On September 6, 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting a few blocks from the fabled Las Vegas Strip. The Killing of Tupac Shakur digs deep into the events leading up to, and following, the headline-grabbing murder.
This in-depth chronicle focuses on Tupac’s double life as an entertainment superstar and a convict, spotlighting his meteoric rise to the top of the world of hip-hop in the context of the dangerous economics of renegade record labels. It examines all the possible motives for Tupac’s murder—the gang connection, the rap wars, the high-level conspiracies—and reveals the failed police investigation of the crime, which remains unsolved. Now in it's Second Edition, having been fully revised and expanded.
Who did it any why?
Poet, movie star, revolutionary -- Tupac Amaru Shakur was the most popular rapper in the world. No one symbolized the violence at the heart of gangsta rap more than Tupac, and he ultimately fell victim to that violence, gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at the age of 25.
This raw, no-holds-barred account discloses new information, including exclusive photo evidence, about the unsolved murder of Tupac: the failed investigation, the rap wars, the killing of Biggie Smalls, the Bloods-Crips connection, and the many possible motives leading to the murder that rocked the music world.
Excerpt
The Fatal Night
At about 10 p.m., the entourage left Suge’s house and headed back to the action. The music was cranked up on the car stereo and they were in a partying mood as the caravan of luxury cars carrying friends and bodyguards followed them. Cruising the three-mile-long Las Vegas Strip, Suge and Tupac hollered above the blaring hip-hop, turning heads on the Strip. They rounded the corner onto Flamingo Road, heading past Bally’s toward the post-Tyson-fight party at Club 662 just two miles away.
They never made it.
The Motives
According to police sources and talk on the street, the killing of Tupac Shakur was a by-product of one of three pre-existing situations: one, the fierce competition between East Coast and West Coast music factions to sell records and dominate the gangsta rap world; two, Tupac Shakur’s and Suge Knight’s connections to the street gang the Bloods and its rivalry with the Crips; and three, a conspiracy of top record-company executives to kill their own superstar rappers as a way of boosting sales.
Dead or Alive?
Even though Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas in front of at least a hundred people, some refuse to believe that he died from the wounds he suffered that hot September night. New conspiracy theories claiming Tupac is alive continue to crop up; the World Wide Web is cluttered with their rationalizations. Internet chat rooms are full of discussion of whether he did, in fact, pass away.
The never-before-seen photo in this book dispels that myth forever.
Professional Reviews
New book
There's a new book just out called "The Killing of Tupac Shakur," by "Las Vegas Sun" crime reporter Cathy Scott, which includes a grisly autopsy photo that should end all speculation as to whether the late rapper might still be alive.
Kurt Loder, MTV News
From John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Two years after the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur and 18 months after rapper Biggie Smalls was killed, Cathy Scott investigates why the police have no real suspects and no leads despite the presence of hundreds of witnesses.
--John F. Kennedy, Jr., George magazine
My memories as an immigrant professional woman in Ottawa, Canada 47 years ago. A new life after having survived the liberal war of a new country Bangladesh on December 16, 1971.
