The Unsolved Story of Tupac Shakur's Death 

I believe that that in United States when an individual is doing too good at a young age and on top of that is African American, this can be a problem for the system the government built in this country. For this reason, I found the unsolved story of the death of Tupac Amaru Shakur especially interesting. Actually, this story seems to be as simple as gang retaliation given the circumstances at the time. However, conspiracies about Tupac’s death shows that it is way deeper than some gang violence issues, it could actually be the result of a set up organized by the police.

Tupac Shakur, was a successful rapper, one the greatest rapper of all time as many people considered. He was also a writer and actor. This young black man from Harlem, New York was well known for his music and acting talent. He came from a deprived environment and had a difficult childhood. His mother was an ex-Black Panther and was in jail while being pregnant of him; she also used to do drugs later on. He did not know his biological father until he was an adult. The music he made where ghettos stories involving drugs, sex, street and violence which simply reflected what he was going through growing up. Christopher Wallace, as known as Biggie Smalls or The Notorious B.I.G was tupac’s best friend. They were both successful, Tupac made over eighty million dollars in sale in one year and Biggie’s last album sold over ten million copies. However they became deadly enemies after a misunderstanding, putting them on different side, Biggie were with Sean Combs, music producer, known as Puff Daddy on Bad boy Record and Tupac with Suge Knight on Death Row Record. This is when a music war best known as West Cost and East cost war started supported by gang member such as blood and crips.

Tupac was not just rapping about sex and money and other violence for nonsense, he was actually speaking out fir his community, telling what was happening around him. He understood the power of words. He was saying the truth that do not appear on the media and that the government refuses to hear and see. Beside this, he was smart and wanted to learn, he loved reading and writing poetry as well as acting that he studied in Baltimore School for the Arts. He had a positive mindset and aspired to change, change for the community, for his people because he cared. According to his book TheRose That Grew From Concrete, “Tupac felt that through art we could incite a new revolution that incorporated the heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul. He wanted his art to instill honesty, integrity, and respect.” And “by combining art and education […] we could heal society’s pain and confusion.” (Shakur, 1999). He believed that the system is unfair and said in an interview that there is a too big amount of money on heart and that there is no way somebody could own a plane while some people do not even have a roof on their head (2:26min). He also believed that it is set up to be that way, with black ghetto communities on one side and rich and white on the other side. Therefore, when a black man is successful and earn money he move out of these areas which is why they are left behind and nothing is being done for them. This is all this unfairness that he wanted to spread but most of all change; he was full of ambitious and positivity for the future.

Though, in September 7th, 1996 his life brutally ended in Las Vegas where he was on a trip to attend a Mike Tyson boxing match. On his way to a night club where he was supposed to perform after the fight, he is the victim of a drive-by shooting and dies on September 13th, 1996 from his injuries at the age of twenty five years old. Two hours before he was shot, Tupac got into a fight with a crips gang member, Orland Anderson, about a stolen chain from Death Row, people therefore assumed that he must be the author of the shooting. Moreover, they already had all their argument between East coast and West cost so it was obvious for people. Suge Knight refusing to cooperate, the police could not build a case and believe it was the results of gang retaliation. For Suge Knight the lost of Tupac is devastating, not only has he lost his close friend but one of his biggest money maker.

Therefore, who actually killed mister Shakur? This is the question the detective Russel Poole tried to answer after the death of Biggie Smalls six month after the death of Tupac. Indeed, Poole investigated the murder of Biggie and found out that it may be related to Tupac’s death; however, once he discovered that dirty cops from the LAPD were probably involved in these murders he immediately reported it to the then chief of the Los Angeles Police Department who requested him to cease the case. Therefore, after several work issues Poole decided to retire and continue the investigation on his own but died while discussing Biggie and Tupac cases at the Los Angeles County Department. Most people think they killed him because he was too close to the truth.

There are several theories and conspiracy about this mystery. The first one who was the most theory logical for the Los Angeles Police Department was to suspect Orland Anderson, the crip gang member who had got into a fight with Tupac two hour before he was shot, as a gang retaliation. The second theory some people believe is that Suge Knight were the one who orchestrated the murder and his motive was that Tupac had apparently planned on leaving the label to build his own and Suge Knight saw his business endangered. Finally, the most interesting theory to me is the one involving the Police in this murder, as well as the murder of Biggie Smalls. Indeed, this theory makes sense to me because Tupac was someone that was not scared of bringing real changes and speaks the truth. In fact, I believe that he was so serious about it, that the people from the government including the police of Los Angeles got scared of what he could really do through his art and then decided to stop him before he touches people mind too deep. Tupac was a poet an as a sensitive person, he had the power to get people to listen to him and transform words into money. Of course, white communities and police were not going to appreciate this. They had to make him stop. Moreover, this theory make even more sense when realizing that based on the Los Angeles Times, the police said that their investigations delayed because of the refusal of Tupac’s entourage to cooperate; however, “They failed to follow up with a member of Shakur’s entourage who witnessed the shooting and told the police he might be able to identify one or more of the assailants. The witness was killed several weeks later in an unrelated shooting.” The police also “did not pursue a lead about sighting of a rented white Cadillac similar to the car from which the fatal shots were fired at Shakur and in which the assailants escaped.” These missteps for a Police department make people wonder why did they neglected the case and what if instead the victim was a white celebrity, how long would it take to close the case.

The murder of Tupac Shakur remains unsolved, as well as the murder of Biggie Smalls. It is a great mystery for everybody, though we do not know what really happened when looking closely to all interviews and how the situation was handled in 1996, we can clearly see that something in this case is off. In my opinion, the success of a young smart black man in United States of America can bother the white’s legacy and that is most likely what happened to Tupac. In any cases, he is well remembered nowadays and respected for his sayings and states of mind as such a young age.

Work Cited

1. Mackaveli TheDon (n.d.). Tupac Speaks From The Heart. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roR6h03kw7I [Accessed 19 Apr. 2012].
2. Philips , Chuck. “How Vegas Police Probe Floundered in Tupac Shakur Case.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sept. 2002, www.latimes.com/nation/la-fi-tupac7sep07-story.html.
3. Shakur, T. (1999). The rose that grew from concrete. Pocket Books, p.Introduction XiX.