A new book presents a new theory about the two decades-old mystery surrounding the murder of the rapper Tupac Shakur. According to the book, Tupac was the victim of an assassination orchestrated by the CIA.
John Potash, in his book Drugs As Weapons Against Us , claims that Tupac was killed by the CIA in a drive-by shooting because the authorities feared he was trying to forge Los Angeles street gangs into a unified political force.
But the rap star died six days after he was shot and wounded four times on September 7, 1996, at the age of 25. Notorious B.I.G. was also murdered six months later in March 1997.
Tupac’s death generated a host of conspiracy theories, including that he survived the shooting and went into hiding. Some claimed that he faked his death and that he was hiding in Cuba.
Sensational claims murder of rapper Tupac Shakur was ‘orchestrated by CIA’ in explosive new book https://t.co/U5oGAPj72S pic.twitter.com/Z8Vwea4F6o
— The Scottish Sun (@ScottishSun) March 12, 2017
Potash argued in his book Drugs As Weapons Against Us that the CIA targeted Tupac because he was involved in politicizing the gangs. He was trying to broker peace between two major street gangs in Los Angeles, the Bloods and the Crips, according to the Sun . The authorities feared that his activity could lead to the emergence of street gangs as a powerful political force.
It is believed that Tupac and Suge Knight, the owner of Death Row Records which signed Tupac, were affiliated with the Bloods.
U.S. intelligence agencies were concerned about the growing politicization of the street gangs and Tupac was considered to be at the forefront of the movement to broker peace between the Bloods and Crips and politicize them.
The intelligence agencies feared that peace between the rival gangs Bloods and the Crips gangs under Tupac’s initiative could eventually lead to their emergence as a formidable political force.
The authorities were very concerned about Tupac’s influence and the politicizing of street gangs and they feared that the street gangs “were replacing Communism as the major subversive threat in America,” according to John Potash in his controversial book.
The murder of Tupac and later Notorious B.I.G. was in line with the policy of the intelligence agencies to counter and suppress what they believed to be the growing politicization of the street gangs.
CIA Tweeted An Odd Remark About Late Rapper Tupac Shakur, … – https://t.co/WPpwan64LU #hiphop #hiphopnews pic.twitter.com/iqWvjKPzmA
— MyHipHop (@myhiphopnet) September 22, 2016
Detective Russell Poole, who died in 2015, claimed that the shootings that led to the death of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. were well planned and orchestrated by law enforcement officers who were well-prepared, briefed, and knew exactly what to do.
A theory put forward by the former Los Angeles police detective Greg Kading, in his controversial book Murder Rap , claimed that, based on his investigations, Tupac was murdered by Compton Crip gang member Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, a few months after Sean “P Diddy” Combs offered $1 million to Anderson’s uncle Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis — also a Crips gang member — to kill Tupac and his Death Row boss, Suge Knight.
Kading went on to claim that six months after Tupac’s murder, Knight hired Bloods gang member, Wardell “Poochie” Fouse, to kill Notorious B.I.G in retaliation for Tupac’s murder.
Kading thus claimed that Tupac’s death was a contract killing orchestrated by Sean “P Diddy” Combs to eliminate his rap rival.
But Diddy has described Kading’s claim as “pure fiction and completely ridiculous.”
According to Potash, Tupac had been in the cross hairs of the law enforcement for some time before he was murdered and he had a tumultuous relationship with them. The law enforcement allegedly harassed Tupac and arrested him on multiple occasions on trumped-up charges, most of which were later dismissed.
Potash also claimed in his book that the law enforcement has a history of targeting “leftist” musicians, such as John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain.
[Featured Image by Frank Wiese/AP Images]