Tupac Shakur

Today in Hip-Hop History: Tupac Shakur Dies After Being Gunned Down on Las Vegas Strip 28 Years Ago

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Tupac Shakur Car

Cultural icon Tupac Shakur was then taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada hospital after being shot several times in a drive-by on a Las Vegas strip on September 7, 1996, and was under a medically induced coma for six days before dying from internal bleeding on September 13, 1996.

After several failed attempts by doctors to revive 2Pac, his mother Afeni Shakur requested for his life support machine to be turned off. What were the events that transpired the days before the September 7th shooting that caused his early demise and why has the mystery of his death never been solved? These are the questions that remain 28 years later. Chris Carroll, a retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sergeant, told Vegas Seven Magazine in an interview last year that we may never know;

“Shakur’s murder is still considered an unsolved homicide and an unsolved homicide case is technically never closed. But nothing more is ever going to happen with it.”

After all the documentaries that have been put out pertaining to Pac’s death, most fans attempt to put the clues together and create their own hypothesis yet without hard evidence it’s still just an educated guess as to what really happened the night of September 7, 1996.

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The only real evidence police had until last year was the witness account from Outlaw member E.D.I Mean, who claimed to have seen all four men in the vehicle and Yaki Kadafi, who was involved in a scuffle with officers two days following the shooting after they pulled over a driver he was with and he protested. Officers did not try to locate Kadafi, who was later gunned down in Irving, NJ two months after the shooting.

Compton investigators assembled mug shots of several gang members, which included Orlando Anderson, the Crip that Tupac attacked in the MGM Grand lobby hours before the shooting. Anderson is the suspect said to have fired the fatal shots that killed Pac. Las Vegas police later discounted Anderson as a suspect and interviewed him only once. He was later killed in an unrelated gang shooting.

Last year, it was revealed that Duane “Keefe D” Davis will face charges related to the death of Tupac Shakur after years of claiming he was directly involved, but avoided prosecution with a immunity deal. It seems 2023 was the expiration date of that said deal. Davis is currently behind bars while going to trial for the murder of Shakur and was given a $750K bond to released during trial, but he has yet to make bail despite being offered the money because the judge has yet to approve the financial arrangement.

The post Today in Hip-Hop History: Tupac Shakur Dies After Being Gunned Down on Las Vegas Strip 28 Years Ago first appeared on The Source.

The post Today in Hip-Hop History: Tupac Shakur Dies After Being Gunned Down on Las Vegas Strip 28 Years Ago appeared first on The Source.

Today In Hip Hop History: Tupac Shakur Was Shot On The Las Vegas Strip 28 Years Ago

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Today in Hip Hop History Tupac Shakur Dies After Being Gunned Down on Las Vegas Strip 23 Years Ago

On this date in 1996, Tupac Shakur, who’s just left the Mike Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, was gunned down in Suge Knight’s BMW while at a stop light at East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. He was shot four times, with two of the .40 caliber shots landing in his chest. Shakur would succumb to his injuries six days later. He was only 25 years old.

What were the events that transpired the days before the September 7th shooting that caused his early demise and why has the mystery of his death never been solved? These are the questions that remain a quarter century later. Chris Carroll, a retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sergeant, told Vegas Seven Magazine in an interview in 2014 that we may never know;

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The only real evidence police have are the witness accounts from Outlaw members E.D.I Mean, who claimed to have seen all four men in the vehicle and Yaki Kadafi, who was involved in a scuffle with officers two days following the shooting after they pulled over a driver he was with and he protested. Officers did not try to locate Kadafi, who was later gunned down in the PJs in Irving, NJ two months after the shooting.

Compton investigators assembled mug shots of several gang members, which included Orlando Anderson, the Crip that Tupac attacked in the MGM Grand lobby hours before the shooting. Anderson is the suspect said to have fired the fatal shots that killed Pac. Las Vegas police later discounted Anderson as a suspect and interviewed him only once. He was later killed in an unrelated gang shooting.

Las Vegas homicide Sergeant Kevin Manning said detectives called his lawyer to set up a meeting with a witness, so that the pictures could be reviewed, but according to Manning the calls were not returned. E.D.I. Mean and Frank Alexander, Pac’s body guard, told The Los Angeles Times in early 1997 that they had never been asked by the Las Vegas police to view photos of possible suspects in the case despite having seen the shooting and the faces of the men in the car from which shots were fired at Pac and Suge Knight. Alexander reported seeing the face of the suspect that shot Shakur but he was found dead with a bullet wound to the head in his home in Murrieta, CA on April 28, 2013. It’s being reported that it was suicide and there haven’t been any further updates about Big Frank’s death and who killed him. To this day, Las Vegas police dispute the witness accounts of what they reported to the officers the night of the shooting.

Last year, it was revealed that Duane “Keefe D” Davis will face charges related to the death of Tupac Shakur after years of claiming he was directly involved, but avoided prosecution with a immunity deal. It seems 2023 was the expiration date of that said deal. Davis is currently behind bars while going to trial for the murder of Shakur and was given a $750K bond to released during trial, but he has yet to make bail despite being offered the money because the judge has yet to approve the financial arrangement.

The post Today In Hip Hop History: Tupac Shakur Was Shot On The Las Vegas Strip 28 Years Ago first appeared on The Source.

The post Today In Hip Hop History: Tupac Shakur Was Shot On The Las Vegas Strip 28 Years Ago appeared first on The Source.

Marlon Wayans Claims He Hung Out With Tupac Minutes Before He Was Murdered

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Shannon Sharpe’s latest guest on his Club Shay Shay podcast is none other than DJ Vlad’s recent Twitter opponent Marlon Wayans. Moreover, they spoke about a whole host of topics, including his career, personal relationships, and reflections on his decades in the industry and celebrity ecosystem. However, the actor and comedian raised some eyebrows thanks to one of his stories. He told Sharpe about the time that he and fellow entertainer Omar Epps allegedly saw Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas just 20 minutes or so before suspects fatally shot him. It’s a dark and strange tale, one that offers yet another perspective on this monumental tragedy in hip-hop history.

“I saw Tupac in Vegas at The Luxor 20 minutes before he got shot,” Marlon Wayans alleged. “I seen Suge and all these cars and thugs and reds. I turned white, I was like… ‘M-m-m-maybe we shouldn’t go over there. Let’s just wave from here.’ Omar [Epps] was like, ‘Nah, we got to go say what’s up and pay our respects.’ ‘Pac was a huge star at this time. And I was like, ‘Are you sure? It sure looks like a lot of trouble over there.’

Read More: Marlon Wayans Deemed “Cringe” After Responding To Automated Barack Obama Text

Marlon Wayans Speaks On Alleged Tupac Meeting Before He Got Shot

“I give him a hug, we all talk, kick it for five minutes,” Marlon Wayans continued his alleged recollection of his and Epps’ run-in with Tupac. “And the BMW pulls up. Me, Omar and Mitchell [Marchand] get in a cab and we pull off. I’ll never forget the look on Tupac’s face as we pulled off. He was looking at us like, ‘Man, I miss that freedom, I miss that fun.’

“He was just in this chaos,” Marlon Wayans concluded. “There was a part of him that wished that… It was like the innocence. [He wished that] he could just go with the innocence. And so we left and then 20 minutes later, we heard he got shot.” It’s important to note that this wasn’t the first time that the two had met. They worked together on the 1994 film Above The Rim, and Wayans has spoken about his bond with the late legend in the past.

Read More: Keefe D Recalls Years Of Trying To Collect $1 Million From Diddy For Alleged Role In Tupac Killing

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Rashida Jones, Daughter Of Quincy Jones, Recalls Rocky Relationship With Tupac

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Rashida Jones, the daughter of Grammy Award winning producer Quincy Jones, says that her and her family had an up-and-down relationship with the late Tupac Shakur, but still considers him family.

In an interview with the New Yorker, which was published over the weekend(July 7), the actress recalled the open letter she wrote to ‘Pac in The Source following some disparaging remarks that Shakur made about the famed musician/producer.

“All he does is stick his dick in white bitches and make fucked up kids,” Pac said of Rashida’s father at the time.

“I do think that anyone who reads this article would be shocked by his ignorance and lack of respect for his people,” she said.  “To demean a man like Quincy Jones, a man who came from the ghetto of Chicago and through his talent and perseverance became a living music legend, demeans the whole progress of African Americans.”

She continued, “Where the hell would you be if Black people like him hadn’t paved the way for you to even have the opportunity to express yourself? I don’t see you fighting for you race. In my Opinion, you’re destroying it and shitting all over your people.”

30 years later, Rashida reflected on the letter she wrote, which was shortly before her older sister Kidada began dating Tupac.

“Furious! So precocious, so self-righteous. Yeah, I was so mad,” she said. “It was a new perspective to me. I kind of understand the nuance more now that I’m older. It just felt like a completely unwarranted attack. It resolved itself really nicely, because when I met him, he immediately apologized to me, immediately apologized to my dad. We sat down and had a really good conversation about it, and then he was family.”

The post Rashida Jones, Daughter Of Quincy Jones, Recalls Rocky Relationship With Tupac first appeared on The Source.

The post Rashida Jones, Daughter Of Quincy Jones, Recalls Rocky Relationship With Tupac appeared first on The Source.

Keefe D Denied Bond Despite Wack 100’s Best Efforts

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The murder trial of Tupac Shakur, for which Duane “Keefe D” Davis is the accused defendant, took a pretty strange turn concerning Davis’ bond. Moreover, for those unaware, Wack 100 tried to pay for 15 percent of his bond, but it seems like these very efforts caused a downfall. The judge in this case, Carli Kierny, ruled that the defense failed to prove that they obtained the bail money through legitimate means, particularly concerning Wack’s portion. Given this Wednesday ruling (June 26), Keefe D will remain behind bars until the trial kicks off in November, its currently scheduled start date.

“It’s only $75,000,” Wack 100 had told DJ Vlad earlier in June about paying for a percentage of Keefe D’s $750,000 bond. “I’ve been thinking about going to get him with the stipulations that I’ll do the series on it.” Wack, real name Cash Jones, appeared in court this week to argue that this move wasn’t based on business dealings, and that it was an innocent “gift” for the suspect. But when prosecutors brought up this VladTV interview, this painted the notion that he tried to capitalize on Keefe’s situation with a series.

Read More: Why Is Wack 100 Trying To Post Keefe D’s Bail?

Keefe D In Court

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TOPSHOT – Duane “Keefe D” Davis, 60, appears in a Las Vegas court on October 19, 2023 for his arraignment on murder charges in the death of rapper Tupac Shakur. (Photo by John Locher / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JOHN LOCHER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“That’s what I said to Vlad, but Keefe D is already involved with somebody,” Wack 100 posited to the Clark County, Nevada court in his defense. “I have no contracts with him. Before you go on Vlad, you have a discussion about what you’re going to talk about and what needs to be said to draw up views. There’s nothing about Vlad and nothing about YouTube that says that we’re being truthful about what we’re saying for entertainment.”

“You got to remember, this s**t can set you up for the rest of your life,” Wack 100 allegedly told Keefe D in a supposedly recorded phone call. “I will get you out and then we’ll sit down and talk about all that.” “While Mr. Jones testified he was bonding out Mr. Davis because Mr. Davis was fighting cancer and had been a pillar of the community, his previous interviews with VladTV suggested another motive,” Jude Kierny ruled the following day. She determined that the defense brought forth “insufficient” proof of the bond money’s cleanliness.

Read More: Wack 100 Reveals Why He Wants To Bail Out Keefe D

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Why Did Kendrick Lamar Call Out Drake For Tupac’s Ring At ‘The Pop Out’?

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kendrick lamar The Pop Out – Ken & Friends Presented by pgLang and Free Lunch
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Kendrick Lamar’s The Pop Out — Ken & Friends Juneteenth concert — at Kia Forum in Inglewood, California on Wednesday night, June 19 — was bookended by Lamar reasserting his deep hatred for Drake. Lamar began his set with “Euphoria,” and his instantly iconic finale involved running through “Not Like Us” five times (six, if you count the instrumental as he left the stage) — both live debuts of his Drake diss tracks.

Fans noticed something different about “Euphoria,” as explained below.

Why Did Kendrick Lamar Call Out Drake For Tupac’s Ring At The Pop Out?

While performing “Euphoria” live for the first time, Lamar added a bar: “Give me Tupac’s ring back, and I might give you a lil respect.”

Last July, Drake bought a custom ring formerly belonging to the late Tupac Shakur at an auction. USA Today reported at the time that Drake dropped more than $1 million for the ring, which Sotheby’s described in a press release as “an exceedingly rare piece of Tupac’s signature aesthetic and a slice of hip-hop history” while confirming that Drake was the purchaser “after Shakur’s grandmother and lifelong supporter, Yaasmyn Fula, put it up for auction.”

Seeing as Tupac was a cornerstone for West Coast rap — Lamar has since taken on the mantle — and Drake has absolutely no allies within Los Angeles rap, it makes sense that Drake owning anything related to Tupac doesn’t sit well with Lamar.

Tangentially related, Lamar name-checked Tupac twice (“You think the Bay gon’ let you disrespect ‘Pac, n****?” & “Yeah, it’s all eyes on me, and I’ma send it up to ‘Pac”) in “Not Like Us” after Drake used AI-generated voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg on “Taylor Made Freestyle,” one of his Kendrick diss tracks from April. Drake took a massive L on that — deleting it from social media after Tupac’s estate threatened legal action.

Former LAPD Detective Claims Diddy Ordered $1M Hit On 2Pac And Suge Knight

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More allegations continue to mount against Bad Boy Records founder Diddy, as a former LAPD detective who was involved in the Tupac and Biggie murder investigations recently spoke to The New York Times and says that Duane “Keefe D’ Davis accused Diddy of ordering a hit on ‘Pac and Suge Knight back in 1995.

Greg Kading says that he remembered Davis accusing Diddy of ordering a hit on 2Pac, as well as Suge Knight, back in 1995. Kading said that Keefe D told him about a meeting held in a hotel room during a Summer Jam tour, allegedly telling a room full of “Crips”, he wanted them dead. Kdaing said he also remembered Davis saying that he was offered $1 million for the murders from Mr. Combs himself.

“Man, we’ll wipe their a— out quick,” Davis allegedly replied. 

The next year, both Tupac and Suge Knight were shot on the Las Vegas strip after Shakur and the Death Row team got into a physical altercation with Keefe D’s nephew, Orlando Anderson at the MGM before the Mike Tyson fight. Knight suffered a graze wound to the head in the drive-by shooting, but Shakur succumbed to his injuries less than a week after the shooting. He was 25 years old.

In his 2019 book, Compton Street Legend, Davis claimed that he had a gun before searching the city for 2Pac and Knight. Ultimately, he admitted to giving the gun to his nephew. He alleged that Anderson went on to shoot 2Pac four times, ultimately taking his life.

Davis is set for trial for the murder of Shakur in Las Vegas this month.

The post Former LAPD Detective Claims Diddy Ordered $1M Hit On 2Pac And Suge Knight first appeared on The Source.

The post Former LAPD Detective Claims Diddy Ordered $1M Hit On 2Pac And Suge Knight appeared first on The Source.

Foxy Brown Named As Key Witness In Tupac Shakur Murder Trial

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According to a recent news report, Brooklyn rapper Foxy Brown is now recognized as a key witness for the prosecution in the Tupac murder trial.

Prosecutors are seeking to have Brown act as a witness and provide evidence that reputed Southside Crip Duane “Keefe D” Davis was in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, something that Davis has denied.

The Clark County District Attorney’s office is forming a list of witnesses that can place Davis in Vegas on the night of ‘Pac’s murder, but Keefe D says that there is mo proof that he was in Sin City on that fateful night in September. According to reports, Foxy allegedly saw Keefe D in Vegas and even interacted with him before ‘Pac’s shooting later that night.

In his book Compton Street Legend, Davis admitted to meeting with Brown the night of ‘Pac’s murder, but now says that anything he said in that book was fabricated.

In the book, Davis wrote: “As I walked up to the driver’s side window, I noticed that the rapper, Foxy Brown, was in the car with [Eric Von] Zip. So he instructed her to step out of the car and motioned for me to jump in. Zip had a hidden compartment that he opened up, reached in, and pulled a black .40 Glock out. He turned to me and said, ‘It’s time to get the money.’”

He continued, “Zip handed me the 17-shot pistol, which I promptly put down the back waist of my pants. I hopped out of the car, held the door open for Foxy Brown to get back in, closed the door, and they pulled off.“

Prosecutors are now trying to get Brown, whose real name is Inga Merchand, to corroborate the story told in Davis’ book on the witness stand.

The trial has been pushed back to November, with Davis’ new lawyer asking for more time to go over the case’s discovery. The 60-year-old Davis is currently sitting behind bars with a $750K bail, but could go home on a an ankle monitor if he can come up with the bail money.

The post Foxy Brown Named As Key Witness In Tupac Shakur Murder Trial first appeared on The Source.

The post Foxy Brown Named As Key Witness In Tupac Shakur Murder Trial appeared first on The Source.

Questlove Issued Another Hot Take About A Classic Diss Track After Deriding The Drake And Kendrick Beef

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Despite already being in hot water with rap fans over his take on the Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef, Questlove derided a different diss track in a new interview. This time, his beef (heh) is with a classic of the genre: Tupac’s “Hit ‘Em Up,” which is widely regarded as one of the best — or at least, the most disrespectful — diss tracks in rap.

Appearing on SiriumXM’s One Song Podcast to discuss Public Enemy’s “Cold Lampin’ With Flavor,” Quest was inevitably baited into commenting on the evolution of diss tracks. While pointing out how the lyrics on them are usually just “okay,” he brought up his issue with “Hit ‘Em Up” — which is so very specific, and so very, very Questlove.

“I would actually respect Tupac’s ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ if his music tracking was better,” he announced. “‘Hit ‘Em Up,’ to me, is disqualified not because of the misogynist… forget all that. Dude, you’re rhyming over smooth jazz dinner music! Luther Vandross could sing over this!”

He’s referring here to “Don’t Look Any Further” by Dennis Edwards, the song sampled by “Hit ‘Em Up” producer Johnny “J.” (For a laugh, check out the original music video, which is unintentionally hilarious in its 1980s-ness.)

Once a clip of the interview — out of context, of course — made its way to Twitter, Questlove became the target of fans already incensed that he had declared “hip-hop is dead” over the Drake/Kendrick battle. Some fans pointed out that The Roots’ video for “What They Do” could be interpreted as a satirical diss of The Notorious B.I.G. (and, in fact, was seen that way by Biggie, but as Quest has repeatedly pointed out, that was all a misunderstanding — read the liner notes sometime, people).

It seems unlikely that Quest is going to change his opinion. After all, he’s seen hip-hop through a great many iterations and has maintained more or less the same level of forward-thinking, left-of-center outlook on it the entire time. The people fronting on him now probably aren’t the people who actually had Illadelph Halflife on vinyl, so some friction between their viewpoints is probably not only to be expected, but practically inevitable (anyone who was on rap forums in the late 90s or early 2000s can attest to this).

[WATCH] Uncle Luke Talks Failed Attempts At Trying To Squash Beef Between Biggie And Tupac

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Speaking on Instagram Live over the weekend, Miami Hip Hop pioneer Uncle Luke delved into his unsuccessful efforts to try to broker peace between the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur before both of their untimely and tragic deaths.

Luke spoke to fans about his failed attempts to bring the two former friends to ther negotiating table for a man-to-man sit-down during their very public rivalry, which ended between the two superstars on September 7, 1996.

“I remember when 2Pac and Biggie had the beef going on. Now, mind you, I tried to get in the middle of it and squash it,” he said. “I kinda cooled it off, but it was a little too late. Outside people got involved.” Luke added, “Man, I remember going to St. Louis doing a show with Biggie. I went on before him and by the time he got to the stage, them people were screaming ‘2Pac.’ They was singing 2Pac songs. That is the most discouraging thing when you in a battle, when you in the heat of a battle on tour, that people would go to the stadium and don’t even wanna hear your songs.”

The post [WATCH] Uncle Luke Talks Failed Attempts At Trying To Squash Beef Between Biggie And Tupac first appeared on The Source.

The post [WATCH] Uncle Luke Talks Failed Attempts At Trying To Squash Beef Between Biggie And Tupac appeared first on The Source.