Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
hip hop star Tupac Shakur He died on September 13, 1996 from gunshot wounds sustained in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
A steady stream of posthumous album releases has kept his name near the top of lifetime sales rankings, and artistic endeavors such as the movie Tupac: Resurrection from 2003 have kept his image and music fresh among fans who were too young to see and hear him perform while he was still alive. His recording career came to an end with his death at the age of 25.
The story of Shakur’s death on September 13, 1996 begins with a failed attempt on his life two years earlier.
On November 30, 1994, Tupac Shakur was shot and was seriously injured during a robbery committed by two armed men in the lobby of a midtown Manhattan office building that housed a recording studio where he had been working on his third album, Me Against the World (1995), for reasons which have been obsessively detailed in works such as Nick Broomfield’s 2002 documentary Biggie and TupacShakur blamed producer Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and rival rapper Christopher Wallace for the attack., also known as “The Notorious BIG”. Coast vs. West Coast” that defined the hip-hop scene in the mid-1990s.
In Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, for the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon boxing match, Shakur and other members of his entourage were recorded on tape in the lobby of the MGM Grand hotel engaging in a violent fight with an identified man. later as a member of the Los Angeles-based Crips street gang.
Hours later, Shakur was a passenger in a car driven by Death Row Records head Marian “Suge” Knight when a white cadillac pulled up alongside them at a traffic light on Flamingo Road and opened fire, firing at least 12 shotsof the four hit Shakur and one grazed Suge Knight’s head.
Emergency surgery at University Medical Center saved Shakur’s life that night, and in the days that followed, doctors announced that his chances of recovery had improved. However, on September 13, 1996, Tupac Shakur died from his injuries.
Six months later, Shakur’s rap rival, Christopher Wallace, was killed in similar circumstances in Los Angeles. No arrests have been made to date in connection with either murder.
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