It’s almost been 20 years since the death of one of rap music’s most iconic artists, but the dark clouds surrounding Tupac’s death still remain thick.
However, almost two decades on, one former LAPD detective has made a pretty bold claim regarding the Hit Em Up rapper’s murder – and he’s pointing the finger at P Diddy, real-name Sean Combs, who was locked in a bitter feud with Pac and his label Death Row Records during the mid-90s.
According to retired detective Greg Kading, who once led a special task force that investigated both the shooting of Tupac and of his close rival Biggie Smalls, it was P Diddy who was responsible for hiring the shooter who gunned down Pac and Suge Knight’s car on September 7, 1996, as they stopped at traffic lights on the world famous Las Vegas Boulevard.
In a new documentary, former detective Kading claims that Diddy paid Crips gang hitman Duane Keith ‘Keffe D’ Davis $1million to kill both Tupac and his Death Row records manager, Suge Knight.
However, Kading claims it was actually Keffe’s nephew, Orlando Anderson, who pulled the trigger on that fatal night following a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The documentary in question, entitled ‘Murder Rap’, features an interview with Keffe from 2008, in which he claims to have heard Diddy tell a room full of Crips gang members he would ‘give anything for Pac and Suge Knight’s heads’, and goes on to say that Diddy later offered him $1million to kill the infamous pair.
According to Kading, he managed to ‘trap’ Keffe into confessing about Shakur’s murder by offering him a lighter sentence for another crime.
However, in another twist, Kading claims that in retaliation to Tupac’s murder, Suge Knight hired a rival Blood gang hitman by the name of Wardell ‘Poochie’ Fouse to gun down Diddy’s long-time friend and prize asset, Biggie Smalls aka The Notorious BIG – and it only cost him $13,000, as apposed to Diddy’s alleged $1million bounty.
Since their deaths, conspiracy theories and accusations were, and are still, rife regarding who killed both rappers and why – but one thing is for sure, two talented musicians became the victims of an all-out war between the East and West Coast.
Other conspiracy theories include the theory that Biggie was killed by corrupt police officers, or more specifically, David Mack, a former LA police officer who in 1997 was sentenced to 14 years for armed robbery in which £722,000 was stolen.
And the most popular one by a landslide, and by far the most insulting, is the theory that Pac is still alive, and faked his own death. I’m sure you’ve looked into that one…
We will probably never get the legitimate answers for the deaths of two of rap’s greatest, but it’s important to remember their legacies, and whether you enjoyed their music or not, we can never ignore the impact they had on a generation – and how in their later years, wanted to spread a more positive message.
