2pac
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The 2Pac murder investigation rabbit hole continues to get deeper and deeper. The late, great rapper’s brother Mopreme says that Diddy told him he didn’t have anything to do with the infamous murder.
TMZ is reporting that the 2Pac’s stepbrother recently spoke to The Art of Dialogue. During the interview he discussed a variety of topics related to his legendary sibling. As expected the host Art asked the former Thug Life group member about that fateful night of September 7, 1996. He went on to make a reveal that quickly went viral. The “Feels Good” rapper says that Diddy once called him to personally tell him he had nothing to do with 2Pac’s death. “The boy Puffy called me, though,” Mopreme said. “Puffy called me back in the day. He was like, ‘I just want you to know I ain’t have nothing to do with your brother’s [murder]. I know who you are, but we never met. I just want to call you man to man and let you know that I ain’t have nothing to do with your brother’s death.’”
He went on to explain that while he thought it was a noble gesture he still was seeking answers. “I told him I appreciate the call, but the truth has yet to come out, so we gon’ see,” he added. “Back then, I wanted all the information I could get. I heard what he said, but this s**t been so chaotic. Ain’t know which way to go until you found out more information. He could have been trying to cover his a**, or he could have been sincere.”
As spotted at Vibe Magazine 50 Cent has continued his attacks on Diddy. Once again he has pointed the finger of guilt at the Bad Boy Entertainment mogul as per Keffe D’s story that Puffy offered a Crip set money to kill 2Pac. In an Instagram post he shared a clip of a Keffe D interview from The Art Of Dialogue where the Compton native claims that Diddy could have showed him and crew more love. “LMAO 😆Brother Love, show some love. Damn should have just sent this fool a few dollars.” the caption read.
You can view Mopreme’s interview below.
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Source: Variety / Getty / Jada Pinkett Smith
If you hoped Jada Pinkett Smith was done talking, we are sad to report she is not.
Jada Pinkett Smith is currently on her whirlwind book tour for her memoir, Worthy, coming October 17, and recently stopped by the All The Smoke podcast to speak with hosts and former NBA hoopers Matt Barnes, and she had even more juicy nuggets to share, specifically about 2Pac.
Following the recent revelations that she and her husband, Will Smith, have been separated for years, Pinkett Smith revealed that her late bestie, 2Pac, asked for her hand in marriage during his 1995 prison stint.
Pinkett Smith believes that Pac would have kicked her to the curb the first chance he got out of prison.
Per HipHopDX:
“When I wrote about that in the book and when I had to talk about it, speak my words for the Audible version of the book, that was probably one of the more painful parts,” she said. “Seeing him there, the condition that he was in and having to leave him there. He was in bad shape. And so, when he asked me to get married, he was at Rikers [Island].
“I knew at that time that he needed somebody to do time with him, which I was gonna do anyway. He didn’t have to marry me to do that. I’m here. He needed a rock. Because of our friendship and everything we had been through together, he just wanted to feel that solidified foundation.”
She continued: “I promise you, he would’ve married me and divorced me as soon as his ass got out [of prison]. He would’ve! […] I just think it was the mind state that he was in. He wrote me this long letter, and even before ‘Pac went to jail, he was starting to shift in a certain manner. Good, really good.
“And I think that for him, he just felt like, ‘Okay, if I can tether myself, it’ll keep me on a trajectory.’ But trust me, he would’ve divorced me as soon as he — one thing he wouldn’t want me as is a wife. I know that for a fact! But I think just being at Rikers, it just kinda shook him a little.”
Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals Her & 2Pac Were Not On Speaking Terms
During their conversation, Pinkett Smith told Barnes and Jackson that she and 2Pac, whom she called her “soulmate” in a recent interview with Rolling Out, were not on speaking terms because of a heated argument.
It was only after his murder that she realized that holding onto past disputes was insignificant and that you “don’t hold on to bullsh-t. It’s not worth it.”
Welp.
You can fully expect more details to drop leading up to her memoir’s release.
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50 Cent is alleging that Diddy is the mastermind behind the killing of 2Pac, causing some rumbling online.
HipHopDX reports that Monday (Oct. 9), 50 Cent shared an Instagram post comprised of the last photo of Tupac “2Pac” Shakur as he and Suge Knight left the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996. “Damn so pac got lined by brother love,” the G-Unit leader wrote in the caption, using the name Diddy goes by for his R&B projects. “LOL Time to Lawyer up, shit might get sticky.” Diddy had not responded to the post.
There’s uncertainty as to why 50 Cent would make that claim, but he has recently trolled the Harlem-born mogul for his parties during one of his concert stops on his Final Lap tour. “That’s why I don’t be going to them Puffy parties,” he said. “Uh-uh. Ni**a hug you from the front and the back at the same time? F**k you talkin’ about? Look, if you into that, you into that, I’m fine with it. To each his own. I’m just sayin’ this ain’t my motherf**kin’ kind of party. It’s uncomfortable. I think I belong in the girls’ bathroom when sh*t like that is going on.”
There’s also been an air of speculation around Diddy since the murder that evening. The rumors have been fueled by comments made by Duane “Keefe D” Davis in a confession he made to police in 2008. At the time, the South Side Compton Crip claimed that he and Diddy discussed a deal to kill 2Pac and Suge Knight since they represented Death Row Records, who were bitterly feuding with Bad Boy Records at the time.
Davis claimed that the conversation took place at Greenblatt’s Deli in Los Angeles and that the mogul offered $1 million to “get rid of them dudes.” The 60-year-old would then tell Los Angeles Police Department officers that the Crips never received the alleged $500,000 payment from Diddy.
Davis is currently in jail in Las Vegas after being arrested for his role in the murder of 2Pac earlier this month after a grand jury indicted him. He now awaits another hearing to set the date for his trial. Diddy has passionately denied being involved in 2Pac’s death in the past.
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Jada Pinkett Smith and her connection to the late 2Pac has been well documented over the years dating back to their time as high school students in Baltimore, Md. After a man was arrested in connection to the murder of the popular rapper, Pinkett Smith has since spoken out.
Jada Pinkett Smith, 52, and Tupac Shakur were classmates at the Baltimore School for the Arts and she has shared previous factoids about their early days before their respective careers took off. With the arrest of Duane “Keefe D” Davis, Pinkett Smith shared a message to her followers by way of her Instagram story feed.
“Now I hope we can get some answers and have some closure. R.I.P. Pac, Pinkett Smith wrote along with the image of a dove.
Just prior to the arrest of Keefe D, Pinkett Smith shared an older video of her and 2Pac dancing and lip-synching to DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand” track. Of course, Pinkett Smith would go on to eventually marry the Fresh Prince, better known as Will Smith, and are the parents of children Jaden and Willow Smith.
Davis offered recent testimony that pointed to his role in the shocking drive-by shooting of 2Pac in Las Vegas.
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Director Allen Hughes frankly admits that he predicted 2Pac’s death after hearing the track “Hit Em Up” in an interview.
HipHopDX reports veteran filmmaker revealed the prediction during his time as a guest on Michael Rapaport’s podcast last week. During their conversation, the focus fell on Tupac Shakur and Hughes remembered the first time he heard the infamous track aimed at East Coast rappers. According to him, he saw the short and long-term implications of it immediately. “I remember [Interscope Records co-founder] Jimmy Iovine playing me the track before it came out and I’d go, ‘Him and 2Pac and/or Suge (Knight) would be dead in less than six months,’” the Dear Mama director stated. “And it wasn’t the words; it was the energy. It’s the power of how he did it — particularly the outro.”
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“Hit Em Up” was released in June 1996, and the song explicitly targets The Notorious B.I.G., Diddy, and Bad Boy Records, cementing its status as one of the most vicious diss tracks ever recorded in rap. Shakur would die just three months later after being shot multiple times after an altercation at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hughes also spoke about how the murder of 2Pac – and then The Notorious B.I.G. six months later – left a void in the rap game that would be filled by others who didn’t necessarily meet their skill level. “I’m not gonna name names, I’ll get in trouble with other iconic, legendary, gazillionaire rappers right now,” he said, “but when you shoot the two A+ students in the class, the C– student starts to rise to the top.” The comment led others online to speculate that he was referring to Jay-Z.
For the Menace II Society director, his friendship and subsequent work on the five-part FX documentary about the late rapper and his mother, former Black Panther Party member and revolutionary activist Afeni Shakur has given him more insight into who Tupac Shakur was. It also reinforced some thoughts he had concerning his murder, which he conveyed in an earlier interview with Linsey Davis of ABCNews. “In the community, as we know, and in the streets, there was never a mystery to who killed 2Pac,” he said at the time. “It was always about Las Vegas law enforcement closing the case on this.”
Check out the interview in full above.
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Tony Hawk is as much a pop culture icon as any, so it goes without saying that he’s crossed paths with plenty of others with the level of fame that he has, if not more. The skating legend recently shared a rare photo alongside the late Tupac “2Pac” Shakur that Hawk had digitally restored.
Tony Hawk, 55, shared the image of him and 2Pac, telling a story of how he attended an American Music Awards ceremony because his sister was performing with singer Michael Bolton. While he initially stated that the year of the photo in question was 1991, he corrected it and said that it could be from 1994.
From Tony Hawk’s IG:
I attended the American Music Awards in 1991 because my sister was there performing with Michael Bolton. While backstage, I saw Tupac standing alone and I recognized him from Digital Underground (go listen to “Same Song” for context). His first album had not dropped yet, and nobody else seemed to notice him. I took a picture of him and [Riley’s mom] Cindy, and I thought she took one of him and me. This was in the era of point-and-shoot film cameras so results were unreliable. Unfortunately I never found the photo once the roll was developed. But thanks to modern technology and maestro digital artist @_vemix_ , the image has materialized.
Hawk went on to say that 2Pac was “effusive and gracious” after meeting briefly, adding that he was the most gracious with his time out of the celebrities he met at the time. Later in the caption of the post, Hawk corrected the timeline to say the photo might be from the 1994 AMAs. If the photo was taken in 1991, 2Pac made his debut in the fall of that year with the album, 2Pacalypse Now.
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Get ready to go further down the 2Pac rabbit hole. Keefe D alleges Diddy’s hands also have blood on them.
As spotted on HipHopDX the Compton, Los Angeles native recently did an interview with The Art Of Dialogue. While he has discussing his story and involvement in the fateful night in Las Vegas that took the life of Tupac Shakur he went into more detail on how made his initial connection with the Bad Boy Entertainment mogul through an Usher music video shoot. “I met him back in ’91. He was doing an Usher video [‘Can U Get Wit It.’] They called my hydraulics place and asked to use some low-riders. So I let them use my four and we took the car up there,” he recalled.
The man born Duane Keith Davis went on to say how he regrets ever dealing with Diddy. “If I wouldn’t have ever met him, I wouldn’t have ever been involved in this bullsh*t,” he revealed. “I would’ve never met the brother. I never would’ve been involved in this bullsh*t. Me and Suge, we played on the same pop warner team and everything. My home boys helped put Suge in the game.”
He then placed some of the blame for his empire and the downfall of Deathrow Records on Diddy. “It really crashed two people’s empire in one night. Mine’s for sure — Suge’s too. [Diddy] the only one still balling. He made our sh*t go down, man… He won’t even look out or nothing. Because he pitted us against each other, which was kind of smart. We’re Crips and Suge was Bloods.”
You can view the video clip below.
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The death of Tupac “2Pac” Shakur remains unsolved but a development in the case sparked an investigation that might uncover additional details. Las Vegas police say they searched a local home and also mentioned a person of interest allegedly connected to 2Pac and his tragic passing.
Local outlet KLAS reports that Las Vegas police detectives entered a home this past Monday (July 17) after presenting a search warrant in Henderson, Nev. The warrant also had a name of an individual named Duane Davis, who also goes under the alias Keffe D.
According to sources speaking to the outlet, the warrant was to obtain any information, including notes, photos, and the like, in connection to 2Pac’s 1996 shooting death. The list of items taken from the home is not known to the public.
The home in question is currently occupied by unnamed residents who reportedly told reporters to leave their property and also seemingly threatened violence after those individuals sought to seek out any information into the search and ongoing investigation.
2Pac died after he was shot on September 7 of 1996 after leaving a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand Plaza. The rapper and actor succumbed to his wounds on September 13 of the same year.
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Tupac Shakur finally received the ultimate Hollywood honor on Wednesday (June 7), 27 years after his tragic death: a star on the Walk of Fame.
The ceremony, hosted by radio personality Big Boy, paid homage to the beloved West Coast rapper’s laundry list of achievements, within music and beyond. “Though his career lasted just five years, Tupac Shakur remains one of the most complex and prolific artists of his generation, with over 75 million records sold worldwide,” Big Boy said.
Speakers at the ceremony included Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur director Allen Hughes, Shakur’s sister Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, chairman of the board of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Matt Fritch, writer and former Black Panther Party member Jamal Joseph and more.
“When we talk about that global influence, we think of Tupac Amaru Shakur,” Joseph said during his speech. “And yes, that impactful time of the world knowing who Tupac was, was a five- or six-year period. But for everybody who knew Tupac, everybody who was here, we knew he was a star from the time he was a little boy.”
Special ceremony guests included Mike Epps, YG, Tupac’s stepbrother and fellow rapper Mopreme Shakur, Money-B and others.
Shakur’s star marks the 2,758th to grace Hollywood Boulevard. While the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce unanimously selected Tupac for star in 2013, it took a decade for it to come into fruition.
“How fitting in the year of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary that the art form’s most transcendent star is finally being placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?” Hughes asked the crowd during his speech.
In addition to Wednesday’s honor, Tupac was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April 2017. In 2015, the Grammy Museum unveiled an “All Eyez on Me” exhibit and recently, in 2022, The Canvas @ L.A. Live hosted a “Wake Me When I’m Free” immersive experience, honoring the late rapper, poet, actor and activist.
“Today, we aren’t just honoring a star on the sidewalk; we are honoring the very essence of a person who fearlessly pursued his dreams and fought to turn them into reality,” said his sister, Sekyiwa. “This is Tupac’s moment — the culmination of years of dedication and passion.
“Even before the world recognized his name, he dreamed of having a star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Sekyiwa added. “And today, the unveiling of Tupac’s star not only pays tribute to his contributions to the entertainment industry but also speaks volumes about his lasting impact, even after 25 years. I couldn’t be prouder of my brother to watch his star now shine even brighter.”
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Hip-Hop is about to add another name to the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. It has been confirmed that 2Pac will finally receive his star.
As per HipHopDX the late great will be getting one of the most prestigious decorations an entertainer can receive. Earlier this week Variety Magazine revealed that the All Eyez On Me rapper will receive the star posthumously at a ceremony slated for Wednesday, June 7. The event will be hosted by California radio personality Big Boy and Pac’s sister Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur will receive the honor on her brother’s behalf. It will be the 2,758th star in the iconic walkway. Naturally the organization instantly received some criticism that the honor was long overdue to which they responded saying “2Pac was selected in 2013, and we have been waiting for his family/estate to set a date.”
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in Harlem, New York City in 1971 and would get his entry into the music business as a dancer and roadie for Digital Underground. He would soon leave the group to pursue his own solo career. In 1991 he released his first album 2Pacalypse Now. Within the next five years he curated some of hist most influential works including Me Against The World and All Eyez On Me. After leaving a Mike Tyson boxing match on September 7, 1996 at the MGM Grand he was shot multiple times in a drive by shooting. His murder has never been officially solved by police.
2Pac is considered one of the genre’s most influential talents ever and is often cited as an inspiration by today’s biggest stars.
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