The Crime Book

254

I

n the late 1990s, two of hip-

hop’s biggest stars, Tupac

Shakur and Biggie Smalls,

were gunned down in eerily similar

drive-by shootings.

Shakur, working on the West

Coast, and Smalls, who performed

as The Notorious B.I.G. on the East

Coast, were modern-day American

storytellers pursuing similar

musical careers. When Shakur

travelled to New York, he regularly

invited Smalls on stage to rap,

aiding the career of The Notorious

B.I.G. In the years before their

deaths, however, they were

embroiled in a bitter feud that

became known as the East Coast-

West Coast hip-hop rivalry.

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Las Vegas, Nevada, and

Los Angeles, California, US

THEME

Drive-by shootings

BEFORE

July 1931 Coll Gang gunmen

accidentally hit children

playing outside, in a drive-by

attack in Harlem, New York.

31 July 1996 Rapper Seagram

Miller, age 26, is killed in a

drive-by shooting

in Oakland, California.

AFTER

7 May 2004 Polish war

correspondent Waldemar

Milewicz is killed in a drive-by

attack on his press vehicle

south of Baghdad, Iraq.

3 September 2012

Colombian drug lord Griselda

Blanco is killed in a motorcycle

drive-by shooting in Medellín.

PEOPLE ARE

AFRAID AND

DON’T WANT

TO TALK TO US

THE MURDERS OF TUPAC SHAKUR AND BIGGIE

SMALLS, 1996 AND 1997

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255

See also: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy 316–21 ■ The Abduction of Aldo Moro 322–23

Bad blood between Shakur and

Smalls began in Manhattan in 1994

when Shakur was ambushed and

shot at Quad Studios by three men.

They stole $35,000 worth of jewellery

(about £30,000 today) from him and

his crew and then escaped. Smalls

was recording in the building at the

time, and Shakur was convinced

that Smalls and his record producer,

Sean “Diddy” Combs, had set him

up. The two men never reconciled.

On 7 September 1996, Tupac

Shakur, just 25 years old, was shot

in a car-to-car shooting on his way

to a party in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He died six days after the shooting.

Six months later, on 9 March

1997, 24-year-old Smalls was shot

four times in a car-to-car drive-by

attack as he left a party at the

Petersen Automotive Museum in

Los Angeles, California. He died

within 30 minutes of the shooting.

Shocking scenes

On 7 September 1996, Shakur

attended a boxing match between

Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon at

the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

As he left the bout with his

entourage – which included friends,

backup singers, and Death Row

Records producer Marion “Suge”

Knight Jr – the crew spotted ❯❯

MURDER CASES

Biggie and Tupac hang out at the

Royalty Hotel in May 1994. They

freestyled and were filmed by Dream

Hampton, in one of the few videos of

the two rappers together.

8:30–9pm

Shakur and his bodyguards

are involved in a physical

altercation with Orlando

Anderson outside the hotel

7 September, 8:30pm

Shakur and friends leave

the Tyson/Seldon boxing

match at the MGM Grand

Hotel, Las Vegas

11:15pm

Shakur is shot at close

range at a Las Vegas

intersection, in his BMW

750 sedan

8–9 September

Shakur undergoes

three operations at the

University Medical Center

of Southern Nevada

13 September, 4.03pm

Shakur is pronounced

dead due to

respiratory failure

I don’t think the powers that

be give a damn that another

little ghetto kid gets killed in

the streets. It’s not important

to them to solve this case.

DJ Shay

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