ionigeria.com Nigerian Newspaper
A BOMBSHELL new documentary could finally reveal the truth behind the slayings of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious BIG.
Tupac was gunned down on the Las Vegas strip in September 1996 while his rival nicknamed Biggie was killed in California six months later.
Both murders have sparked conspiracy theories and remain unsolved.
However, filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made 2002 film Biggie and Tupac, says the jailing of record mogul Suge Knight has prompted witnesses to come forward.
Knight was with Tupac when he was shot following a Mike Tyson fight in Vegas dying six days later.
Yet, it’s his alleged involvement in the murder of Biggie – real name Christopher Wallace – which Broomfield explores in the new doc Last Man Standing.
Broomfield says he discovered that the mogul’s company Death Row Records was a firm entrenched in violence and misogny.
And after Knight was jailed for 28 years in 2018 for the manslaughter of an associate, the filmmaker found that witnesses were more willing to talk to him about Biggie’s death.
The accusations that corrupt LAPD officers were previously made by former cop Russell Poole – a lead investigator in Biggie’s murder.
The LAPD denied the allegations that corrupt officers were involved in the rapper’s murder when approached by Sky News.
Suge Knight has also denied any involvement in the murders of Biggie or Tupac.
Broomfield says he wanted to return to the subject following Poole’s death and Knight’s jailing.
“Over the 20 years, there were certain developments… Suge Knight went to prison and a lot of people were prepared to come forward and say things that they were never going to say before.”
The Tupac murder appears to be more straight forward. The rapper was caught on CCTV on the day he was shot beating up a gang member in a Vegas hotel.
Tupac was shown launching kicks at the head of Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson a member of the Southside Crips – the rival crew to Knight’s Bloods gang.
Broomfield agrees that it was Anderson who shot the rapper.
“I think there’s no doubt,” he said.
The British filmmaker says the murder of Biggie is more complex.
“They were two very different events. I think the car that Tupac was in had 15 bullets going into it, so it was just a normal gangbanger kind of shooting. The other one was very orchestrated – and that’s the one that involved the LAPD.”
Biggie was killed when the driver of a dark Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up alongside his SUV at a red traffic light and opened fire.
His autopsy – released 15 years after his death – showed only the final gunshot was fatal.
One theory suggests Biggie was killed by mistake and that Sean Combs, aka Puff Daddy, was the original target of the shooter.
Leaked FBI documents reveal record producer Puffy – now known as P Diddy – had received multiple death threats and his security guard confronted a man who had approached his car just moments before the shooting.
Retired FBI agent Phil Carson, who probed Biggie’s murder, said: “Based on all the interviews, all the evidence, on the photos, everything, there was police involvement and Suge Knight financed a retaliation for people killing Tupac, and his intention… he had a major beef with Puffy.”
Carson’s said Knight was motivated by ego and lashed out against Puffy and Biggie following the death of his biggest star and “cash cow” Tupac.
He said: “Suge, he ruled with an iron fist and he has an ego bigger than the Pacific Ocean.
“And when he saw his number one talent, his big cash cow, get killed in Vegas, that’s when he put things into motion.”
