Check out the Los Angeles Times (latimes.com) website for Chuck Philips' report. -------------------- 09-06-02: The Los Angeles Times delivered a bombshell on Friday when it reported that the Notorious B.I.G. offered gang members $1 million to kill Tupac Shakur and provided the gun used in his 1996 murder. The investigative report, which details the hours leading up to Shakur's fatal shooting, was written by Chuck Philips, who has covered the slaying extensively and spent more than a year researching the case. The Times piece places Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, in Las Vegas on the night of the shooting and details a meeting that allegedly took place between the East Coast rapper and several Crips. Citing gang members who spoke only on terms on anonymity, Philips asserts that not only did B.I.G. agree to pay the killers, but that he also insisted they use his gun, a loaded .40-caliber Glock pistol that he then placed on the table. "The revelation of Biggie was shocking to me," Philips told MTV News on Thursday. "When this came up, I was just, ... 'I don't believe it.' So I went about trying to disprove it in various ways with various sources and that's not what happened. What I ended up writing is what happened." Philips reports that Orlando Anderson, a Crips gang member long believed by many to be Shakur's murderer, pulled the trigger. According to the article, Anderson and several other Crips planned the execution in retaliation for a beating Shakur, Marion "Suge" Knight and their associates gave Anderson earlier that evening after a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand Hotel. Biggie had been feuding with Shakur and, according to Philips, had told the Crips he wanted the rival rapper dead, so the gang members figured they might get Biggie to pay them for the hit. (Biggie's ties to the gang stem from allegations that his record label employed Crips as security guards, although Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, the rapper's best friend and head of Bad Boy Records, has denied it.) "If you go back to my stories that I wrote prior to this, I never believed hardly anything about [the Biggie/Shakur] feud," Philips said. "People kept telling me it was serious, and I didn't believe it. But apparently it was." Although Philips' article is also based on police affidavits and other evidence, he said the details about the Notorious B.I.G. are based entirely on his interviews with the gang members. "As far as I know, no police ever interviewed [Biggie] about this crime when he was alive or anybody [at Bad Boy] or people he knew," Philips said. Attempting to independently establish that Biggie was in Las Vegas, Philips combed videotape footage of the boxing match at the MGM, the same hotel Biggie was allegedly staying at, but did not find the rapper. He also called B.I.G.'s mother, Voletta Wallace, whom he had befriended while investigating reports on Biggie's killing, to check the rapper's alibi. After learning of the allegations Philips' story was making, she told the reporter she did not want to speak with him. It is not in his report, but Philips noted Thursday that a few of his sources believed Biggie didn't really want Tupac to be killed and that he was simply talking the talk. "In the rap world, some people are real and some people aren't real," Philips said. "The people who did this murder are real, and the people who killed Biggie are real, and those aren't the only people they have killed. It's a different world. So when this thing went down, it was a matter of pride. He couldn't say, 'I didn't mean it.' " In Philips' article, he noted that "a handful of thugs and East Coast rap associates" were with B.I.G. at the meeting with the Crips. When asked if there were specific names his sources mentioned, Philips responded: "Not that I'm willing to talk about." Philips said at least one of his sources was in the meeting with Wallace, but he would not say if any were among the four Crips in the white Cadillac that executed the drive-by shooting he so specifically describes. "All I'm going to say is that I think I have very good sources on the story." In the second part of Philips' report, to be published Saturday, the writer examines the police investigation of Shakur's murder. While Orlando Anderson has long been pinned for Tupac's murder by reporters, police never charged him. Two years after Shakur's death, Anderson was killed in an unrelated incident (see "Tupac Murder Suspect Orlando Anderson Dead"). Philips' report also runs counter to a theory constructed by former LAPD Detective Russell Poole, whose ideas about the murders of both rappers are the subject of journalist Randall Sullivan's book "LAbyrinth." Poole's analysis asserts Death Row CEO Suge Knight arranged to have his label's star rapper killed and that affiliates of the West Coast Mob Piru Bloods gang carried out the hit. "LAbyrinth" suggests that Tupac intended to leave Death Row, an idea that his alleged conversations with a girlfriend and his firing of Death Row attorney David Kenner shortly before his death seem to substantiate. It also claims that Knight owed Shakur a substantial sum of money and points out that a bullet wound Knight claims he suffered in Las Vegas has never been verified by hospital or police records, or anyone other than Knight himself. Poole was the lead detective investigating Biggie's murder, an assignment the highly decorated officer picked up not long after he had been looking into the shooting of sometime Death Row employee and LAPD officer Kevin Gaines. After conducting an exhaustive investigation, Poole concluded that Knight, an alleged hitman-for-hire named Amir Muhammed, and a group of rogue cops including convicted bank robber David Mack were all involved in the planning and execution of the murders of both Biggie and Tupac. Poole eventually left the force, frustrated by what he claims was reluctance by the brass to follow up on his leads. It is his assertion, in Sullivan's book and a Rolling Stone article that preceded it, that several cops were associated with Death Row Records and street gangs and that his bosses simply did not want this information to come out.
But, I watched the "Behind The (Talking Over Sampled) Music" specials on both these guys, and all their friends claimed they were good and decent and nice people. I can't believe either of them would turn out to be worthless scumbags.
Even though I like Pac's music, he wasn't exactly a stand up citizen. Pillars of the community don't start riots and shoot at cops.
Rockets R' Us- thanks for the article. I sure as hell do care. I don't think it's fair to say that Tupac and Big ended up as worthless scumbags. The way I see it is totally different. Each rapper came from the gutter, and made something of their life. Tupac is " the rose that grew from the concrete". They both lived an alternative lifestyle, but that doesn't mean they should be looked upon as scum. However, if this article is true, and Biggie is to blame for Pac's death, he didn't make some good choices in life. RIP Pac Cod
If Biggie payed someone a million dollars to kill someone, and gave them his gun to do it, I have no problem calling him a worthless scumbag.
I don't mind alternative lifestyles unless those lifestyles included murder, shooting at police etc. That doesn't mean a person who did those things didn't also make art of some value to people. At the same time making art of some value to people doesn't excuse violent and criminal behavior, especially murder. I don't think it's always black or white.
I feel like writing "only in America" Sadly enough this information will only make these two rappers/criminals more popular some places
Tupac was no saint but he was never convicted of shooting or murdering anyone, at least as far as I know though he was appealing some type of sex conviction when he was killed. He was a spectacularly talented person and it's quite sad that his music never had an opportunity to mature.
I hate East Coast Rap,. West Side 'till I die! Time to play 2 pac - Hit 'em upWell, F*CK BIGGIE. I hate East Coast Rap,. \ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ya but the lyrics need to be changed since evidently Biggies Punks "Did Finish"
BS. This has Suge Knight written all over it. Trying to smear Biggie's name. Take this with a grain of salt.
Here's the link to the article. Very interesting on what the LA times came up with after research. http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-fi-tupac6sep06012051.story For those of you too lazy to click... Who Killed Tupac Shakur? How a fight between rival Compton gangs turns into a plot of retaliation and murder. By CHUCK PHILIPS, TIMES STAFF WRITER LAS VEGAS -- The city's neon lights vibrated in the polished hood of the black BMW as it cruised up Las Vegas Boulevard. The man in the passenger seat was instantly recognizable. Fans lined the streets, waving, snapping photos, begging Tupac Shakur for his autograph. Cops were everywhere, smiling. The BMW 750 sedan, with rap magnate Marion "Suge" Knight at the wheel, was leading a procession of luxury vehicles past the MGM Grand Hotel and Caesars Palace, on their way to a hot new nightclub. It was after 11 on a Saturday night--Sept. 7, 1996. The caravan paused at a crowded intersection a block from the Strip. Shakur flirted with a carful of women--unaware that a white Cadillac had quietly pulled up beside him. A hand emerged from the Cadillac. In it was a semiautomatic pistol, aimed straight at Shakur. Many of the rapper's lyrics seemed to foretell this moment. "The fast life ain't everything they told ya," he sang in an early hit, "Soulja's Story." "Never get much older, following the tracks of a soulja." * Six years later, the killing of the world's most famous rap star remains officially unsolved. Las Vegas police have never made an arrest. Speculation and wild theories continue to flourish in the music media and among Shakur's followers. One is that Knight, owner of Shakur's record label, arranged the killing so he could exploit the rapper's martyrdom commercially. Another persistent legend is that Shakur faked his own death to escape the pressures of stardom. A yearlong investigation by The Times reconstructed the crime and the events leading up to it. Evidence gathered by the paper indicates: * The shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier. * Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police discounted Anderson as a suspect and interviewed him only once, briefly. He was later killed in an unrelated gang shooting. * The murder weapon was supplied by New York rapper Notorious B.I.G., who agreed to pay the Crips $1 million for killing Shakur. Notorious B.I.G. and Shakur had been feuding for more than a year, exchanging insults on recordings and at award shows and concerts. B.I.G. was gunned down six months later in Los Angeles. That killing also remains unsolved. Before they died, Notorious B.I.G. and Anderson denied any role in Shakur's death. This account of what they and others did that night is based on police affidavits and court documents as well as interviews with investigators, witnesses to the crime and members of the Southside Crips who had never before discussed the killing outside the gang. Fearing retribution, they agreed to be interviewed only if their names were not revealed. Revolutionary Upbringing The slaying silenced one of modern music's most eloquent voices--a ghetto poet whose tales of urban alienation captivated young people of all races and backgrounds. The 25-year-old Shakur had helped elevate rap from a crude street fad to a complex art form, setting the stage for the current global hip-hop phenomenon. Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in 1971 into a family of black revolutionaries and named after a martyred Incan warrior. Radical politics shaped his upbringing and the rebellious tone of much of his music. His godfather, Black Panther leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, spent 27 years in prison for a robbery-murder in Santa Monica that he insisted he did not commit. Pratt was freed after a judge ruled in 1997 that prosecutors concealed evidence favorable to the defendant. Shakur's stepfather, Black Panther leader Mutulu Shakur, was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list until the early 1980s, when he was imprisoned for robbery and murder. His mother, Afeni Shakur, also a Black Panther, was charged with conspiring to blow up a block of New York department stores--and acquitted a month before the rapper was born. Shakur grew up in tough neighborhoods and homeless shelters in the Bronx, Harlem and Baltimore. He exhibited creative talent as a child and was admitted to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied ballet, poetry, theater and literature. In 1988, his mother sent him to live with a family friend in the Bay Area to escape gang violence in Baltimore. Living in a tough neighborhood north of Oakland, he joined the rap group Digital Underground and signed a solo record deal in 1991. Shakur's debut album, "2Pacalypse Now," sparked a political firestorm. The lyrics were filled with vivid imagery of violence by and against police. A car thief who murdered a Texas state trooper said the lyrics incited him to kill. Law enforcement groups and politicians denounced Shakur. Then-Vice President Dan Quayle said the rapper's music "has no place in our society." Shakur's recordings explored gang violence, drug dealing, police brutality, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood and racism. As his stature as a rapper grew, he pursued an acting career, drawing admiring reviews for his performances in "Juice" and other films. But he never put what he called the "thug life" behind him. During a 1993 concert in Michigan, he attacked a local rapper with a baseball bat and was sentenced to 10 days in jail. In Los Angeles, he was convicted of assaulting a music video producer. In New York, a 19-year-old fan accused Shakur and three of his friends of sexually assaulting her. While on trial in that case, the rapper was ambushed in a Manhattan recording studio, shot five times and robbed of his gold jewelry. Shakur later said Notorious B.I.G. and his associates were behind the attack. Shakur, convicted of sexual abuse, was serving a 4 1/2-year prison term when he was visited by Suge Knight, founder of Death Row Records in Los Angeles. Knight offered to finance an appeal of his conviction if Shakur would sign a recording contract with Death Row. Shakur accepted the offer and was released from prison in 1995 on a $1.4-million appellate bond posted by Knight. Hours later, Shakur entered a Los Angeles studio to record "All Eyez on Me." The double CD sold more than 5 million copies, transforming Shakur into a pop superstar whose releases outsold Madonna's and the Rolling Stones'. Two Fights On Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur, still out on bond, traveled to Las Vegas to attend a championship boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand Hotel. The sold-out arena was jammed with high rollers: Wall Street tycoons, Hollywood celebrities, entertainment moguls. The fight also attracted an assortment of underworld figures: mobsters from Chicago, drug dealers from New York, street gangs from Los Angeles. Shakur arrived around 8:30 p.m. accompanied by armed bodyguards from the Mob Piru Bloods, a Compton street gang whose members worked for Knight's Death Row Records. Shakur and Knight sat in the front row, smoking cigars, signing autographs and waving to fans. "Knock You Out," a song Shakur had written in honor of Tyson, blasted over the loudspeakers as the boxer entered the ring. Tyson flattened his opponent so quickly that many patrons never made it to their seats. After congratulating Tyson, Shakur, Knight and a handful of bodyguards in silk suits headed for the exit. In the MGM Grand lobby, one of Shakur's Bloods bodyguards noticed a member of the rival Southside Crips lingering near a bank of elevators. The Bloods and Crips have a 30-year history of turf wars: beatings, drug heists, drive-by shootings. The Crips dress in blue, the Bloods in red. When the two gangs aren't pushing dope or terrorizing citizens, they take pride in retaliating against each other. The hoodlum standing in the lobby was Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, 21, a Crip who had recently helped his gang beat and rob one of Shakur's bodyguards at a mall in Lakewood. Anderson had a string of arrests for robbery, assault and other offenses. Compton police suspected him in at least one gang killing. After the beating of Shakur's bodyguard, Anderson had dared to rip a rare Death Row medallion from the man's neck--an affront to Knight's honor and a slight to the Bloods. The Bloods had been fuming for weeks, waiting to exact their revenge. Now, unexpectedly, there was Anderson, standing before them. Shakur charged the Crip. "You from the South?" he asked. Before Anderson could answer, Shakur punched him. His bodyguards jumped in, pounding and kicking Anderson to the ground. Knight joined in too--just before security guards broke up the 30-second melee, which was captured by a security camera. Shakur and his entourage stomped triumphantly across the casino floor on their way out of the hotel. They walked half a block down the Strip to the Luxor hotel, where Death Row Records had booked more than a dozen rooms. After dropping off Shakur and the bodyguards, Knight drove about 15 minutes to a mansion he owned in a gated community in the city's southeastern valley. The plan was to regroup later at a benefit concert for a youth boxing program featuring Shakur and other Death Row acts. The midnight concert was to be held at Club 662, a nightspot just opened by Death Row. The club's name was an emblem of how gangs had infiltrated the rap business. On a telephone keypad, 662 spells "mob." Planning a Retaliation A bruised and shaken Anderson gathered himself off the floor in front of dozens of startled onlookers. MGM security guards and Las Vegas police tried to persuade him to file a complaint against his assailants, but he declined. Anderson headed out to the Strip and crossed over a pedestrian bridge to the Excalibur Hotel, where he had checked in with his girlfriend. News of the beating swept through the gang underground. Before he reached his room, Anderson's pager was beeping with calls from his Crips cohorts, according to what he later told associates. Anderson phoned his comrades and set up a meeting at the Treasure Island hotel. He changed his clothes and hopped into a taxi, heading for the hotel with the huge neon skull and crossbones out front. Treasure Island had served as a Crips headquarters during boxing matches for years. The gang would rent a fleet of luxury vehicles, ride across the desert in a caravan, hand their keys to the valets and head to a block of rooms booked under fake names. Drug trafficking paid for all this. The ritual had little to do with boxing. Many gang members never attended the fights. They came to party and bask in the post-fight revelry: the drinking, the gambling, the drugs, the prostitutes. Other street gangs followed suit, flying in from Harlem and Atlanta, taking over establishments up and down the Strip. By the time Anderson's taxi reached Treasure Island, more than a dozen gangsters were holed up in a Crips-reserved room. mar1juana smoke clouded the hallway. Alcohol was flowing as Anderson opened the door. The gang was furious. The topic of discussion: Who gets to pull the trigger? According to people who were present, the Crips decided to shoot Shakur after his performance at Club 662. The plan was to station two vehicles of armed Crips outside the nightspot and lie in wait. The gang put in a call to a Crips hide-out in Las Vegas, a rented house used to stash drugs and firearms and shelter gang members on the run from crimes committed in Los Angeles. They told a man there to bring some backup weapons over to the hotel. Soon. Killers for Hire For the Crips, the beating of Anderson was an egregious affront warranting swift and fatal retaliation. Still, the Crips thought, why not make a little money while they were at it? They decided to ask Shakur's biggest enemy to pay for the hit. The gang arranged a rendezvous with Notorious B.I.G. The Brooklyn rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, hated Shakur and had been feuding with him for more than a year. Once tight friends, the two entertainers now ridiculed each other at events, in interviews and on recordings. In one song called "Hit 'Em Up," Shakur bragged about having sex with Wallace's wife and vowed to kill him. The threats between the rappers and their labels, Death Row and Bad Boy Entertainment, escalated into a series of assaults and shootings--one of which resulted in the killing of a Death Row bodyguard in Atlanta in 1995. Fearing for his safety, a friend of Wallace's arranged for the Crips to supply bodyguards for the rapper whenever he traveled west. Over the years, the gang was paid to provide security for Wallace at casinos in Las Vegas, clubs in Hollywood and award shows in Los Angeles. Besides cash, Wallace gave the gang access to stars, groupies and the inner sanctums of the music business. Wallace began flashing Crips gang signs and calling out to the homies at concerts, sometimes even inviting gang members on stage. Privately, he prodded the gang to kill Shakur--and promised to pay handsomely for the hit. On Sept. 7, 1996, the Crips decided to take him up on the offer. They sent an emissary to a penthouse suite at the MGM, where Wallace was booked under a false name. In Vegas to party, he didn't attend the Tyson-Seldon fight but had quickly learned about Shakur's scuffle with Anderson. Wallace gathered a handful of thugs and East Coast rap associates to hear what the Crips had to say. According to people who were present, the Crips envoy explained that the gang was prepared to kill Shakur but expected to collect $1 million for its efforts. Wallace agreed, on one condition, a witness said. He pulled out a loaded .40-caliber Glock pistol and placed it on the table in front of him. He didn't just want Shakur dead. He wanted the satisfaction of knowing the fatal bullet came from his gun. On the Strip It was a gangsta rap parade. Fans waved. Women flirted and asked for autographs. Photographers snapped pictures. Knight was leading a caravan of at least five Death Row cars heading toward Club 662. Shakur and Knight turned heads as the convoy proceeded slowly north on Las Vegas Boulevard. Around 11 p.m., police stopped Knight for cranking the black BMW's stereo too loud and not properly displaying its license plates. Shakur and Knight joked with the officers and talked them out of issuing a ticket. Then the BMW turned right on Flamingo Road and headed east toward the club. Moments earlier, Anderson and three other Crips took an elevator down to the Treasure Island lobby. They walked out into the valet parking area. Hovering under the hotel's skull-and-crossbones logo, the four Crips waited silently as the valet brought out a 1996 white Cadillac and opened the doors. They piled in and eased the sleek new sedan into traffic. A fifth Crip in an old yellow Cadillac met them at the curb and followed close behind. He rode solo, with an AK-47 assault rifle lying across the front seat. The traffic in front of Treasure Island was bumper to bumper. Cars honked. Billboards flashed. Neon-lighted fountains trickled nearby. The driver of the white Cadillac lighted a cigarette. Behind him sat Anderson. The Crip in the front passenger seat handed Anderson the loaded Glock from Notorious B.I.G. The four men discussed staking out the club where Shakur would perform. After waiting at a stoplight between Caesars Palace and the Barbary Coast hotel, the Cadillacs turned onto Flamingo and headed east toward Club 662. As they passed the Bally's hotel on the right, the driver saw a caravan of luxury cars ahead on the left. The vehicles, packed with Mob Piru Bloods and Death Row employees, were stopped at a red light across from the Maxim Hotel. The crosswalk was filled with tourists. Leading the convoy was Knight's black BMW. Shakur was in the passenger seat. They were alone in the car, unarmed. The Crips couldn't believe their luck. They decided to chuck their plan and strike immediately. The Cadillac raced up on the convoy and pulled up beside the BMW. Shakur didn't notice. He was flirting with a carful of women in a lane to his left. "I saw four black men roll by in a white Cadillac," said Atlanta rapper E.D.I. Mean, who was in the vehicle directly behind Shakur's. "I saw a gun come from the back seat out through the driver's front window." Bullets flew, shattering the windows of the BMW. Shakur tried to duck into the rear of the car for cover, but four rounds hit him, shredding his chest. Blood was everywhere. "We heard shots and looked to the right of us," Knight said. "Tupac was trying to get in the back seat, and I grabbed him and pulled him down. The gunshots kept coming. One hit my head." In the chaos, neither Knight nor Mean could make out who had fired. The driver of the yellow Cadillac just behind the assailants never got a chance to fire his AK-47. "It all happened so quick. It took three or four seconds at most," Mean said. Then the white Cadillac screeched around the corner. A bodyguard near the back of the Death Row caravan fired at the fleeing sedan. In a ruse designed to confuse Shakur's entourage, the Crip in the yellow Cadillac chased the white Cadillac around the corner, as if in hostile pursuit. Knight made a U-turn, his bullet-riddled BMW squealing around the concrete median. The Death Row convoy followed him back to the Strip, where he rammed his car onto a curb. Las Vegas police were soon on the scene. After summoning an ambulance for Shakur, they ordered everyone else in the Death Row convoy out of their cars at gunpoint. The police forced Knight, who was bleeding from a head wound, to lie face down on the pavement. By the time the detectives figured out that Knight and his caravan were victims, not suspects, the Crips had returned to their hotel rooms and gathered their belongings. Staggering their departures to avoid attracting attention, Anderson and his fellow gang members hit the highway, each in a different car. Two younger gang members drove the white Cadillac back across the desert. Interstate 15 moves fast at night. It was still dark when the Crips disappeared over the California border. Epilogue Surgeons at University Medical Center in Las Vegas removed Shakur's right lung in an attempt to stop the internal bleeding. When his condition deteriorated, they put him on a ventilator. He died six days after the shooting, with his mother at his side. Wallace returned to New York, where he recorded a CD called "Life After Death," which has veiled references to the shooting in several songs. According to the Crips, Wallace paid the gang $50,000 of the promised $1 million through an intermediary a week after Shakur died. In March 1997, Wallace discussed his feud with Shakur during an interview with a San Francisco radio station. Asked whether he had a role in the rapper's death, Wallace said he "wasn't that powerful yet." Three days later, Wallace was in Los Angeles for the Soul Train Music Awards and an after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. He was gunned down as he sat in his Chevrolet Blazer at a traffic light on Wilshire Boulevard. No one has ever been charged in the killing. Two days after Shakur was shot, gang warfare erupted in Compton as the Bloods sought revenge on the Crips. A rash of drive-by shootings left three people dead and 12 injured, including a 10-year-old girl. Informants told police that Anderson had been seen brandishing a Glock pistol. Las Vegas police interviewed Anderson once. They said they could not build a case against him as Shakur's killer because witnesses in the rapper's entourage refused to cooperate with them. Anderson said he had nothing to do with Shakur's death. "If they have all this evidence against me, then why haven't they arrested me?" he said a year after the shooting. "It's obvious that I'm innocent." Anderson was shot dead May 29, 1998, at a Compton carwash in a dispute police say was unrelated to Shakur's slaying. The three other Crips who were in the white Cadillac that night in Las Vegas still live in Compton. None of them has ever been questioned by police about the crime. * Coming Saturday: Why the police investigation foundered.
This article is pure bull****. Much of the info comes from "anonymous" gang members, so it cannot be confirmed. I find it hard to believe that the gang members who participated in the killing of Tupac Shakur really confessed to the middle aged man who wrote the story. Why would Biggie need to provide gang members with a gun? Also, why would he want the bullets to come from a gun that could be traced back to him? There is no proof that Biggie was in Vegas that night. Biggie is not someone who can go unnoticed in Las Vegas, especially on the night of a Tyson fight. You know Vegas was filled with young black folks, but no one in 6 years has ever mentioned seeing him. This article offers no new information other than this alleged meeting with Biggie & Orlando after Orlando got jumped. This meeting cannot be confirmed. IMO Tupac was shot in retaliation for the beating of Orlando. Period. Either way Orlando & his gang were gonna shoot Tupac regardless. This article does nothing more than imply that they tried to get Biggie to pay them a million dollars for something they were going to do anyway. This is utter and complete bull****. And Biggie's family should sue. Don't believe everything you read. "Pillars of the community don't start riots and shoot at cops" When did Tupac ever shoot at cops or start a riot??
Here's some more from MTV.com about how Biggie's family is outraged: Shock, fury and an alibi greeted a Los Angeles Times story on Friday that claimed the Notorious B.I.G. paid for the murder of Tupac Shakur. The article accuses Biggie, real name Christopher Wallace, of meeting with members of the Crips gang in Las Vegas the night that Tupac was fatally shot and offering them $1 million to kill Tupac. The report also claims that Wallace gave the shooter his own gun to use for the hit during the meeting (see "Biggie Paid Gang To Kill Tupac, Report Says"). "We are outraged at the false and damaging statements," Wallace's family said in a statement. "For the record, Wallace was at his home in New Jersey on the night of Tupac Shakur's murder, with friends who will continue to testify for his whereabouts since he is unable to defend himself." One of those friends, Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s Lil' Cease, called in to Los Angeles radio station KPWR-FM Friday morning to offer an alibi for Biggie. "We was home, watching the [Mike Tyson] fight on pay-per-view in Teaneck, New Jersey," Cease told Power 106 radio personality Big Boy. "Two days later he was arrested and in a car accident in New York. How can he be at two places at one time?" Cease said he was astounded that Times reporter Chuck Philips, who has been covering Shakur's murder since it happened in September 1996, believed B.I.G. was checked into a Las Vegas hotel under a fake name that night and no one knew about it until six years later. "Big Boy, for somebody to be in Vegas as big as you, how can you miss that?" Cease asked the plus-sized announcer. "Biggie is too big a celebrity to go under a fake name. The place was full of celebrities, stars, boxers, all types of people. Nobody seen Biggie that day. Biggie was not there." Family and friends of the rapper stressed that Biggie would never have killed Tupac. "Chistopher's character was both sensitive and loving," his mother, Voletta Wallace, said in a statement. "Not only could my son not have participated in such a crime, but he also wept openly and was desperately saddened at the news of Tupac's death." "That's not Big," Cease declared. "Read the interviews. Big loved Pac. That's something Big wouldn't do. Even when they were really beefing, Big never responded, he never said nothin' bad about Pac. That's just not Big. It's not in his big heart. It's not in his vocabulary." Faith Evans, Biggie's widow, said in a statement that there's no truth to what Philips wrote about her husband. "Our family continues to grieve over these and other lies perpetrated by irresponsible parties," she said. Members of Wallace's family said they're considering a lawsuit against the Times "for untruthful statements and accusations which amount to character assassinations of someone who is himself the victim of an unsolved murder." Writer Randall Sullivan investigated both rappers' murders for his book "LAbyrinth," which inspired the upcoming documentary "Biggie and Tupac," and he said he hopes the legal action will reveal the truth behind Philips' story. Both he and former LAPD Detective Russell Poole, the main source in "LAbyrinth," agree with Philips that Crips gang member Orlando Anderson shot Shakur, but they believe Death Row Records CEO Marion "Suge" Knight was behind the crime. "It sounds like the story was written by Suge, who wants to take some heat off of him[self]," Poole said. "I think the real question to ask is how did Philips connect with the Crips?" Sullivan added. "Was it Suge Knight, which I strongly suspect it was? And what would be their motive?" Suge Knight declined to comment on Friday's Los Angeles Times article. Philips said Crips wouldn't discuss the shooting in the months after it occurred, but that five years later he was able to find people willing to talk. "After it's all forgotten, people feel differently," he said. "I believe the story we constructed for this paper, everything I have written in there," Philips added. "I heard lots of things and went down lots of paths with this story. It's not like I started out on Monday and ended on Friday. It was a period of more than a year, and countless interviews with individuals that I know no reporter has ever talked to and the police have never interviewed about what I have written here." Donald David, the lawyer representing Shakur's family, said he was not surprised by the allegations in the Times, but that he believes there is "no evidence either one way or the other" that Biggie was involved in the crime. "Afeni [Shakur, Tupac's mother,] still believes that the police have not done virtually anything to solve this murder, but she's not going to actively pursue it unless there is something that comes out, which is more evidence than what we've seen to this point," David said. "Chuck Philips has been a strong friend on this. He's done everything that could possibly be asked of him to try and get to the truth. But it's a lot easier for him to get people to talk than it would be for us." The Notorious B.I.G.'s family, however, said the Times report is disrespectful to Shakur's family. "Both men will have no peace as long as stories such as these continue to be written," their statement read.
