After Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas, few people paid attention to the shooting which occurred in 1994 at a Times Square recording studio. This was never fully explained, even by Tupac, but police ruled it a robbery attempt of Tupac's thousands of dollars in gold. There are still many questions which need to be answered especially concerning the beef between Tupac and Bad Boy records since Tupac claimed they set the 1994 shooting up. The following story reports everything which I have learned about the shooting. My sources are very credible but keep in mind that I have no hard evidence to back up my claims. Please feel free to judge for yourself whether what I say makes sense or not.
First we must go back to November 30th, 1994. At 12:20 a.m., Tupac and his entourage of three men, including "Stretch" Walker of the Live Squad who was a close friend and his manager Freddie Moore, enter the building. One black male sits on a desk in the entranceway of the office building where the Quad is located. The man gets up from the desk as two other men walk through the door. Little Caeser had yelled down to Tupac's crew from the top of the recording studio so Tupac knew Biggie was there and felt safe thinking that these men were his security. The three men start to follow Tupac's entourage until they get to the elevators. It is at this point that they draw their guns and yell, "Give up the jewelry, and get on the floor!" Tupac's entourage quickly get on the floor but Tupac curses the gunmen and goes for one of the guns. In the struggle, Tupac is shot five times while his manager is hit once. The robbers then get off with $40,000 in jewelry. Moore gives chase to the robbers but collapses next door. Tupac is dragged into the elevator and taken upstairs where there are several well known individuals including Biggie Smalls and Sean "Puffy" Combs. Tupac would later describe the scene as very strange. He said that nobody even got up to help him but only stared at him as if they were surprised he was alive. Tupac said that the only person showing any emotion was Little Shawn who was crying. Later Tupac would mimic this scene in a rare video in which he walks from the elevator covered with blood as Biggie begs for his life blaming Puffy for the set up. This was perhaps Tupac's way of getting the truth to his fans. As he lay riddled with bullets, Tupac reportedly had someone roll him a joint and then he made a call to his girlfriend who called his mother and then he called 911.
Officers arrived on the scene soon after the call was placed. When officers arrived, Tupac was greeted by the same officers which had arrested and testified against him in the sexual assault trial. This would lead many to believe that the police may have had something to do with it or the rape victim was seeking revenge but these would apparently turn out to be false accusations. Tupac had been shot five times throughout his body including two shots to the head. Miraculously he survived and was loaded into the ambulance where one of the greatest pictures of him ever was taken. Covered in blood and bandages, he flips the photographer off. He is rushed to the Bellevue trauma department where he is rushed into surgery. To everyone's surprise, Tupac later checks out less than three hours after his surgery claiming that he fears for his life.
The next day, Tupac makes a surprise appearance in a Manhattan courtroom in anticipation of the verdict in his sexual assault trial. He is surrounded by Nation of Islam bodyguards and is in a wheelchair(as pictured). Although the verdict comes back guilty of a lesser offense, Tupac is rallied around by friends Jasmine Guy and Mickey Rourke. He remained free on $25,000 bail.
Soon after he was sentenced to serve time on Riker's Island. Very little happened while he was in prison although he would reveal later that people in prison were telling him that it was Biggie's boy who shot him. Tupac's cousin even witnessed the shooters bragging that they had just shot him. These details were revealed by Tupac in one of his last interviews with KMEL. Almost one year later, Tupac was freed on bail pending appeal by Marion "Suge" Knight of Death Row records in exchange for a three album deal with Death Row.
As soon as Tupac got to California, Tabitha Soren of MTV met with him for an interview. In that interview, Tupac looked deeply troubled when asked about the shooting as if he were scared to give too many details to the public out of fear for another attempt on his life. His confidence seemed to build up after that interview as he went on to point the finger at Bad Boy records as being responsible for the shooting. Puffy would later say that they had nothing to do with the shooting and that Tupac knew who shot him. It seems obvious that it was an inside job based on the fact that the robbers knew where he would be. Also, the robbers went right after Tupac rather than deal with Stretch who was much bigger. Tupac would later have a falling out with Stretch as Stretch became close with Bad Boy and had possibly known of the setup. Stretch was later found murdered execution style in Jamaica, Queens (NYC) exactly one year to the day after Tupac was shot in New York. Is that just another coincidence? I have heard that Stretch had been warned that his life was in danger, but he disregarded these warnings.
Tupac tells a lot of things in the song "Against All Odds" on the Makaveli album. When he says, "And that nigga that was down with me/ Restin' dead/ Switched sides, guess his new friends wanted him dead/ Probably was murdered for the shit that I said", he is talking about Stretch. When he says, "Puffy's gettin' robbed like a bitch/ To hide that fact, he did some shit he shouldn't did/ So now he's ridin' for that", he is talking about Puffy being involved in the set up and being robbed by the financers of Bad Boy. Perhaps he wasn't robbed as much if he helped set Tupac up. That would explain Puffy being more involved while Biggie just knew about the set up. There is another part of the song which possibly relates to the set up. When he says, "And did I mention/ Promised a payback, Jimmy Henchman/ In due time/ I knew you bitch niggas was listening/ The world is mine/ Set me up/ Wet me up/ Niggas stuck me up/ Heard the guns bust/ But you tricks never shut me up" he could either be implicating Henchmen Management/Entertainment in the shooting or the verse is split and he is just talking about another beef he had with them. Interpret how you want, but Tupac was telling the truth when he said "This be the realest shit I ever wrote."
All signs pointed to Bad Boy at least knowing before hand of the shooting. Tupac never said Bad Boy was directly responsible, only that they "set him up." He would later say that he had met the shooter because he was a friend of Biggie's and Biggie had warned Tupac not to mess with him. When Tupac said that Bad Boy "set him up", he meant that they didn't warn him of the coming attack and possibly provided info about his location that night. Tupac had also said that he kept getting calls asking why he wasn't at the studio yet because he was delayed an hour trying to get some weed. Why would Bad Boy have been so concerned about getting him to the studio that late? It seems very obvious they were in on it.
Now, that all the details are laid out, the new question becomes what was the motive if it wasn't just a routine robbery? This question must be asked because why would Bad Boy set Tupac up for a $40,000 robbery by common thieves. That wouldn't make sense at all since they were all friends at the time. There was a more powerful party at work here, not just common thieves, who were powerful enough to force Puffy and Biggie to cooperate out of fear. This is where things get really interesting.
The story is that Tupac was shot because of some dealings with some shady people in New York known as the "Black Mafia." These people, it is rumored, financed Bad Boy records. Tupac met some of these people in New York, including the mysterious Trevor who later admitted to some undercover cops that he had been involved in the shooting and it was because Tupac "needed to be disciplined." That is a straight quote which has come from more than one source. It is said that these "Black Mafia" characters demanded that Tupac sign on to Bad Boy records since Bad Boy still really wasn't on the scene and needed an artist like Tupac but Tupac refused the demands. Tupac was supposed to die that night. This was punishment for saying no. If you remember Tupac, in his first interview after being shot, said in Vibe that people were trying to kill him. These were those people. That is another reason why Tupac went to Death Row, because Suge could provide the protection he needed. Puffy played the real role in this shooting, although Biggie knew about it. Puffy didn't order the shooting, he however, helped set up Tupac. Also, if you recall, Tupac never said Puffy did it, he said he was set up by Puffy.
This is the story of the 1994 shooting in New York City. Think of it what you will but realize that there is more to the music business than the ordinary media will show. With all the details emerging from this shooting nearly 2 and a half years later, we must ask ourselves if the shooting in Las Vegas was just another jewelry robbery or if it was the complex situation like that which surrounded the 1994 shooting. Keep in mind that Tupac was shot in 1994 because he didn't sign a contract therefore not making money for Bad Boy and it was covered up with the front of a robbery.
