenger seat, Shug is driving, Tupac’s security is behind him, and then on the path, they’re allegedly speaking to these girls at the driver’s side window, who are like, where’s the party at?
And then a white Cadillac pulls up the passenger side and opens fire.
Oh my gosh.
Tupac is shot in the chest, hip at hand.
Shug had a temple graze.
He pulls a U-turn back up Las Vegas Boulevard before the car breaks down.
So there’s a lot of sources that Tupac’s last words were, fuck you, directed towards one of the officers who was coming to save him.
Oh, wow.
But I don’t know if that’s really for real.
Yeah.
And so again, he undergoes multiple surgeries over the next six days before eventually died.
Sounds like a pulmonary embolism.
And it actually sounds like he was resuscitated multiple times.
And then his mom showed up and his mom was like, listen, Oh, enough.
Yeah.
She said something more philosophical than that, but I can’t remember it.
So anyway, mom comes up and is like, you know, let him go.
So on the 13th of September, he dies.
Snoop was actually supposed to be with him in Vegas, but Tupac and he had had a fight because there had been an interview like two days before where they were at some of the radio DJ or whoever was like, would you ever record a song with Puffy or Biggie?
And Snoop was like, sure, I would.
And then Tupac felt like he wasn’t supporting him.
And so we cut him off.
But so Snoop was supposed to be with him.
Wow.
At this fight.
Snoop didn’t come because Tupac was having a little tantrum.
Mm hmm.
But Snoop did come to Vegas to go visit him.
Snoop?
Yeah, everyone’s in this.
Oh, so a couple of the weird things.
Snoop.
But even like in the old documentaries, like when they have interviews and like in the 90s, he still seems like such a nice guy.
Yeah.
Like doesn’t everyone’s like talking trash and he’s just like sitting there and like, yeah, what a guy.
You know Snoop Dogg type nine?
You know what?
When you when you watch him, I’m like, he’s such a type nine.
I will say Snoop did say that he was dating his now wife and they he was hanging out with Tupac and all these other guys.
And he just had a fight with his wife and they were all like, you know, drop that girl and Tupac was like, you better marry that girl.
Don’t listen to these guys.
And then he went on to marry her and now they got grandkids.
And he told me that he goes, he dresses up in costumes.
Yeah, doesn’t steal the show.
Yeah, from his grandkids.
Yeah.
Always with like a mask.
A lovely man.
I know.
So weird things that had happened with like on this whole timeline, I guess, just like abnormal things when we get to our conversation.
So Tupac had five bodyguards that would rotate.
They had like a two on, two off shift.
There were always three bodyguards on duty.
And the day of his death, there had been a security meeting at noon in which his bodyguards were told not to be armed, that they were to leave their weapons in their rooms.
They actually left their weapons in their cars.
But again, now they’re not in their cars.
This is suspicious.
The guard or his bodyguard said, we had never before been told not to be armed.
They also usually carry radios with each other.
But his one bodyguard had been on vacation.
So he, the temp had his radio.
So that got left behind in LA.
Long story short, there were no radios, which is like an abnormal situation.
He also had this one security guard who was following him.
But again, he should have had three on him.
Well, they had sent the other 21 security guards that Death Row Records had brought with them ahead to the club to preposition.
So now they just have one security guard for Shug and Tupac.
That’s not normal.
Tupac was almost always armed, but he was not armed that night.
He also was becoming more paranoid.
So he was always wearing a flack jacket, was not wearing any kind of bulletproof vest this time.
Again, allegedly, Tupac’s final words were F-U to a cop.
So then when they’re trying to figure out what happened, like nobody would talk to the police, that made things more challenging.
And they didn’t secure the scene because the shooting happened and then the car took off.
And so there was no, and any like pedestrian cops or anything led to the scene where the car was.
So there was no securing the actual scene where the gunshot was hit and fired.
That makes sense.
And then there was a backup singer in the car behind Tupac.
Yafoo Fula.
And he told police at the at the scene, he said, give me a line up.
I could point to the person who shot Tupac.
Well, but you know what?
They never did that.
They took his contact info.
They said, we’ll be in touch.
They sent him on his way.
Two months later, shot and killed in New Jersey.
One witness who said he could identify the shooter, the perpetrator, and then Orlando, that crip that he had the altercation with.
He also dies 18 months after the fact.
But then Colleen, You were shocked to hear that Biggie is no longer alive.
So six months after this happened, Taurius BIG is killed after attending a Soul Train Music Awards after party in Los Angeles.
Who’s taking them all out?
Well, that’s the question.
Interestingly, after all this happened, Death Row Records owed Tupac as much as $9 million.
He had less than $100,000 in the bank when he died.
He had fulfilled his obligation to Death Row, because again, it was like, I will get you out of jail if you give us three albums, right?
So he did his three albums.
He was like, I’m done.
He wanted to own his masters.
Does this sound familiar?
Yeah.
I want to own my own music.
And he wanted to start his own record company.
And so apparently Shug was like wooing him and trying to keep him with the record label.
But Afini, his mom, Afini actually sued Death Row Records and was able to get 400 tracks that Tupac had written before he died, like had recorded before he died.
And she was able to release several albums after he had passed.
And like, OK, yeah, yeah.
Like, is she getting the money?
Well, so she did, but she put most of the money in to a she created like a foundation, and I think she built like a community art center for children in Atlanta.
She had a lot of good things with the Tupac ever.
I stan Afini.
The Tupac ever what?
Have children?
No, there was, I think there was some rumor that he might have had one kid, but that didn’t.
How old was he when he died?
So young.
Oh, one would say the average lifespan of an Egyptian, an ancient Egyptian.
Well, I was like less.
Oh, yeah, that is of a man.
Yeah.
One could say that.
One could.
Yeah.
OK, so the theories, number one, did he fake it?
No, no way.
So after he died, they were immediate theories.
They had faked his death.
There’s this theory they call the seven day theory, and it refers the idea that Tupac Shakur, using his alias Machaveli, might have planned his own death as a way to escape his turbulent life.
So he had he had recorded this album that was going to be released before he died.
So it got released a couple of months after he died.
And it was called the Dawn Columnaughtii.
The Dawn Columnaughtii.
The Dawn Columnaughtii, colon, the seven day theory.
Wait, Dawn as in D-A-W-N-D-O-N.
And then Illuminati with a K at the beginning, Kill Columnaughtii.
The seven day theory, it was released under the pseudonym Machiavelli, which apparently Machiavelli had the original, had like faked his own death.
So then that was this theory that like why the pseudonym, even though apparently that was like always the plan, he just thought it’d be like a fun thing to do.
Okay.
Or did he know?
Well, that’s the question.
And then because the title is the seven day theory, he shot on September 7th.
It was like kind of six days, like on the seventh day is when he actually died.
There were seven bullet holes on the cover of the album, and the music dealt with a lot of themes of death and resurrection.
So this kind of fueled this like, you know, Tupac orchestrated his death and he’s like reemerged later.
Oh, so people are really like, this is just like his context clues.
Yeah.
But I think it’s kind of like we talked about Diana too, that it’s more likely, it’s just like hard for people to believe that this larger than life 25 year old, God, just die.
Yeah.
Um, it’s like very like everyone is, you know, mortal.
But you know what?
Interestingly, his body was cremated the day after he died.
Oh, never cremate.
You dive suspicious ways.
For real.
Never.
I feel like every time I watch a true crime documentary and they’re like, and then the husband had her cremated.
You’re like, yeah, all evidence gone.
Yeah.
Um, some of the outlaws actually claimed that they smoked his ashes on the beach.
Um, but regardless, if he needs like, and I think they had like a very public, um, funeral set up.
Yeah.
For like the fans.
And then they like the record company was setting one up, but I think his mom was, and then they like canceled them both.
So again, people were like, why are we canceling funerals?
Is he not really dead?
Um, and then because of Feeney got all these tracks, she was able to release all these albums.
And so people were like, you guys claim he’s dead, but like albums just keep coming out.
Right.
So, um, Chuck D, who’s an influential rapper and front man of the pioneering hip hop group Public Enemy.
He, like a week after Tupac died, he released his list of reasons he thought Tupac was still alive.
He does say he talked to a Feeney like three weeks later, and he no longer believes that Tupac is really alive.
But I just wanted to share some of his reasons with you, okay?
Okay.
Tupac died on Friday the 13th.
He says Las Vegas is a payoff city, meaning all sorts of folks have been known to be on the take, doctors, press, lawyers, etc.
The white Cadillac containing the assailants was never found.
How could this be when Vegas is in the middle of the desert?
Pretty much you say there’s not a lot of black people in Vegas, and how did these attackers were black?
There’s only an A block strip, how could no one identify them?
Why was there no chase and no witnesses?
I guess on the cover of his next album, it was a picture of Tupac looking a little bit like Jesus Christ.
And so was he planning a resurrection?
Yeah.
How about, he’s like Las Vegas or how come there was no helicopter chase?
If someone was to rob a casino, the Vegas police would have chased him down and there would have been like helicopters have been crazy.
But why was there none of that for Tupac?
I told you about the rapid formation.
There were no ballistic tests.
No ballistic tests.
Nope.
Vegas is they were again pretty much a mob town.
So it definitely sounds like somebody paid them all was like was paid off to do it.
Why did Tupac get shot all those times and should just got grazed by a bullet?
Right.
I thought about that, too, when you said that.
And then there’s rumors like Tupac apparently was like talking and coherent, and then he like wasn’t, and then it’s six days and then he dies.
And so they’re just like, how could he have been so coherent?
And then he died.
But, you know, we know that that could happen.
Yeah.
He had all these movies and albums coming out.
And this is to put sugar and Tupac are the only music industry people on that high of a profile with enough balls to pull off a stunt like fake death.
He had music videos that foretold his death.
I told you he always wore a bulletproof vest, but he wasn’t wearing one.
And again, memorial services were canceled.
Initially, people were coming out with a lot of sightings as well.
In 97, he was apparently seen in Guam at a local bar, never substantiated.
In 98, there were reports that he was in Cuba, in Havana.
And then there were also reports that Matulu Shakur, his stepdad was seen there.
In the 90s, people were like, oh my gosh, maybe it’s him.
But again, we don’t see any proof of that.
In New Orleans, there was a man who resembled Tupac seen at a gas station, and he was acting strangely.
And then in 2000s, he was allegedly seen in Vegas.
But none of these have been substantiated.
So I don’t really put much credibility into that.
I feel like if there wasn’t HIPAA, we’d have more answers.
More answers, I’m sure.
I’m just shocked there was no ballistic then.
Coded him over and over again, would be able to tell us that.
And then there’s a couple of, I guess people have also tried to interpret his music to say that like, oh, but when I’m reading these, I don’t, maybe I’m just not a poet.
I don’t really make that job.
Like in Two of America’s Most Wanted, featuring Snoop Dogg from All Eyes on Me in 96, he says, I got my mind on my money and my money on my mind.
Fans speculate that these lyrics reflect his ongoing plans and focus.
So he might have been plotting something significant, like faking his own death.
I’m like, what, I don’t know how you could make that jump from, I got my mind on my money and my money on my money on my money on my mind.
Yeah, no.
Uh, he’s got, I, he has a lot.
I see death around the corner.
I know that’s where I’m headed.
So like, okay, so he, he knew he.
Sounds like he was a little paranoid.
Like living his life.
You think he was a little paranoid?
Yeah, like none of this tells me like anyway, there’s all these examples, like none of them are telling me, oh yeah, he was planning to fake his death.
Yeah, there is at the opening of the first song on the album that came out after he died.
Bomb first.
There’s like, it sounds like someone’s talking in the background and says shook shot me.
So then that came out as like, oh yeah.
But I found a YouTube video where someone had found that same clip in a Daft Punk music video from the year prior.
And so it’s like probably just like, what do you call them?
These audio clips that anyone has access to.
So probably doesn’t mean anything.
I mean, my assessment is that I think he did seem like he had some mania and I think he was having delusions of grandiosity.
I mean, he’s like portraying himself as Jesus.
Yeah.
It is giving Diana a little.
How so?
Yeah.
Wasn’t she going crazy?
Oh, we thought she was having a little men.
But I don’t feel like in the same way.
No, but like, no.
Yeah.
Like he was getting paranoid, but I feel like he just was thinking like, and like, I don’t know if he faked his death, this whole person, what I gather of his personality.
I just don’t know if I can.
It’s kind of like, what do we talk about?
We’re like, oh, Hitler.
We’re like, could he just like disappear and shut up?
Right.
And like, no, no.
You would have to.
Yeah, we would have seen him by now.
Right.
If you’re in just shut up.
Yeah.
And then, you know, people also said that when he was filming movies, he would really like try to turn into these characters.
So I don’t I don’t think he like.
He just when I watch these these documentaries and it’s like clips of him when he’s like 17, he looks like just like such a theater kid.
Yeah.
So I think he just has like an art artist soul.
Well, I just don’t think that like I thought a lot of these rapper I mean, I guess, what do I know?
But I’m like, I don’t know that they’re really that into like gang life.
Like I feel like he was like an artsy kid.
Maybe he was like trying he was trying to like he was playing a gangster in an upcoming movie.
So was he getting too much into that role?
Also, I just think you have a lot of money and all of a sudden people are just like taking hits out on each other because they just are like they have all this money.
But mostly just seems like a little he didn’t take a hit out on people.
But in general, I’m just like looking at gangster rap.
Yeah.
I’m like, you guys just see like a bunch of a bunch of artists, a bunch of poets.
Yeah.
Afini did say, someone said, what do you how do you feel like people thinking he’s alive?
It used to bother me in a lot of ways.
It still does bother me because on one hand, it’s you know, irrational.
And at some point you have to deal with rationality.
However, I was speaking to some students at a college in the south.
It was just packed and I always ask, are there any questions?
And this question came up and I said, it’s ridiculous.
And why would I be?
And then this young girl in the back held her hand up and called on her and said, Ms.
Shakur, I respect you and I appreciate what you just said.
But if they have Elvis, why can’t we have Tupac?
And you know what?
I had no answer for her.
So in that sense, I get it.
I don’t have anything to say.
So again, I think it’s just like a someone everyone idolized, a young star who just like passes unexpectedly.
Yeah.
People can just like confabulate with that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I definitely I mean, I feel like like what Colleen said, like if that nurse could could really smirk, she’d probably be like, I mean, it sounds like his face was twice the size.
It’s like, and I’m sure his mom, like that’s the probably the trauma she holds.
Yeah, because she saw him in that moment.
Is she still alive?
No.
So we all she died, I think, at age 59.
So we all agree.
None of us are thinking now he’s actually alive.
He has passed on to the afterlife.
Say that it sounds like when the seven year anniversary came and went and he did not reveal himself.
Yeah, it seems like that’s when a lot of these theories kind of started to die down.
Yeah, they were like, maybe it’s not actually.
Yeah.
Other potential causes.
It could be an inside job, right?
I would say that initially when I was investigating, I was very suspicious of Shug.
But I don’t think that Shug was really involved now.
Tupac’s bodyguard did say that Shug took an odd route that night.
But he doesn’t rank the bodyguard does not believe it was Shug.
He said Shug seemed surprised to learn of all the weird security issues, like how no one was armed and yeah.
And he was really emotionally distraught when Tupac died.
Also, he was shot again.
Like, I don’t listen.
It kind of goes like how people and some people thought that Trump had orchestrated this assassination attempt and it’s like, and I’m like, you got graze.
So like, yeah, that’s miraculous.
But to trust that, like graze in the temple, like, yeah, to trust someone that much, like you can’t be a centimeter off.
Yeah, I just can’t believe sugar would be like and just like graze my head.
Right.
That’d be good.
So I don’t believe that.
I think that it sounds like Shug was trying to get him to stay.
With his record company and he’s like bringing in all this money.
So what would be his motivation to kill Tupac?
Yeah, that would be motivation.
That was my thing.
Yeah, because you just stopped the music, therefore stopped the money.
Yeah.
So that I was against that theory, too.
Yeah.
So again, I told you, Tupac wanted to start his own label, Euphanesia.
And so some people are like, well, should that was going to lose money?
But again, he’s not making any money with him now.
Yeah.
And then there were some theories and like an inside job that maybe Snoop would have been involved.
No, never Snoop Dogg again, because he didn’t he didn’t support him when he said he’d record with.
No, no.
He did bring in Tupac.
This is a Snoop Dogg brought Tupac in, but was Snoop like Tupac ended up being a bigger deal at that time than Snoop.
So was he resentful?
I told you that everything I saw, he’s even in his younger years, he still just looks like such a good guy.
And as I mentioned, he is a national treasure.
Yeah.
So we’re just going to don’t mess with.
No, not to get any DOD.
He is the nation’s.
See how I could name a single Snoop Dogg song.
I was going to say name songs he’s featured on.
What’s a Snoop Dogg song?
I only know once he’s featured on.
When the pimp’s in the crib, I drop it like it’s hot, drop it like it’s hot, drop it like it’s hot.
Sippin on gin and juice.
Sippin on gin and juice.
Oh, with my money, my money, my money, my money.
Yeah, I love Snoop.
The Snoopy D-O-Double G.
I’m going to listen to Snoop on my ride home.
Okay.
So sounds like you guys are with me.
We’re not buying, we’re definitely not buying that Snoop’s involved.
No.
We don’t really think Shug did it either, right?
No.
Okay.
So then there’s a question about the East Coast, West Coast rivalry.
So Colleen, let me educate you here.
Okay.
So hip-hop originated in New York City on the East Coast.
Is this for like West Coast?
Yeah.
East Coast, West Coast.
Hip-hop originated in New York City on the East Coast.
So they are like, obviously, we are the number one at hip-hop.
Right.
It’s us.
In the late 80s, West Coast hip-hop is up on the rise.
The Shook Knight and Dr.
Dre founded Death Row Records in LA.
I think that Stoop Dogg might own Death Row Records.
In the meantime, Puff Daddy is starting his label, Bad Boy Records.
And again, he gets sounds like BIG goes to Tupac, and Tupac’s like go to Puffy, and so he ends up with Puff.
So there was always this East Coast, West Coast feud, which was really fueled by the, it was really Bad Boy Records versus Death Row Records.
So Puff Daddy denied being involved in the Quad Studio shooting.
That’s the one in New York City when Tupac was recording.
But Tupac publicly accused him.
In February of 1995, a few months after the shooting, Biggie released Who Shot Ya?, which Tupac interpreted as a font.
There’s a line, didn’t I tell you not to fuck with me?
Can’t talk with a gun in your mouth, huh?
Later that year, Suge Knight was an award ceremony and he said, Any artist out there that wants to be an artist and want to stay a star and don’t want to have to worry about the executive producer trying to be in all the videos, on all of the records, dancing, come to death row.
So that’s a dig at Puff Daddy, who was just trying to get the hammers off his rappers.
Then there was a lot of back and forth, like every time one of them won, they’d get up and they’d slam the other side.
Dr.
Dre and Snoop were both food by East Coast rappers.
Puffy gets up, he makes a plea to end the East Coast West Coast drama.
Also, Tupac wasn’t very nice at this point.
Again, we think he’s such a nice guy.
He was not very nice about Faith Evans, which was Biggie’s estranged wife.
She’s on the song we talked about with Puff Daddy.
He claimed that they had a romantic relationship.
It hit him up, which was released after the shooting.
Again, they’re just back and forth in their rap.
And he alleged that he banged Biggie’s wife and she’s like, that never happened.
Yeah, he’s got some delusions happening.
So five months after the shooting, Snoop and Puffy hold a press conference to end the feud.
And Snoop says, because we love Snoop, right?
Yeah.
Snoop says, Kids around the world are watching.
By calling for a truce, we are giving them something to live for.
Oh, what an icon.
We love Snoop.
A month later, Biggie’s gone down in LA.
Oh, no.
That death also remains unsolved, but Suge Knight is alleged to have been involved, or perhaps some think the LAPD officers, again, give me a folder podcast on Biggie.
Yeah, Biggie deserves a folder podcast.
But it does seem like now, and Biggie was associated with the Crips, so again, it goes back to the, was it gang related?
Was it East Coast, West Coast?
But it sounds like all of the beef has been squashed.
So do we do we think that like East Coast, West Coast rivalry was like enough for someone to kill someone else?
I mean, it’s very suspicious that a white Cadillac pulled up, opens fire, and then is never seen again.
Sounds like Tupac had an enemy.
Whoever that enemy was, is remain spanking because we don’t know.
Do we know if he had like drugs in his system?
Was he related in like a drug activity and that could have gotten him killed or something?
You know what I mean?
I don’t know.
I don’t know if Tupac did drugs besides the Mary Jane.
I’m not going to be woke up and eat a pot every morning.
Besides the blueberry yum yum.
So last theory was a gang related.
So Dwayne, he feed Davis, he calls himself Keefe D.
Keefe D.
Is a significant figure.
So he is a member of the South Side Grips Gang.
Okay.
He had kind of, he’s been widely outside with this case.
In recent years, he’s made various statements about his involvement in the case, adding the speculation.
So it sounds like he thought he had immunity.
He thought he was far enough out.
So, hey guys, don’t commit a crime and then tell the cops without running it by your lawyer.
Right, right, right.
So that’s like, that’s like criminal 101, Megan.
So smart criminal 101.
But I think he really was, he wrote a book that he was trying to sell.
He was trying to pull a little like OJ.
Simpson, you know, profiting off his crime.
Yeah.
So in 2018, Keefe D openly discussed his knowledge of the events surrounding the murder in interviews and a book.
He claimed that he was in the car from which the shots were fired that killed Tupac.
He has suggested his nephew, Orlando Anderson, this is who the kerfuffle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Was the one who actually pulled the trigger.
Anderson, as I mentioned, was a suspect, but he was never charged and then he died.
I will say one of my issues with this is that there’s a couple of situations where like, it’s always like the dead guy, right?
Like I was going to say, it’s a little clean.
Like there was some interview where they were like, did anybody from Tupac’s entourage return fire?
And then the guy’s like, well, I guess I can tell you this because he’s dead, but one person returned fire.
Like really one person pulled out a gun and that one person happens to be dead.
And so isn’t this tidy?
Yes.
Right.
Right.
A little clean.
So now we’re going to blame this guy who’s dead.
It’s kind of tidy.
But Fifi has been incarcerated since last September and he’s been denied bail.
So this trial is pending.
He’s going to go on trial in November.
Wow.
Or the Tupac shooting?
Boy, accessory, I guess.
There was a two and a half hour secret police interview that was recorded last year that led to his arrest for the murder of Tupac.
And so here’s what he alleges in that recording happened.
He has, but not guilty.
But here’s what we have.
So he says, Puff Daddy was in Anaheim after a concert.
That’s California.
Yeah.
And he makes this announcement to the room at large, which in which Kipi D was present.
I will give anything to anyone who takes out Tupac and shook.
Then Kipi says that there was a second interaction between just him and Puff Daddy.
And at that point, Puff Daddy said, take out a hit, I’ll pay you, like I’m taking out a hit, I’ll pay you a million dollars.
What?
It was a hit man’s issue?
Kipi says that he might have been like, he was like, I’ll pay you to do it.
And Kipi’s like, will you pay me a million?
And he’s like, yeah.
And they shook on it.
And that was the deal.
Okay.
But Kipi says that he really wasn’t that, it was kind of like a conversation that happened.
But he’s like, honestly, I wasn’t about to go out and kill him.
This was the discussion we had.
So again, Kipi D says that Diddy, Puff Daddy’s motivation here was just to eliminate the competition.
And you know, so we have like, should Knight and Tupac are with our rival record label, we’ve got the East Coast, West Coast rivalry, and like, we just, too much competition.
He let, oh, they said that Puffy wanted to be friends with Tupac, and Tupac was not interested.
So anyway, this whole thing happens.
Then Kipi says that he goes to the match, he drives to Vegas for the match in a rented Buick Century, and he meets up with his nephew Orlando Anderson and his buddies who are in a rented white catalog.
Oh, my gosh.
Kipi dees at dinner during that whole kerfuffle in the MGM lobby.
He says that actually he’s eating at the MGM, and a bunch of people come up and they’re telling him about it.
So he claims that after this attack, they’re like, you know what?
This is the perfect time.
He’s here.
We got an offer of a million dollars.
Let’s go do this.
Oh, my God.
Kipi’s.
One million dollars actually doesn’t seem like that much.
But back then, some of these where it’s like for 10 grand or whatever.
Yeah.
You took that?
Yeah.
Absurd.
Right.
Kipi’s friend, Zip, gives him a gun.
They’re driving up Flamingo.
They saw Tupac hanging out the window.
And Kipi says, again, let’s like just make this as clean for him as possible.
Right.
He says, Oh, I thought I saw Tupac reach for something.
I thought it could be a gun.
So I hit the floor of the car.
So I didn’t see it or anything, nor was I involved in anything.
Of course.
Of course.
He says, he said, shooting started allegedly someone from Death Row Records Return Fire, which again, we know is like now they’re saying, oh, that’s the dead guy.
Yeah.
There were actually there were some girls in a white red top sea breeze that actually followed them when they took off the shooters.
But the Keef Beatty turned around shot out their front windshield, and then they were like, F that.
Yeah, I’m not.
I’m not doing this.
So then he says he went back to Puff Daddy’s assistant and said, you guys owe me a million dollars.
And they said, yeah, we got you.
But they never actually made the payment.
So then people are like, did this really happen?
Or is this all hit like this Puff Daddy?
Right.
Is this all made up?
Also very like suspicious that it’s coming out right now, right?
Well, so this all happened before.
Before the raid.
Yeah.
So Puff Daddy also, though, he’s in he’s in it.
He was sort of a poser.
This is so like, I don’t what do I know?
OK, I was not into hip hop at this time in my life.
I’m not into hip hop now.
And like, I mean, I am the opposite of.
Whatever these people experienced growing up, right?
Like, I didn’t grow up in like an impoverished, you know, inner city place with one parent or my parents in jail or whatever.
So what do I know?
But I always thought that Puff Daddy just seemed like a little soft, like a little fit.
I think again, like, are they all?
Yeah, yeah, I always thought that too.
Puffy wasn’t like he was like he was a pretty boy.
Yeah, yeah.
Like Dayton Jalep.
But you know what?
What do we know?
Because he has an extensive record starting in 95 with a charge for criminal mischief.
He’s had some allegations of assault against record label executives.
Wow.
In 99, a woman claimed that he shot her in the face at a nightclub.
He was acquitted of all charges.
And a rapper that he was with actually served time.
But the victim maintains that it was Puff Daddy that shot her.
Wow.
He’s had multiple convictions for assault.
And then in 2017, his former personal chef sued him for working long hours at Overtime Pay and forced her to feed him and his guests immediately post-coitus while they were still undressed.
And he settled for an undisclosed amount.
Yeah, I believe that.
Not innocent.
And then there’s another producer who claimed that Puff Daddy and his…
I interchangeably in my notes wrote Diddy and Puffy and Daddy.
Like Puff Daddy.
He’s had so many names over the years.
Yeah, he has.
Yeah.
That this producer Lil Rod claims that Puff Daddy and his and or his son shot his son’s friend G in the abdomen and leg in an LA recording studio.
And then G has since disappeared.
And so Lil Rod is claiming that Puff Daddy is like orchard a whole pepper up of that.
And then in 2023, oh, his ex-girlfriend, who he dated when she was 19 and he was 37 for two years.
She comes out to allege that Puff Daddy had raped her.
He had forced her to engage in acts with other males.
He beat her.
There was like that awful video that came out.
Right.
And so she accused him of blowing up Kid Cudi’s car.
She said he forced her to take substances.
He would dangle.
He dangled her friend over the balcony, which is very much like Manila Ice’s story about right.
Shug.
Shug.
Yeah.
So anyway, this lawsuit got settled the same day it was filed out of court for undisclosed amount of money.
But this triggered all these other lawsuits that have come forward, which now we have these allegations of rape and trafficking.
And we know that in March of this year, DHS raided several homes in LA and Miami, linked to Puff Daddy in relation to the trafficking investigation.
So again, I think these people, it’s like you don’t do anything for yourself, but all of a sudden you got a lot of money.
So I would have never thought that Puff Daddy had the balls to do this, but it’s got quite a-
we’re learning all this all about him.
Mafia.
So that’s where we are.
So it sounds like this was probably gang related.
This is probably an ego from Puff Daddy fighting.
Some sort of dispute related.
I don’t know if gang related, dispute related probably.
Okay.
Maybe dispute.
I mean, they were different.
Gangs.
Gangs.
Shug was the blood.
This guy was a crip, but it sounds like mostly it was like Tupac embarrassed this guy in the MGM lobby.
So they took him out.
Puff Daddy may or may not.
Honestly, there’s not a lot of evidence that Puff Daddy actually took out this hit, except that we know he’s a bad guy now.
Right.
Long story short, I don’t think he’s still alive.
Long story short, it was a long night.
I told you, I think that it was dispute related and I would be very interested to see if Puff Daddy has anything interesting.
Like that is an interesting spin.
Colleen, did we teach you anything today?
A lot about the hip hop community.
How connected it all was.
Yeah, everybody has so many names.
Notorious BIG.
Biggie Smalls.
That’s one person, right?
Tupac is always Tupac.
It’s just the number two.
Right.
They just seem to be like there.
But Puff Daddy, he did he?
Puff Daddy, Sean Puffy Combs.
Right.
Did he?
Did he?
Yeah, Puffy.
All right, Colleen, you agree that it was probably just are you buying this guy’s story?
Yeah.
I I’m more to it.
I mean, yeah, I definitely am like you really hit the ground.
You really hit the floor.
There’s no way.
Yeah.
They were all after you said you’d take a million dollars.
I’m like, and they’re all young in their 20s.
They weren’t thinking about this.
One only one person returned fire, but he’s he’s dead.
So it was the only one.
Yeah.
Oh, one person.
You know, Orlando’s the one who shot him, but because Orlando’s dead, so we can blame him.
Yeah, like they were probably all young kids not thinking about the actual consequences.
Well, their frontal lobes were not even developed by the time that Colleen, your frontal lobe just developed.
I know Tupac.
I can feel it.
Tupac was younger than you.
That’s crazy and a man and they go slower.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And some people say to you that I think at the end, he was getting a little like rough around the edges.
But like, who would he have ended up being?
We don’t know.
He had a chance.
His mom and Snoop Dogg were pretty great.
Yeah, are pretty great.
He was like a little theater kid.
He’s like, I like to do theater.
I like to do plays.
That’s so cute.
Yeah, I could see him.
I mean, I could have seen him doing that again.
In the two hours of conversation that we’ve had, Colleen has been schooled on Tupac.
Yeah.
She can see him doing plays.
All right.
Okay.
What should people do?
Scroll on down.
Leave us a comment.
Leave us a five-star review.
Share us with your friends and families.
Share us on your social media platforms.
And as always, thank you for supporting the pod.
Yeah.
Colleen’s off to Disney World.
She’s going to educate us on some Disney conspiracies when she comes back.
Otherwise, guys, see you next Tuesday.
See you next Tuesday.
See you next Tuesday.