Tupac Accused Diddy of Being Involved in a Shooting That Left Him Injured 2 Years Before His Death

1993: Diddy founded Bad Boy Records

Diddy founded the East Coast label Bad Boy Records and released the debuts of the Notorious B.I.G and Craig Mack.

1994: Tupac is shot and blames Bad Boy Records

In 1994, Tupac was shot during a recording session at Quad Studios. He reportedly gave the middle finger to the Notorious B.I.G while he was carried out in the stretcher. In an interview with VIBE, he said that other people, including Biggie and Diddy, in the room gave him looks and suspected that they knew about the shooting, “Nobody approached me. I noticed that nobody would look at me.”

In a resurfaced video, Tupac recounted that he saw Diddy in the studio looking nonchalant. “Puffy was standing back too. I knew Puffy. He knew how much stuff I had done for Biggie before he came out,” he said.

In another interview with the hip-hop magazine, Diddy claims innocence and denies Bad Boy Records had anything to do with it. “He ain’t mad at the n—s that shot him; he knows where they’re at. He knows who shot him. If you ask him, he knows, and everybody in the street knows, and he’s not stepping to them, because knows that he’s not gonna get away with that shit. To me, that’s some real sucker shit. Be mad at everybody, man; don’t be using n—s as scapegoats. We know that he’s a nice guy from New York. All shit aside, Tupac is a nice, good-hearted guy.”

1995: Suge Knight disses Diddy at 1995 Source Awards

Though he didn’t name the mogul by name, Suge Knight shaded Diddy and his label Bad Boy Records in a speech. He said, “Any artist out there that want to be an artist and stay a star, and don’t have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the record, dancing… come to Death Row!”

In an interview with Revolt TV’s Drink Champs, Diddy recalled that he confronted Suge, but deescalated the situation by not retaliating. He said, “So I ran up and I asked him [about Suge’s speech being about Diddy] and he said ‘Nah, I was talking about Jermaine Dupri.”

1995: Tupac signs to Death Row Records

Tupac signed to Death Row Records after Suge Knight offered (US$1.4 million) for his bail if the rapper agreed to sign with Death Row. He subsequently released All On Eyez On Me, which was Death Row’s biggest record at the time.

1995: Diddy visits Tupac in prison

After he was convicted of sexual abuse, Diddy visited Tupac at Rikers Island, New York to assure him that no one on Bad Boy Records was responsible for the shooting.

1996: Tupac releases “Hit ‘Em Up”

Regarded as one of the greatest diss tracks in history, Tupac felt disrespected by the Notorious B.I.G’s “Who Shot Ya?” and released “Hit ‘Em Up” which takes a direct jab at Bad Boy Entertainment. “Fuck Mobb Deep, fuck Biggie / Fuck Bad Boy as a staff, record label and as a motherfuckin’ crew / And if you want to be down with Bad Bo, then fuck you too.”

The music video featured satiric impersonations of Biggie, Diddy, and Lil’ Kim.

1996: The Notorious B.I.G. releases “Long Kiss Goodnight”

Biggie released the song “Long Kiss Goodnight” which was thought to be written about Tupac. But Diddy denied the rumors, “If Biggie was going to do a song about 2Pac, he would have just come out with it and said his name.”

1996: Tupac is killed in a drive-by shooting

On September 7, 1997, Tupac was shot while sitting inside a black BMW with Marion “Suge” Knight, head of Death Row Records. Police have said the two were waiting at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted. Police and paramedics took Knight and Shakur to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada.

The two were leaving the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing at MGM Hotel. Earlier in the night, Shakur attacked Crips member Orlando Anderson with Knight’s entourage.

Tupac died of respiratory failure that led to cardiac arrest after the removal of his right lung. Doctors attempted to revive him, but could not stop the hemorrhaging. He was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. (PDT).

1997: Diddy & Snoop Dogg call for the end of the East-West Coast Rapper Feud

Diddy and Snoop Dogg go on The Steve Harvey Show to call for a truce between the East Coast—West Coast Rap Feud. “Kids around the world are watching,” Snoop said. “By calling for a truce we’re giving them something to live for.

1997: The Notorious B.I.G. is killed in a drive-by shooting

The Notorious B.I.G. was shot in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles six months after Tupac’s death. A Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up alongside Christopher Wallace’s Suburban after a Vibe afterparty. The driver of the Impala, a black male, rolled down his window, drew a 9 mm blue-steel pistol and fired at the SUV; four bullets hit Wallace. Among those accused of orchestrating the murder is Suge Knight.

March 2008: The Los Angeles Times retracts statement that Diddy was involved in Tupac shooting

The Los Angeles Times made an article that implicated that newly discovered information supported Shakur’s claims that associates of music executive Sean “Diddy” Combs orchestrated an attack in which Shakur was injured at the Quad Recording Studios in New York on Nov. 30, 1994. However, the LA Times did retract the story because fact-checkers concluded that the FBI reports were fabricated.

2023: A suspect of the Tupac shooting alleges Diddy paid him to murder the rapper

Duane “Keefe D” Davis was arrested for involvement in Tupac’s murder in 2023. In “Does he (Combs) play a role in this thing?” Davis was asked in police footage. He answers, “Yes… Yeah, I think he did.”

Mike Dorsey who made the documentary Murder Rap: Inside the Biggie and Tupac Murders, released new unreleased audio where Keefe said he was struggling to receive a $1 million payment from the Bad Boy founder for carrying out the hit.

In court documents obtained by Fox 5, prosecutors said, “[Davis] has asserted publicly that he only told on himself and wasn’t trying to provide evidence against anyone else in his conversations with police. However, this statement belies this claim, as he suggested that Sean Combs paid Eric Von Martin a million dollars for the killings as well as offered to set up a surreptitious phone call with Terrence Brown, the driver, who, at the time, was still alive. “

2024: Eminem accuses Diddy of orchestrating Tupac’s murder

On “Fuel — Shady Version,” Eminem implies that Diddy had something to do with both Tupac and Biggie’s deaths. “Notorious B.I.G.’s death was the domino effects of Tupac’s murder / Like facial tissue, whose card should I clean next? Puff’s?” he raps. “‘Til he’s in police handcuffs, guilty, will he step up? / Like gee, never turned himself in, who knows all the murders there’ll have been / Or me mixed up, prepare for me to not choose none of my words carefully.”

He also takes shot at MGK who was signed to Bad Boy Records. “Kells, the day you put out a hit’s the day Diddy admits / That he put the hit out that got Pac killed,” rapped Em on the track.

2024: Ashley Parham accuses Diddy of assault after she insinuated that he had something to do with Tupac’s death

Ashley Parham claims she was targeted after meeting a friend of Diddy at a bar in February 2018. She said the reason was because she insinuated he had something to do with Tupac’s death.

The lawsuits states that Combs allegedly threatened Parham and said she would “pay” for her comment. On March 23, 2018, Combs’ friend allegedly “set her up” to be raped when he invited her to his home to adminster drugs to him “because he was weak.

While in the friend’s home, she claims Combs showed up and told her “she thought she would never see him in person.” He allegedly held a knife up to her face and threatened her with carving a “Glasgow Smile” on her face. Combs and his associate Kristina Khorram attempted to insert an IUD, which is a form of contraception, in her but failed, so the record executive instead raped her with a TV remote. He allegedly also raped her anally and instructed two men to do the same before she was raped vaginally by a fourth man, according to the suit.

She also claims that Combs tried to pay her off and say their encounter was consensual, which she refused. He then allegedly threatened to hurt her family if she went to the cops