Sep 7, 2022

September 7: Tupac Shakur And What Happens in Vegas


Statue of Shakur at the MARTa museum in Herford, Germany.
Photo by Paolo Chiasera
On September 7 in 1996 rap artist Tupac Shakur was shot 6 times in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada. He died of his wounds 6 days later at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada.

Although many conspiracies surround his death including East Coast/West Coast rivalries, retribution for sex crimes committed by Shakur, as well as a hit placed by fellow rap artist The Notorious B.I.G. no one has yet to be charged with his murder. in 2002 after a year long investigation, the LA Times published a two-part story by investigative reporter Chuck Philips, titled "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?" claiming that a Southside Crip member named Orlando Anderson fired the shots that killed Shakur as retribution for an earlier attack  committed by Shakur. Anderson was later murdered in an unrelated incident.
To make matters more confusing, the FBI in 2011 released documents revealing its investigation of the Jewish Defense League for making death threats against Shakur and other artists.

 Shakur survived a previous murder attempt on November 30, 1994, when he was robbed and shot five times by three men in the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan. This attack occured the night before his verdict was read in a sexual assault case. Shakur checked out of Bellevue Hospital just three hours after surgery and entered the courthouse in a wheelchair. Shakur was found guilty of three counts of sexual-assault and served 9 months in the Clinton Correctional Facility.
While incarcerated he released his multi-platinum album Me Against the World. Shakur became the first artist to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence.