Tupac by Tony Combs

The death of Tupac Shakur has been a conspiracy for more than ten years. Tupac was a famous rapper who did not fear anything and felt free to express his feelings. He was murdered in Las Vegas Nevada at the age of twenty five years old in year of 1996, after watching boxer Mike Tyson in the MGM Grand. The MGM Grand is where major events take place, such as boxing events. Cameras showed Tupac Shakur and his friends get into an altercation with gang member rivals in the building of the MGM. Just fifteen minutes after the altercation, he was shot multiple times in the middle of the road while in his vehicle then he was rushed to the hospital. At the time, Tupac and rapper Biggie Smalls’ were rivals. Some say Biggie Smalls’ the signee of Bad Boy Records had something to do with his death. Even though it could not be proven. Less than a year later Biggie Smalls was killed as well. Tupac Shakur’s manager Suge Knight and ex owner of Death Row Records said Tupac is not dead. He moved away to live in peace and to avoid prison (Suge Knight).

            Tupac Shakur believed in getting pay back, rather if it were physically or verbally. Once he recovered from his bullet wounds his friends and himself went to one of Biggie Smalls’ album promoting parties in California. Where he had tried to get to Biggie but a gun was drawn on him by one of his security guards (Notorious). After that every chance Tupac had to “diss” Biggie Smalls’ he did it. Prior to that situation where the gun was drawn on him he had previously made a “diss” track

saying things about biggie smalls, his wife, his kids and all of his friends Biggie Smalls’ hanged around. He never had any intentions on attempting to become friends with someone who he has already disliked. Once he didn’t like someone there was no turning back (Shakur). He considered himself as a “thug” and others saw him as one as well. On Tupac’s stomach he had tattoos that said Thug Life, a tattoo of a machine gun, and a tattoo that said M.O.B. He had many more tattoos but those were the main one that were really noticed by the public (Shakur, Tupac Amaru). He would also use the words of his tattoos in his songs often (Shakur, Tupac).

            Biggie Smalls said in the movie Notorious; “you never knew which side of Tupac you were going to get, if you ask ten different people what kind of guy Pac is, you would get ten different answers” (Notorious). Tupac was the type who did not care what others thought about him and his crew felt that they could not be touched.

If Tupac or his crew did not get their way in situations or thought someone was trying to get over them involving money, there were always consequences. Tupac’s manager Suge Knight was just as crazy and they were always together. Suge Knight was an ex body guard, who was known for bullying people to get what he wanted. Which reflected on Tupac, rumors say Tupac did not completely change when he was signed by Death Row but his level of craziness did change a little. Suge Knight had a numerous amount of friends that were just as a bully as he was, they were labeled by the name of Death Row but they were also known as gang members that made themselves known as “Bloods” as well.

 There were rumors going around that Tupac was ready to leave his current label “Death Row” because he felt has if his share of money was not what it was supposed to be. He never spoke on wanting to leave Death Row but his close friends always said he did in interviews they spoke in (Walker). They also spoke on his only way out of Death Row was if Tupac was to die. People say Tupac wanted to leave the record label the same reason Dr. Dre wanted to. Dr. Dre wanted to leave Death Row because of all the violence the record label caused plus the money he was promised that he somehow never received (Straight Outta Compton). Shortly after Dr. Dre parted with record label “N.W.A.” he lost everything he had and didn’t have money to feed himself and his family. After months of struggling Suge Knight came along and signed Dr. Dr. Dre to Death Row (Straight Outta Compton).

Although before Dr. Dre was signed by Death Row, Suge Knight would give Dr. Dre money for him and his girlfriend to survive (Straight Outta Compton). He also let them travel with him to different Countries and States. Once he was finally signed Dr. Dre felt he could not let Suge down because he took care of him and his family when they did not have anything. Suge also felt Dr. Dre owed him, because of the money he had given him. He felt he had power over Dr. Dre and make him do what he wanted and talk to him any kind of way. One day Dr. Dre had enough of the terrible things Suge Knight was doing and tried to talk to him about it but Suge did not want to hear his opinion. Dr. Dre wanted to leave the label and made it known he did not want to be a part of Death Row Records anymore.

Suge Knight the owner of Death Row was always the instigator of their team (Straight Outta Compton). He always made sure he got his way; if he didn’t, he knew he could bully someone into getting what he wanted. He has bullied many people out of record deal contracts, money and many more things. Tupac’s friends spoke on why he never said publicly way he wanted to leave Death Row. They said he never complained to the media about wanting to leave because he felt as if he owed Suge Knight for always having his back and bailing him out of jail, spending thousand and thousand of dollars. Suge Knight first bailed Tupac out of jail when he was signed by label by the name of the “Out Laws”.

Around the time Tupac was signed to Death Row Records by Suge Knight, he was going through a lot, which was why the first conspiracy theory is when Suge Knight said Tupac moved away to avoid going back to prison for being guilty of a rape case.

Tupac had recently got shot five times while being robbed. Just a few days after he survived the five bullets wounds, he was announced guilty of a sex abuse charge and was sent to jail immediately. When he was bailed out of jail, Tupac immediately became better friends with Suge Knight than they were before. Tupac knew if he attempted to try anything with anyone he disliked it probably would not have went his way. It was pretty obviously Tupac knew if he had Suge Knight and the rest of Death Row Records behind him that he could be untouchable.

When Tupac was released from jail he went for everybody he didn’t like. He said Biggie Smalls set him up (Notorious), which started commotion between both of them. Biggie Smalls found it hard to believe that Tupac would have thought he would have set him up. What really put the icing on the cake is the song Biggie Smalls wrote a few days after Tupac had gotten shot. The name of the song was “Who shot ya”.

The second conspiracy theory is Biggie Smalls’ setting Tupac up to get killed because he made a song called named “Who shot ya”.  When that song was released and played on the radio, it took their problems to another level. When Biggie Smalls’ found out Tupac accused him of setting him up he had all radio stations stop playing the song hoping the drama would calm down. Fans and labels began to choose sides. Tupac represented the “West Coast” and Biggie Smalls represented the “East Coast”. According to (Notorious) the day Tupac had gotten shot five times Biggie Smalls tried to visit him at the hospital, but doctors and family would not let any members of Bad Boy Records in for visitation.

          When Tupac was bonded out of jail by Suge Knight, he immediately went after everyone who was signed to Bad Boy records, making a song called “Hit ‘Em up” (Notorious). After the song was released, it made the madness between both record labels get worse than it was. The media and magazines did everything they could to keep the East Coast and West Coast rivalry going. In the “Hit ‘Em Up” diss track, Tupac let all of his anger go on the entire Bad Boy Record label saying he’s had sexual conflict with Biggie Smalls’ wife. How he would kill everyone signed with Bad Boy Records including their kids. (Shakur, Tupac Amaru). At this point, there was no sitting down and talking about it. Tupac wanted physical contact with every signee of Bad Boy. Their situation and anger had gone too far to sit down and talk things out. From that point on, Death Row members began to appear at Biggie Smalls’ concerts making it known by holding signs and sending life threatening phones calls to Biggie Smalls’ phone (Notorious).

While the whole East Coast vs. West Coast was going on, Tupac still had to deal with being accused of raping a woman. In court, Tupac said “the judge and jury did not want to hear anything I had to say (Outside Court). This case isn’t about me anymore, it’s all based off of my Thug Life tattoos and what I chose to say in my lyrics” (Shakur, Tupac) It was pretty obvious to Tupac that he had no chance in winning the rape case. He then did not say a word for many days of being in court. When he finally spoke, the last words he said to the judge was “I am not getting a fair share I can see so you can give me however much time you want to give me, because I am not in your hands I am in god’s hands” (Walker).

 Suge Knight spoke on Tupac faking his death. He says he knew how Tupac thinks, and the last thing Tupac wanted to do was go to prison (Suge Knight). He said Tupac would have rather died than go back to prison. Suge Knight told the reporter Tupac moved away to live in peace and to avoid all of the charges he had been accused of (Suge Knight Reveals That Tupac Shakur “faked His Death”). He also said he paid a guy to cremate Tupac and after he paid the guy who supposedly cremated him he retired and was never seen again. In the survey results of my two conspiracy theories, more people believed Tupac moved away to live a peaceful life than the people who believed Biggie Smalls’ set him up to be killed.

Did Biggie Smalls set Tupac up after that fighting altercation at the MGM Grand, or did he really move away to avoid going to jail and to live a normal life like Suge Knight spoke in an interview? The conspiracy’s remains unknown.

                                                                    Work Cited

Notorious. Dir. George Tilman. 2009. DVD.

Outside Court '94, Full Interview. Screenplay by 2 PAC. 2012.

Shakur, Tupac A. "Tupac Shakur - 5 Prophecies Fulfilled In His Music." HipHopDX. 2 Apr.     2001. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

Shakur, Tupac. "WordPress.com: Create a Free Website or Blog." WordPress.com. Escobar Rivera, 28 Nov. 2010. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.

Shakur, Tupac Amaru. "2Pac - Hit 'Em Up (Dirty) (Official Video) HD." YouTube. YouTube, 4 June 1996. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.

Straight Outta Compton. Dir. F. Gary. Perf. O'shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Michell. 2015. Film.

Suge Knight Reveals That Tupac Shakur “faked His Death”. Screenplay by Suge Knight. 2015.

Walker Natasha About: 2Pac Didn't Like Death Row & 2pac Acting Different at Death Row.   Screenplay by Natasha Walker. 2014.