In addition to lawsuits, raids, federal investigations, and a secret grand jury, the only living suspect in Tupac Shakur’s murder now implicates Puff Daddy, Sean Combs, in the September 7, 1996, drive-by shooting.
A recent court filing for Duane “Keefe D” Davis’ upcoming murder trial mentions Puffy 77 times. Las Vegas police confirm, however, that Combs has never been and is not a suspect.
By the late '80s, hip hop is flourishing on the West Coast, with leading acts like Compton’s N.W.A. In the early '90s, East Coast rappers begin to adopt an attitude of superiority and frequently diss West Coast artists in new albums.
When Suge Knight founds Death Row Records in Los Angeles with artists like Dr. Dre, Sean “Puffy” Combs’ NYC Bad Boy Records rises up to meet it with Biggie Smalls.
The East Coast/West Coast rap feud begins with the near-death of Tupac Shakur at Quad Records in Manhattan. Tupac is invited to record when he is attacked by three armed men and shot five times but survives. Vibe magazine reports that Sean Puffy Combs and the Notorious B.I.G. were both at the studio and may have known Shakur was being set up.
Tupac’s belief that Puffy and Big knew about the Quad Records attack adds to the feud between Combs’ East Coast Bad Boy Records and Suge Knight's West Coast Death Row Records.
Tupac Shakur, along with Suge Knight and members of their entourage, come to Vegas to attend the Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Members of the Southside Compton Crips, including Davis and his nephew Orlando Anderson, are also in attendance at the same event. Orlando Anderson is spotted near an elevator bank inside the MGM and is attacked. Tupac and Suge Knight then leave the MGM to make their way to a post-fight party at a local nightclub.
Keefe D Davis obtains a gun and gets into a white Cadillac along with Terrence Brown, DeAndre Smith, and Orlando Anderson. They pull alongside the black BMW driven by Suge Knight and begin shooting. Tupac Shakur is hit four times in the chest, and Suge Knight is grazed in the head by a bullet fragment. Tupac Shakur dies six days later.
In March 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. is in L.A. to promote his new album, Life After Death. Biggie shoots a video, gives a radio interview, and presents a music award. Scheduled to fly to London, he cancels and stays in L.A. for an after-party, accompanied by a Bad Boy Records entourage including "D-Roc" Butler, Lil' Cease, Gene Deal, "Tone” Jacobs, Stevie J, and Sean “Puffy” Combs.
The after-party is shut down for overcrowding. Not ready to go home, the Bad Boy Records crew plans to attend a house party. The caravan is stopped in traffic when a Chevy Impala driver pulls a gun and opens fire. Biggie is shot four times and dies just six months after Tupac is killed in a similar Vegas drive-by.
A suspect is never identified in Biggie’s murder.
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