What Really Happened to Tupac Shakur & Biggie Smalls? (Part 1) 28:42

Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel and this video is about to be very long and very confusing because we are talking about one of the world's most confusing unsolved cases of all time and that is the death of the notorious big and Tupac Shakur these deaths are both technically unsolved and

These are two of the most infamous murders in history and it is extremely interesting just the entire background of hip-hop music culture in this time in America and how all this played out and there's a lot of Conspiracy a lot of corrupt police involved in this so it's definitely one that's gonna take me two parts to explain because there's a lot that I think people just don't know about it

So this is Tupac Shakur. He was born on June 16th of 1971 in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. I want to point out that he was a Gemini and oh my gosh, he fits the Gemini personality so well. He was extremely intelligent, very quick witted, not to mention a lot of Geminis are rappers. He had that drive.

had that insane genius creativity and he was a poet and incredible lyricist. His parents were named Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland and they were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 60s and the early 70s. Tupac actually didn't know who his father was for a long time. His mother lied to him and told him that he was dead but he really wasn't. Sadly life for Tupac was really difficult when he was

growing up. His mother was definitely addicted to drugs and really struggling to get by. As a child, he spent time in and out of shelters and honestly, they didn't always have the greatest relationship. There's many reports of them having times where they didn't speak to each other or having like huge blowout fights, but nonetheless, Tupac was extremely loyal to his mother and loved her very much. He wrote songs about her.

He also had an older stepbrother and a half-sister. And in 1986, the family moved from New York to Baltimore, Maryland. And after completing his second year at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School, Tupac transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts.

And he was a really good student there. I mean, he was very very talented there He studied acting poetry jazz and ballet He won all types of rap competitions and was definitely considered to be the best rapper slash lyricist in the school Tupac was also known for being really into acting for entertaining people. He was really funny Oh

And he ended up being one of the most popular kids in the school. He was well known. Like everyone that went there knew him. What's so funny? What's your name?

Especially after he was famous, but even before then, he was very, very well liked, very loved. Here is one of his former teachers talking about him, and this guy was kind of like a father figure to him. He was just on all the time.

and with an incredibly contagious personality. I think people were just drawn to him right away. He had charisma. He had a fantastic smile, lit up his whole face. Then in 1988, Tupac and his family moved from Baltimore to Marin City, California. He attended a high school in nearby Mill Valley, and he contributed to the school's drama department by performing in several different productions. My name is Tupac Shakur, and I attend Tamar Pie High School.

And I'm 17 years old. And it's like, 17 is such a weird age. It's such an in-the-middle age. You're not 18 yet, and you're older than 16. Well, 18 will bring lots of responsibilities that I don't want, bring respect that I feel like it's the only way I can get it. You know, I try to be as mature as I can be and demand it wherever I can get it. But 18 is like, you're an adult.

Like today, when I had to sign the release form, I felt so bad because I couldn't sign it myself. I had to go and get my mother's and all that. But 18 is...

It's just society's way of saying that you're ready. I chase girls and want the car and loud music, but I like to think of myself as really being socially aware and not just socially aware as being trendy. Before he started using the rap name Tupac, he actually started with the name MC New York, which is what he kind of used to get his rap career started in Baltimore.

And even though he already started recording some of his songs in 1987, he actually didn't take off in his full career until 1990. And that's when he debuted in Digital Underground's same song from the soundtrack of the 1991 film Nothing But Trouble. The song was later released as the lead song of the Digital Underground extended EP, and that was a follow up to their debut hit album Sex Packets. And Tupac was actually featured in the accompanying music video.

After that song debuted, he performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons of the P. Tupac went on to feature Chalk G and Money B from Digital Underground in his track I Get Around, which ranked number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100. So needless to say, he was starting to become popular. Back to get ready.

In 1995, Tupac became the founder of a group called the Outlaws. Now let's switch it up a little bit and talk about Biggie. So Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York City on May 21st of 1972. Shocking. Another rapper that's a Gemini.

He was actually the only child of his parents, Valetta Wallace and Selwyn George Latour. His father left the family when Biggie was only two years old and his mom was working two jobs while raising him. So it was definitely not a walk in the park for him growing up, but it wasn't as bad as he made it seem either, which was really interesting to me. There was a specific line in one of his songs where he was talking about how he lived in a one bedroom place. ♪ Thinking back on my one room shack ♪ ♪ Now my mom ♪

and it actually was uh kind of an alter ego an exaggeration of how poor he was like don't get me wrong he wasn't well off but his family wasn't doing as badly as he portrayed himself once he was famous uh here's a clip of his mom talking a little bit more about that well to me that's a part of an alter ego

That's the rags to riches person that he wants to sing about. But since she was a single mother, he and his mom became incredibly close. Tupac and Biggie were both really known for being very close with their mothers. When Biggie was younger, he did extremely well in school. He attended Queen of All Saints Middle School and he excelled there, winning several awards as an English student. And he was nicknamed "Big" because, well, he was big. However,

However, he grew up in a rough area and he started dealing drugs around age 12. His mom who was often, you know, at work trying to survive as a single mom did not know that he was getting into this type of world or selling drugs. But Biggie really found his love with rapping. He was very talented from a young age and he started rapping as a teenager, entertaining people on the streets and performing just with like local groups.

♪♪

Eventually Biggie transferred to George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education School where future rappers like DMX, Jay-Z, and Busta Rhymes were also attending. According to his mother, Biggie was still a good student but developed a smart-ass attitude at this new school. Sadly, at only age 17, he ended up dropping out of school and got more involved with the world of crime.

of crime. In 1989, he was arrested on a weapons charge in Brooklyn and sentenced to five years of probation. In 1990, he was arrested again on a violation of his probation. And then a year later, he was arrested in North Carolina for dealing crack cocaine. And he spent nine months in jail before making bail.

And then in 1991, after being released from jail, Biggie actually released his first demo tape and named it Biggie Smalls. Now, apparently, it is reported that Biggie had no real intentions of getting a deal out of this tape. It was literally just for fun. However, it was promoted by a New York-based DJ called Mr. C. And then he decided to make another recording off the back of this success.

This demo tape was heard by Uptown Records, A&R, and record producer Sean Combs, aka Puff Daddy or P. Diddy as he's known today as Diddy, host of The Four. Hey, how you doing? And he just saw something in Biggie that he just felt was really special. He arranged a meeting with him right away and he ended up getting signed to Uptown immediately.

But soon after starting his recording contract, Diddy ended up getting fired from Uptown. And that is when he started Bad Boy Records.

Now I'm probably gonna end up calling Puff Diddy, P. Diddy, I don't know. I'm probably gonna call him like a billion different names in this because he's, I don't know, he goes by like seven names. So as soon as Diddy left Uptown, he started Bad Boy Records and immediately Biggie was signed to that. And then on August 8th of 1993, Biggie's longtime girlfriend gave birth to their first child, Tyana. Biggie actually had split with Tyana's mother

a little bit before her birth, but he absolutely loved his daughter. And even though he didn't finish his education, he wanted her to get a good education. He promised to give her everything that she wanted, but at the time he wasn't doing well enough to support her and, you know, make sure on this promise. So he ended up selling drugs again, just to put food on the table.

Later in the year, Biggie gained exposure after being featured on a remix to Mary J. Blige's single, Real Love. Real Love actually peaked at number one on Billboard Top 100 chart. In April of 1993, his solo track, Party and Bullshit, appeared on the Who's the Man soundtrack. Ready to Die was released on September 13th of 1994, and it reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 chart and was eventually certified four times platinum.

And all this attention actually shifted the attention back to East Coast hip-hop where West Coast was really dominating the hip-hop scene before. So how did these two men on the rise in hip-hop, you know, who came from very humble backgrounds end up dead? What is up with this beef between Biggie and Tupac and how to get started? Because there was a time where they were good friends. You know what the hoes gonna rock, man. Oh!

Homies out here like Spike Lee. They got the camera and tags on toes. Watching the stash grow. Clocking the cash flow. The neighborhood grave digger. Police come, I'm leaving. Peace and love. Well, the main feud here was fans and artists of West Coast hip-hop versus fans and artists of East Coast hip-hop.

And how did that begin? Why does it matter which side of the country you're making music from? Biggie was an East Coast rapper signed with Bad Boy Records and P. Diddy. And Tupac was a West Coast rapper signed to Death Row Records, which was a record label owned by Suge Knight. And Biggie and Tupac were not always enemies. At first, Biggie would open for Tupac at shows and stuff.

and they seem to have each other's back. However, they finally had a dispute and after this, shit started to go down. So here's the tea. On November 30th of 1994, Tupac was beaten and shot during a robbery at a recording studio in New York. Crime was officially classified as a robbery and the police dropped their investigation when Tupac failed to cooperate. That situation with me is like what comes around goes around. Karma.

Sean Combs and Biggie were also in the same building when the robbery went down. For some reason, this made Tupac think that the robbery was set up by

by Biggie and Sean. And basically, Tupac accused Biggie publicly of being involved in this robbery. Did you say that Biggie visited him at the hospital when you, uh... Yes, he did. And he introduced himself to me. I thought it was quite nice. He didn't seem like he had anything to do with what had just happened. I didn't think anything of it at the time.

So the real beef here is between Suge Knight and P. Diddy because they own these two record labels and it was really the labels going at each other.

There's even one specific moment in history where shit really started to go down. And it was at an award show where Suge Knight got on stage and said, "If you want a producer that's not gonna get in your music videos, that's not gonna wanna be on your track, AKA Diddy, come to Death Row Records." - Any artist out there wanna be an artist and wanna stay a star, don't wanna have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the video, all on the record, dancing, come to Death Row.

This did not go over well with the audience Snoop Dogg ended up getting involved getting on stage the East Coast on my back address Snoop Dogg the East Coast ain't got no love for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Death Row yada yada

And that was, you know, Snoop Dogg when he was way young and way immature. I don't think he would ever, ever get into that kind of stuff now because he was all about like peace and love. I'm the executive producer that a comment was made about a little bit earlier. Contrary to what other people may feel, I would like to say that I'm very proud of Dr. Dre, of Death Row, and Shoot the Night for their accomplishments. You know what I'm saying?

Shortly after the shooting, "Who Shot Ya?" which was a B-side track from Biggie's "Big Papa" single was released.

And although Combs and Wallace denied having anything to do with the shooting and stated that Who Shot Ya? had been previously recorded, Tupac and the majority of the hip hop community interpreted this as Biggie's way of taunting him. So the day after Tupac was shot at the studio and survived that shooting, he was required to show up at the courthouse because he was facing sexual assault charges from the year before. He ended up getting convicted and was sentenced to prison.

While Tupac was in prison, he wasn't able to come up with the money to post his bail. This is when Suge Knight came into the picture. Suge Knight is a record producer and is currently serving a 28 year sentence for voluntary manslaughter. He was the co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records. Suge Knight and Tupac basically made a deal while Tupac was in jail that Tupac would do three songs for Death Row Records in exchange for him to bail him out of jail.

After eight months, Tupac's case was appealed and Death Row head Suge Knight promptly bailed Tupac out of jail and took the opportunity to sign him to Death Row Records. If you come to Death Row, you will see your art brought to a bigger plateau and you will

tupac turned his troubles into a career that was bigger than ever his double album death row debut all eyes on me sold more than five million copies scored a number one single and included tracks with new label mates snoop doggie dog tracks with new label mates snoop doggie dog and dr dre and dr dre out of jail california dreaming soon as i step on the scene i'm hearing screaming when

With three years past and Snoop's last solo release and the departure of Death Row co-founder Dr. Dre to start his own label, Tupac became Death Row's artistic centerpiece, as well as its biggest mouthpiece. Death Row and Tupac shared a common enemy, the New York-based Bad Boy Entertainment. Tupac had earlier implicated Bad Boy producer Sean Puffy Combs and star artist The Notorious B.I.G. in his 1994 shooting. Bad Boy Records. That's for Bad Boy Records. I love y'all.

But despite his taunts, Tupac realized danger could be around the corner. He recorded 67 tracks in 11 months. We only got two weeks to do this whole album.

completing mix it down and everything we don't have time or the luxury to spend all this time doing one song we don't have it we gotta somehow find a way that we could double up on it because i did my whole album i know it ain't all of that but i did my whole album like three songs a day but for while we in here and you got every you got like eight rappers here and everybody drinking and smoking and shit man get

Get that beat poppin'. So after signing with Death Row Records in LA, Tupac was kind of escalating the feud between him and Biggie even more. Tupac released a song called Hit Em Up, which is known now to be one of the most famous diss tracks in rap history. And in the song, he bragged about sleeping with Biggie's wife and also threatened to kill members of Bad Boy Records. So the feud was just, just boiling up. You might be deceased, you'll snatch your ugly ass off the streets.

And then in July of 1996, a group of Crip members ran into some Bloods, their rival gang at a mall. Suge Knight was associated with the Bloods and one of the Bloods that was in the group was a man named Trevon Lane, who was a good friend of Suge's. Now Trevon was wearing a Death Row Records medallion. Now he only, Suge Knight only gave these out to people who were like really special to him and it was very, very hard to get one. And one of the Crips that was there

was a guy named Orlando Anderson. And it was rumored that P Diddy was actually offering up $5,000 to anyone who could get one of those medallions off of someone's neck. All right, so let's finally get into the day of Tupac's death. It was September 7th, 1996.

And Tupac and Shugnay were at the MGM Grand in Vegas watching Mike Tyson fight. And he actually had created like a song for Mike Tyson. So he was basically watching one of his friends and favorite athletes fight to his own songs. The current WBC heavyweight champion of the world, please welcome undisputed heavyweight champion of introducing the one and only Iron Man.

of course because he lunges forward and that's where the power is from him now that's not come on that was a punch high on the head you're exactly right hand and it was stunned with about a minute 40 remaining in round one sheldon goes down for the first time he had a nice long rest there but he has felt back of sheldon

And Tyson with a left hook and Selden is down on his stomach. Steve, there are two unalterable choosing boxes. If you don't have a great chin, you can't get one. You can't buy one or learn one. Forget it. It's over. And that's it. It's over in the first round.

So he was like feeling on top of the world. This was like one of the best nights of his life. After they watched Mike Tyson fight, Suge Knight and Tupac were walking through the MGM lobby when they came across Orlando Anderson, who is the guy who stole the medallion off Trayvon's neck. And Trayvon was with them as well.

So he leaned over to Tupac, whispered something in his ear, and then Tupac just straight attacked Orlando Anderson. So of course, he had people there, Tupac had people there, so before anyone knew, it was a complete brawl in the lobby of the MGM. The rest of the entourage jump on. It's now just a big gang assault.

Obviously security was called because there were guests that were complaining about the big fight and they realized that you know they were gonna come get them so Suga and Tupac like got out of there as fast as they could. They all hightail it out of there. Now you have the most famous rapper in the world speedily trying to get out of the casino.

Suge Knight's closely behind him, this hulking 300 pound, 6 foot 5 individual. Tupac, you can tell, is very pumped up. He's hyped up about what had just happened. Creates somewhat of a human vacuum and this large crowd begins to follow him out of the casino.

Tupac then went and met up with his girlfriend at the time, Kedada Jones, and he told Kedada about his encounter with Orlando and told her that he wants her to stay back at the hotel because it's too dangerous. But then Tupac and Suge Knight decided to go back out together. They were in the car going to a club that Suge owned in Vegas. They had plans for Tupac to perform at a charity event there. And while they were on their way there, Suge got pulled over for playing his music too loudly.

And while they were being pulled over, a group of, like, fangirls, I guess you could call them, noticed Suge, and they decided to hop in a cab behind them and follow them. The police were going through a car or something or another, and then the traffic was stopped, and then they got in the car.

So once the girls got close to the club, they were going to head in there before Tupac and Suge parked. So they were in the lane to the right, trying to take a right. And they pulled up next to Suge and Tupac, who were going straight. And immediately after that,

a white Cadillac pulled up behind the girl's car. They were very close to Tupac's window and all of a sudden, a man that was in the backseat of the car

car, just whipped out a gun and started shooting into their car. A total of nine bullets went flying his way and four of them hit him. Tupac's bodyguard was in the car behind them and he jumped out of the car to try to go and help him. However, Suge who was driving immediately pulled a U-turn and drove the opposite direction with Tupac in the car with him.

So there was no way his bodyguard could even get to him. And as he was turning around and trying to drive, he ended up hitting a median and blew out a few tires, which forced him to just stop. Now this white Cadillac with the shooter in it just got away, got away.

away. Tupac was immediately brought to the hospital and was put into an induced coma. They were heading east on Flamingo, just coming to this intersection here at Koval. They were driving a black BMW 1996 model. Knight was driving. Tupac was in the passenger seat. Along the passenger side, right over here, came a late model white Cadillac. From inside, shots were fired, 14 of them. Tupac was hit four times, twice in the chest, once in the arm, and once in the thigh.

Knight was mildly injured by some bullet fragments, but he promptly floored the car, spinning it completely around and took a U-turn so that it instantly headed west on Flamingo. He's had a right lung removed. He's back in his room, and again, he remains in critical condition. He's in the intensive care unit. Is he conscious? Can he communicate with his doctor? He has been conscious. He is under a lot of...

A lot of medication. So he's pretty sedated at this time. He's severely injured, suffering multiple gunshot wounds is obviously a terrible insult to the human body. He was in this coma for almost a week. And then on September 13th, 1996, Tupac passed away at the age of 18.

In New York, this is the Channel 11 News. Good evening. A controversial rap artist who led a troubled existence has lost his fight for life. Gangster rap singer Tupac Shakur died tonight in a Las Vegas hospital. The controversial MTV award winner who sold millions of records was on life support for the last six days after he was shot up in a drive-by ambush.

His death was eerily reminiscent of the violence found in much of his music. Don Lark is live outside the studios of radio station Hot 97 in Midtown Manhattan with more on the story. Don?

Jack, it's pouring rain right here on Broadway, but still, I would say a couple of dozen fans of Tupac Shakur are gathered here at the radio station as tributes are played, as the music of the rap artist is being played right now. His lyrics are what made him famous because they glorified violence, they glorified drugs, and they glorified the degrading of women, in the words of many. For that reason,

Many of his fans either loved him or critics of him hated him because of those lyrics. We heard from Tupac Shakur only three days before he was killed. Here are some of his comments.

Today, every young black male needs to be physically inclined and military-minded. This was Tupac Shakur at the MTV Video Music Awards here in New York City three days before the shooting in Las Vegas. He's explaining why he stayed in touch with members of his posse by two-way radio.

It's a small, little, tiny, it's out, no big fire, it's a small, little, tiny sparks that can be put out. Suge Knight, who was released from the hospital Sunday night, finally spoke with police on Wednesday and told them he, quote, heard something but saw nothing last Saturday night, leaving the cops with, as one spokesman put it, nothing.

Shortly after Tupac's death, Chugnight was sentenced to five years in prison for a parole violation from being involved in a fight from that night. People already started speculating that Orlando was the one who shot Tupac because of the fact that he had just gotten in a fight with him just a few hours before he was shot. However, Tupac's body was cremated the next day

and there was never really a proper burial service for him. The public didn't really get any closure, which was super hard for them, and his ashes were supposedly mixed with some weed and smoked by members of the outlaws, but this claim has not been confirmed. But it was really hard on people. I mean, there were so many fans of him, and it was so hard on his family and just people within the community, and a lot of people were just left feeling very... Yo, chill out, chill out. Hold on. This is my... and we both got one thing in common.

We both represent Queens to the fullest. Brother was good enough to stop his show in the middle of his show. No, no, no noise. Brother in here, please take your hat off. At 3 p.m. here by Vegas time, Tupac Shakur passed away, y'all. Give me a moment of silence. Out there that listen to Hot 97 probably heard about some beef Tupac out with Nas or whatever with my beef, whatever. It takes a big mother****** to stop the Miller hit.

Okay, so we can recognize a brother that was part of the hip-hop culture that passed away I don't give a what tupac ever said on the record and what he didn't deserve to die that way When the hell are we gonna stop this bull? And start loving one another don't like it wasn't no east coast west coast bulls It was some internal la That took this brother out Can we have a moment of silence for the memory of one of the greatest rappers that will ever live tupac?

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.