It’s been over two decades since the untimely murders of hip-hop legends; Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls aka The Notorious B.I.G. Both cases have remained unsolved, yet so many conspiracy theories arise into how and who actually killed them. Now a new documentary is shedding light into the cold cases, and the LAPD may have some answers.
Murder Rap: Inside The Biggie and Tupac Murders, explores the two decade old murders. The new documentary features Greg Kading; a retired LAPD detective who was assigned to both cases. The documentary is based on his 2011 book of the same name.
Shakur and Death Row Records owner Marion “Suge” Knight were leaving the Bruce Sheldon/Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, when later on that night a white four-door late model Cadillac pulled right beside the the sedan that Knight and Shakur were driving, firing a spray of bullets. Both Knight and Shakur were wounded in the attack, though Shakur would succumb to his injuries seven days later. Though conspiracy theorist’s claim throughout the years that Shakur faked his death.
The Huffington Post reported the following.
“Based on his three years working the cases, Kading claims that Sean ‘Diddy’Combs hired Crips gang member Duane Keith ‘Keffe D’ Davis to kill Shakur and his manager, Marion Hugh ‘Suge’ Knight, for $1 million. He alleges that on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Keffe D’s nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, pulled the trigger. Only Shakur was killed.”
Kading also believes Knight in retaliation, hired gang member Wardell “Poochie” Fouse, to kill Biggie for $13,000. Biggie was murdered six months after Shakur when a dark colored Chevrolet Impala SS pulled alongside the SUV that Biggie was riding in, firing four shots into the rapper. Biggie was leaving a Soul Train Awards afterparty, which Combs also attended.
After Small’s mother Violetta Wallace sued the LAPD in federal court in a wrongful death lawsuit, The LAPD assigned Kading to reinvestigate both murders in 2006. According to Kading’s claims, his investigation team had enough evidence to clear the LAPD of any wrongdoing but found evidence that Combs may have been the mastermind in the death of Shakur. Kading explained that the LAPD decided against filing charges against Combs due to his celebrity status.
The Daily Mail reported the following.
“A 2008 interview with Keffe… Claims to have heard Diddy declared in a room full of Crips members that he’d ‘give anything for Pac and Suge Knight’s heads.’”
Many believed that both murders were a part of the infamous West Coast vs. East Coast feud that had involved both rappers. On November 30, 1994, Shakur was shot was robbed and shot six times by three men in the lobby of the Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan. Shakur would go on to accuse Combs and Biggie Smalls of setting up the robbery/shooting in a 1995 interview in Vibe magazine. In 2011 Dexter Isaac would later admit to being apart of the attack.
The Huffington Post also states the following.
“Over the course of investigating, Kading says that he essentially trapped Keffe D into a situation where he had to give a verifiable confession about the events that led to Shakur’s murder or else face severe charges for another crime.”
“‘If his intention was to just get away with it, so to speak,’ Kading told HuffPost, ‘it would have been very easy for him to not include all the details that he did.’”
“These extra details, according to the documentary, include the allegation that Combs hired Keffe D for the crime.”
In 2010, Combs was asked on a radio show about Kading’s claims to which Combs responded “those are street issues.” The following year Combs told LA Weekly that the claims were “pure fiction and completely ridiculous.”
Murder Rap: Inside The Biggie and Tupac Murders is available on iTunes and will be available on Netflix in the spring.
[Header photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for iHeartMedia]