The Mammoth Book of Cover-Ups

After serving eight months in prison, Tupac was released when «Suge» Knight put up $1.4 million bail. Knight then hustled Tupac into the recording studio, from which emerged the 9-million-selling album All Eyez on Me, with its disturbing video for the single «I Ain’t Mad at Cha» showing Tupac dying in a gundown. Even more weirdly prophetic was the next album, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, released under the pseudonym Makaveli, which overflowed with death imagery. Then, on 7 — note that — on 7 September 1996 Tupac was murdered.

The LAPD suspected the killers were members of LA’s infamous Southside gang the Crips, one of whom, Orlando «Baby Lane» Anderson, had been arguing in a hotel lobby with Tupac earlier in the day. Although Anderson was interviewed by the police he was never charged, apparently due to the lack of witnesses willing to come forward. He then inconveniently got himself shot in an unrelated gang killing. The Anderson—Tupac argument took place against a background of historical animosity between the Crips and the Bloods, who provided security for Tupac’s label, Death Row Records. The LAPD Compton Gang Unit privately maintains that Anderson was the shooter in what was essentially a private affair.

In rapland, however, suspicion fell on Tupac’s rival, the Notorious BIG, and his label manager, «Puffy» Combs. Rumours flew that «Biggie» and Combs had paid the Crips to assassinate Tupac, and the Los Angeles Times offered evidence that «Biggie» had sold the Crips the fatal gun and been in town to oversee the hit. Few were surprised when, on 9 March 1997, «Biggie» was shot dead leaving a Vibe magazine party in LA.

Most assumed «Biggie» had been assassinated by a Tupac fan out for revenge, but some began to see the hand of the FBI and government in the Tupac—«Biggie» fallout. Why, they asked, did the authorities fail to protect Yafeu «Kadafi» Fula? Fula, a witness willing to identify Tupac’s killer, was shot down dead shortly afterwards. Could it be because the killer was a government agent? In this scenario, Tupac’s death was an indirect blow against his mother, hated by the FBI for her prominent role in the revolutionary Black Panther Party. An FBI fink in Tupac’s entourage, so the theory goes, persuaded him to leave off his usual bullet-proof vest on the fateful night.

There is also a widespread theory that Tupac faked his death, the main clue being the image of Tupac being crucified à la Jesus on the cover of The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory and the use of the pseudonym «Makaveli». Machiavelli, the Renaissance philosopher, had written that a staged suicide is a useful way to fool the enemy. If you rearrange the letters of the album name you get: «OK on tha 7th u think I’m dead yet I’m really alive». Makaveli itself is an anagram for «mak(e) alive». Adherents of the «7 Theory» also point out that Tupac was shot on the 7th, 7 months after All Eyez on Me was released; and that he lived for 7 days after the shooting. Tupac was to come back to rap land 7 years on (in 2003: he didn’t), but perhaps it was 77 years on.

Why would Tupac fake his own death?

«Ms D» on the Thug Life Army website has the most convincing answer. Tired of being shot at by gangstas, Tupac wanted out, and so he entered Witness Protection, where he received plastic surgery. His mom had, after all, lived underground for years, so it was in the family, so to speak. As for leaked photographs of Tupac on the autopsy table, Ms D details peculiarities — such as the absence of the «50 niggas» tattoo — which suggest that the body belonged to some other stiff. Of course, the photography might have been a con by some wise guy seeking to sell some John Doe’s autopsy snaps as the real Tupac article.

Biggie and Tupac, a documentary by British film-maker Nick Broomfield released in 2002, firmly puts the blame for Tupac’s death on his own record boss, «Suge» Knight. According to Broomfield, Shakur had discovered that Knight was cheating him out of royalties and intended to leave the appropriately named Death Row Records. Figuring Tupac was worth more dead than alive and certainly of no value to him on another label, Knight contracted the hit on Tupac. He then killed «Biggie». Broomfield’s theory is given substance by Knight’s history of using violence for business ends and by an alleged prison confession. If it was Knight who orchestrated Tupac’s death, he must have had nerves of steel: he was in the car with Shakur at the time and took a (presumably deflected) bullet. Many people have called «Suge» Knight many things, yet none of them has ever said he was a brave soldier.

2pac, RIP? The rapstar may be alive and well and in Witness Protection.

The Notorious BIG contracted the hit on rival Tupac Shakur: ALERT LEVEL 6

Tupac Shakur faked his own death: ALERT LEVEL 6

Further Reading