It’s been three decades filled with mystery, conspiracies – and anger.
The drive-by shooting that killed rap superstar Tupac Shakur on 7 September 1996 changed the trajectory of hip-hop and elevated the rapper from the face of the genre to a cultural icon.
His killing became one of popular culture’s great mysteries, with countless theories but no arrests until 2023, when Duane “Keffe D” Davis was unexpectedly charged with murdering the famous rapper.
The 63-year-old former gang boss is due to stand trial in Las Vegas, where he is accused of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He’s pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole.
It could also include several celebrity witnesses – including Suge Knight, the former CEO of Death Row Records, who has been thought of as the last surviving witness to Shakur’s death.
But the complicated case hinges almost exclusively on one key piece of evidence: a book co-authored by Davis that he has argued is partially a piece of fiction.
Jury selection in the case began on Monday, with opening arguments due to start on 17 August.
Getty ImagesTo understand how the case became so mythologised, you have to go back to rivalries that grew larger than the men at its centre.
In the Los Angeles gang landscape of the 1990s, there was a vicious turf war between the Bloods, often represented by the colour red, and Crips, who often wore blue.
But that territorial dispute spread through the airwaves as part of a bigger national rivalry – East Coast v West Coast rap. The genre dispute was represented by two rival record companies that defined 1990s hip-hop: Knight’s Death Row Records and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records.
“The funny thing about it is Tupac is actually an East Coast rapper,” said Jeff Pearlman, author of Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur.
Born in New York City, Tupac moved to northern California as a teenager. He became known as a southern California rapper after signing with Death Row Records, which included acts like Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre.
Santi Elijah Holley, author of An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created, says the Death Row persona never told the whole story.
Tupac’s mother Afeni was a Black Panther and he grew up around the black liberation movement. Holley says his music became his politics: “His activism was his art, his lyrics.”
He acted in a number of Hollywood movies, and released hip-hop’s first double album, All Eyez on Me, which sold over 5,000,000 copies.
That album, which debuted months before his death, cemented his place in the cannon of gangsta rap, a genre that celebrated the violent life of street criminals and drug dealers.
After he was shot in Las Vegas on 7 September 1996, he became immortalised as a kind of martyr for the lifestyle he helped make famous.
Getty ImagesThat fatal night began when Tupac and Knight attended a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand.
After the match, surveillance footage captured Tupac and members of his entourage, who police have said were associated the Mob Piru Bloods street gang, attacking a man named Orlando Anderson, an alleged member of the South Side Compton Crips.
About three hours after the attack, Tupac was riding in the passenger seat of Knight’s BMW driving through Las Vegas when a white Cadillac pulled alongside them and opened fire.
Tupac was hit four times and died six days later.
For nearly three decades, the killing remained one of America’s most famous unsolved murders. There is no single explanation why.
Las Vegas police have long said witnesses refused to co-operate. Members of Tupac’s entourage said police initially treated them like suspects and failed to follow important leads.
Within weeks of the shooting, investigators had identified Anderson from the MGM footage and questioned him.
He denied involvement and was never charged; he was killed in an unrelated shooting in 1998.
Over the years, police say they pursued thousands of tips, but the case stalled amid disappearing witnesses, many of whom were also killed in gang-related shootings, limited physical evidence, and a street code that forbade co-operation with police.
It was years later when Anderson’s uncle, Davis, started talking and according to police, blew the case wide open again.
Getty ImagesIt was ultimately the death of another legendary rapper that helped unravel Tupac’s shooting death.
Months after Shakur was gunned down, Biggie Smalls, or the Notorious BIG, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.
Both rappers were the stars of their respective rival record labels – Shakur with Death Row Records and Biggie with Bad Boy Records.
Biggie’s case has remained unsolved, with no arrests or suspects.
In the mid 2000s the Los Angeles Police Department reopened the investigation and spoke with Davis, who was at a party with Biggie before the fatal shooting.
While Davis said he didn’t have information about Biggie’s death, he did have knowledge of Tupac’s case and shared that he was in the car when the rapper was shot and killed. He told police the information in exchange that he not be charged.
That deal stuck until years later, when Davis went public with his knowledge.
He co-authored a memoir in 2019 titled Compton Street Legend, that claimed he not only was inside the vehicle when Tupac was shot, but he was also the person who “tossed” the gun used to kill him into the backseat of the Cadillac.
He never claimed to be the person who opened fire.
Davis also elaborated on the shooting to the media, detailing information to reporters in interviews.
Las Vegas police said his public statements had “reinvigorated” the investigation.
Over the next couple of years they spent time corroborating Davis’ account and then in 2023, searched his home and seized multiple computers, two tubs of photographs and a slew of Tupac-related material, including a Vibe magazine.
He was arrested later that year.
Prosecutors have alleged that Tupac’s killing was in retaliation for the beating of Davis’ nephew – Orlando Anderson – just hours before the shooting.
They claim that Davis was the architect of the crime, who ordered the shooting and supplied the deadly weapon to further gang criminal conduct.
- Listen to Fame Under Fire: The Tupac Murder Trial
Getty ImagesNevada prosecutors argued that by publicly talking about what happened on the night of Tupac’s death and writing a book where he claimed to have supplied the gun, Davis had broken the agreement he entered into with law enforcement.
A judge later sided with the prosecutor’s argument, opening the door for Davis’ arrest.
Davis and his defence team have argued that the book was co-authored and sections were embellished or fictionalised to make a profit, and they should not be viewed as direct admissions.
In an interview last week with a local TV news station, Davis denied being in Las Vegas when Tupac was killed and distanced himself from the memoir that lists him as an author.
“I did not write that book,” Davis told Fox 5. “A ghost writer wrote that.”
He also said he might take the stand and testify at his trial.
“If I have to, I will.”
Trial attorney Shaun Kent told the BBC: “This is what makes this case so fascinating. The two biggest pieces of evidence against Keffe D came from Keffe D.
“Keffe D has the right to take the stand and say ‘I made all this up. I lied to sell copies of the book. I lied to the police. I’m a liar but I did not murder Tupac.'”
Davis has also publicly stated multiple times that Bad Boy Records head Sean “Diddy” Combs had offered him $1m to kill Death Row Records rivals Tupac and Knight.
Getty ImagesCombs is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence after being convicted for two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution in New York. He has repeatedly denied allegations that he was involved in Tupac’s death.
Prosecutors have released a list of potential witnesses who could be called to testify, with over 200 names, including members of Tupac’s family, former mayor of Las Vegas Oscar Goodman and former Los Angeles police Detective Greg Kading.
Prosecutors have also named Knight, although it’s unclear if the rap impresario will testify, as he’s previously said he would not.
“This would be huge as he has never offered law enforcement any information that would lead to the conviction of anyone,” Kent said. “This trial is going to be a legal scholar’s Super Bowl.”
Get all the latest trial updates on the BBC Sounds ‘Fame Under Fire: The Tupac Murder Trial’ podcast available wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
