The Tupac question that has haunted hip-hop for 30 years

Who killed Tupac Shakur?

It's one of pop culture's enduring mysteries.

Thirty years after the United States artist, considered one of the most influential rappers of all time, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, the unsolved killing could finally be brought closer to an answer.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, is standing trial in Las Vegas, accused of orchestrating the killing and providing the gun used in the shooting.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder, with jury selection underway and opening statements expected this week.

But whether the jury returns a guilty verdict or not, the trial is about more than just a cold case murder.

Known for hits like California Love and the top-selling record All Eyez on Me, Shakur was already one of the biggest stars in hip-hop when he was killed at just 25.

Like other young artists whose lives were cut short, his unresolved murder transformed him into a global cultural icon, with his life and death continually revisited and theorised decades after his death.

The night Tupac was shot

Cathy Scott, then a crime reporter with the Las Vegas Sun, remembers the night Shakur was shot on 7 September 1996 well. She had been tipped off by a homicide detective about the shooting.

"He said, 'Get out of bed and go down to the Las Vegas Strip … a rapper by the name Tupac Shakur was shot,'" the author and journalist tells SBS News.

Shakur was in the passenger seat of a BMW, driven by music executive Marion "Suge" Knight, when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them at a red light and opened fire.

Shakur was struck multiple times and died six days later. Knight survived.

Scott says police were initially reluctant to share information about their investigation, with one detective telling her they were concerned the suspected gang-related killing was bad for tourism.

"I really think they thought it would go away," Scott, who later wrote a book about the murder, says.

"The less the police department talked about it, and were open about it to reporters, the more reporters covered it."

The East-Coast-West Coast rivalry behind Tupac's murder

The murder came amid a bitter rivalry between the East and West Coast hip-hop scenes.

Shakur had signed with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, co-founded by Knight and then one of hip-hop's most powerful labels. Shakur's rival, fellow rap star Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was signed to Sean "Diddy" Combs' New York-based Bad Boy Records, Death Row's chief rival.

The rivalry between the two labels became intertwined with tensions between rival gangs in Compton, a city in Los Angeles County that had long struggled with gang violence.

Death Row was associated with the Mob Piru Bloods, a Compton-based street gang, while members of the South Side Compton Crips, another local gang, were associated with Bad Boy's security.

The links between the music industry and street gangs were part of the wider tensions surrounding the two rappers.

Six months after Shakur's death, Wallace was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.

His killing also remains unsolved.

Scott believes the rivalry and deaths of two of rap's biggest icons were part of the public fascination with the case.

"The two are forever related," she says.

"They became bigger than life. They sold more music in death than they did in life. It was a kind of new genre … because it was so violent and so sad, I think that's what people were driven toward."

When a murder becomes a mystery

In the years after Shakur's death, the case went cold, with those believed to have knowledge of the killing reluctant to cooperate with police.

With no fresh information, Shakur's murder became fertile ground for conspiracy theories. Some claimed he had been killed by someone from his own crew. Others claimed he had faked his own death.

Books, documentaries, and podcasts have since repeatedly tried to answer the question of who killed Shakur, reflecting the enduring public interest in the unsolved murder.

Rachel Franks, an award-winning author whose research has focused on true crime, says there are various factors that turn a crime into a story that captures the public imagination.

"In this particular case, you've got these celebrity players, you've got conspiracy theories that have started to emerge, and it is very much a case that, for a lot of people, is within living memory," she tells SBS News.

Many people remember where they were when they heard Shakur had been shot, she says.

"There's almost this indignation of, why hasn't this been solved yet? Especially when it is such a high-profile case."

That lack of resolution can create a deeper unease, Franks says.

"If they're not solving this high-profile case with so much media scrutiny, what else is going unsolved? While it might not make us immediately feel unsafe, it can make us feel unsettled."

Franks suspected the prolonged interest in cold cases may come down to human nature.

"Humans aren't very good at leaving things unresolved, whether it's the breakup of a romantic relationship that was four weeks long, or a marriage … people really want to know why."

The mystery faces court

A breakthrough came in 2019, when Davis, a former gang leader, publicly described his role in the killing in interviews and his memoir, Compton Street Legend.

In it, Davis recalled sitting in the front seat of the Cadillac and passing the pistol to those in the back seat. He did not identify who opened fire on Shakur. The other men who were in the Cadillac that night have since died.

The memoir claims Shakur and his crew had beaten up Davis' nephew Orlando Anderson hours before the shooting.

Davis' public statements prompted renewed police interest in the case, and he was arrested in 2023.

He has since backtracked on those claims, saying he was in Los Angeles on the night Shakur was shot and the assertions in the book were inflated by his co-author to generate sales.

Those conflicting accounts will now be tested in court, with prosecutors expected to use Davis' own words as they make their case. A judge has ruled the 2019 memoir can be used as evidence in the trial.

But even a conviction may not answer every question, including who pulled the trigger.

For Scott, the trial could finally bring closure to a case she has followed for nearly 30 years, and she describes as a senseless tragedy.

"It was just a nonsensical shooting. 'You did this to me, I do this to you', and that's all it was.

"Thirty years later, it's a little different, more difficult. Not everybody's alive, but … I was very pleased to [learn in 2023 that an arrest had been made].

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