Tupac Amaru Shakur Dies At 25

By: wikipedia
On September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After the boxing match, Shakur spotted twenty-one year-old Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a member of the Southside Crips in the MGM Grand lobby. Shakur rushed him and knocked Anderson down, and Shakur's entourage beat him. The incident was captured on the hotel's video surveillance. Anderson and a group of Crips had beaten up a member of Death Row's entourage in a Foot Locker store a few weeks earlier, precipitating Shakur's attack. After the fight with Anderson, Shakur met up with Suge Knight to go to Death Row-owned Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven). Shakur rode with Knight in Knight's 1996 black BMW 750i sedan as part of a larger convoy of cars including some of Shakur's friends, The Outlawz, and bodyguards.

At approximately 11:10 p.m., Suge pulled over to an intersection by another vehicle so Shakur could exchange words with the two unidentified women in the other vehicle and invite them to go to the club with them. At approximately 11:15 p.m., while stopped at the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, Shakur was shot several times in a drive-by shooting. Shakur was struck by four bullets out of the twelve shots that were fired at him; he was hit twice in the chest, and once each in his left arm and thigh, while Knight was grazed in the head by a piece of flying glass.

At the time of the shooting, Shakur was riding alongside with Suge Knight, with his bodyguard following behind in a vehicle belonging to Kidada Jones, Shakur's then-fiancée. The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with the rapper in Suge Knight's car, Shakur asked him to drive Kidada Jones' car instead just in case they were too drunk and needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to the hotel. Shortly after the shootings, the bodyguard reported in his documentary, Before I Wake, that one of the convoy's cars drove off after the assailant but he never heard back from the occupants.

After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Shakur and Knight to the University Medical Center. According to one of Shakur's closest friends and music video director Gobi, while at the hospital he received news that the shooters were sending death threats aimed at Shakur. Apparently one of Death Row's marketing employees received a call from the shooters, who told him they were coming to the hospital to kill Shakur. After Gobi heard what happened, he immediately alerted the Las Vegas police, but the police were understaffed and no one could be sent.[34] Although the shooters never came to the hospital, Shakur was later placed on life support until his death six days later, on September 13, 1996, at 4:03 p.m. PDT at the age of twenty-five. The official cause of death was respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. After his death, Shakur's body was cremated. His ashes were spread over Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean, Shakur's aunt's land, and his mother's land in North Carolina, and some was mixed with cannabis and smoked by The Outlawz.[35] Family and friends plan to spread the remaining ashes during a ceremony in Soweto, South Africa. The ceremony was delayed from September 13, 2006 to June 16, 2007, which would have been Shakur's 36th birthday.[36]

Due largely to the perceived lack of progress on the case by law enforcement, many independent investigations and theories of the crime have emerged. Because of the acrimony between Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G.) and Shakur, there was speculation from the outset about the possibility of Wallace's involvement in the murder. Wallace vehemently denied involvement. However, in a notable 2002 investigation by the Los Angeles Times, writer Chuck Phillips claimed to have uncovered evidence implicating Wallace, in addition to Anderson and the Southside Crips, in the murder.[37] In the article, Phillips quoted unnamed gang-member sources who claimed Wallace had ties to the Crips, often hiring them for security during West Coast appearances. Phillips' informants also state that Wallace gave the gang members one of his own guns for use in the attack on Shakur, and that he put out a $1 million contract on Tupac's life. By the time Phillips' specific allegations were published, however, Wallace himself had been murdered.[38]

Wallace's family and associates have vehemently denied Wallace's involvement in Shakur's death.[39] In support of their claims, Wallace's family submitted documentation to MTV indicating that Wallace was working in a New York recording studio the night of Shakur's murder. Wallace's manager Wayne Barrow and rapper James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd made public announcements denying Wallace's involvement in the murder and claiming further that they were both with Wallace in the recording studio the night of the shooting.

The high profile nature of the killing and ensuing gang violence caught the attention of British filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made the documentary film Biggie & Tupac which examines the lack of progress in the case by speaking to those close to Wallace, Shakur, and the investigation. Shakur's close childhood friend and member of The Outlawz, Yafeu "Yaki Kadafi" Fula, was in the convoy when the shooting happened and indicated to police that he might be able to identify the assailants. He was killed shortly thereafter in a housing project in Irvington, New Jersey.[40]

In the first few seconds of the song "Intro/Bomb First (My Second Reply)" on the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Shakur can be heard saying "Shoulda shot me".[41][42] Many theorists mistook the statement as "Suge shot me" or "Suge shot 'em" until confirmation by multiple audio tests and confirmation from members of The Outlawz. This, along with reports of Knight's strong-arm tactics with artists and other illegal business tactics including involvement with the Mob Piru Bloods street gang gave rise to a theory that Knight was complicit in Shakur's murder, as it was reported that Suge Knight owed Tupac up to seventeen million dollars in back royalties, but no evidence has been provided to support this theory.

Other theories have been put forth, including a conspiracy theory that Shakur is alive and well, but in hiding. Many supporters of these theories point to the symbolism in Shakur's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album and in the video for the single "I Ain't Mad at Cha". Efforts exposing these conspiracy theories include 2Pac Lives The Death of Makaveli / The Resurrection of Tupac Amaru (Volume 1) released in 2005.

A new DVD, titled, Tupac Revelation will be released on September 7, 2007, eleven years after the shooting. It will explore the murder and provide new information about the murder case with the help of Shakur's bodyguard, Frank Alexander.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur
:blink: R.I.P. man....

 

i think most of us said RIP 11 years ago....

 

Since tyro lol'ed I'll lawl too

 

.... 11 years later.

I seriously just lol'd though.

 

bit late for that

 

1 more tupac thread and i'll rape a cactus

 

nuff said^

 

HE DEAD LOL HAS BIN FOR YEARZ

 

R.I.P yeah..

 

i just dont even care anymore

 

seriously...

i got over my grandparents dying the day after they both drowned in their own blood (stomach alcers are nasty things kids).

One more of these stupid godamm topics and im gonna go post and kill some more tone deaf rappers!

 

UMMM WTF IS THIS...

As for raping a cactus... I just mite have to make one just to see if youll do it

 

Some one stabb this guy.

TUPAC A KING but we all know he died that last 50,000 threads said the same thign we know the story post somehting new.

How about The murder of BIG L, BIG PUN or B.I.G geez.

 

he was great , but this is point less reali , ive herd this watched videos on you tube tryin to say hes not dead

 

lol