Interest in Diddy’s alleged involvement in Tupac Shakur’s murder has spiked in the weeks since the rap mogul’s arrest.
Tupac Shakur’s family knows about Diddy’s possible ties to the rap icon’s death, and they’re investigating. Billboard reports that Shakur’s relatives have hired New York attorney Alex Spiro to look into an alleged link that Sean “Diddy” Combs might have to the late rapper’s death.
In 1996, Shakur was shot multiple times while driving in Las Vegas with former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight. Doctors attempted to treat the legendary rapper, but ultimately he succumbed to his injuries six days later, on Sept. 13, 1996. He was 25 years old. Fast forward to last year, Duane “Keefe D” Davis — a former gang leader — was arrested in connection to the shooting and charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He has a trial date of March 2025.
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Now, this is where the Diddy connection comes in… Davis has claimed that Combs made him an offer of $1 million for a hit on Shakur. The claim has since caught a lot of viral and pop-cultural popularity, with Eminem even making reference to the allegations in a recent song. “Notorious B.I.G.’s death was the domino effects of Tupac’s murder,” he raps in “Fuel” a collaboration with JID, “like facial tissue, who’s clock should I clean next? Puff’s? ‘Til he’s in police handcuffs, guilty, will he step up?”
Notably, Diddy previously denied having any connection to Shakur’s murder. “The story is a lie,” the hip-hop mogul said in a 2008 statement, following a Los Angeles Times report that alleged some of Diddy’s associates were responsible for the attack on Shakur and Knight. “It is beyond ridiculous and completely false. Neither (the late rapper Notorious B.I.G.) nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened. I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story.”
On Monday, Sept. 16, Combs was arrested by federal agents at a Manhattan hotel on kidnapping and sex trafficking charges, following an indictment by a grand jury. He has denied all the charges and allegations against him.
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