Poignant footage has surfaced online of Tupac recounting P. Diddy’s involvement in a shooting two years before he was murdered.
The legendary rapper was shot five times during a robbery at Quad Studios in Times Square on November 30, 1994. In an interview with Vibe Magazine in April 1995, he claimed that Sean “Diddy” Combs was the mastermind behind the robbery.
In footage of the interview, reposted last week by YayAreaNews on X, formerly Twitter, Tupac, who died in September 1996 at age 25, was asked, “Do you think Puffy was involved in the shooting?”
The hip-hop star claims that “only they can answer that question,” adding that while he had his own opinion on the matter, he wouldn’t smear their name like they smeared his.
“I believe that, I really believe that,” Tupac said, admitting “I have proven things that support my claim” but that the world was not supposed to know about it.
In resurfaced footage of a 1995 Vibe interview, Tupac Shakur spoke about his belief that Diddy played a role in a 1994 studio recording in which he was shot five times
Tupac Shakur was gunned down at the height of the East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry in the 1990s. He is pictured with Combs and his rap rival Biggie Smalls, aka Christopher Wallace (right) and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs (left)
The rap legend, who died at age 25, is pictured with Combs at his 1994 birthday party at the Roseland Ballroom
“It’s between him and me, and only he knows,” he said.
Tupac had agreed to lend his talents to one of rapper Little Shawn’s songs on the day of the shooting, but admitted he was concerned for his own safety before entering Quad Studios.
“As we were walking up to the building, someone was yelling from the top of the studio,” Tupac told Vibe Magazine in the 1995 interview.
“It was Little Caesar, Biggie’s sideman. He’s my homeboy. As soon as I saw him, all my worries about the situation went away,” he said.
Tupac and his team entered the building reassured, but as he approached the elevator, he saw a group of men he assumed were associated with Biggie.
But things quickly took a dark turn when the rapper realized they weren’t Biggie’s security guards.
“Even Biggie’s homeboys are crazy about me, why don’t they look up? I hit the elevator button, turned around and the guys came out with the guns — two identical 9mms,” he recalled in the interview.
‘Nobody move. Everybody on the floor. You know what time it is. Run your s***.’ I was like, what am I going to do?’
Tupac was shot five times and suffered serious injuries, including a graze wound to his skull.
As the gunmen fled the studio, the singer and his crew rushed up the elevator, but described the moments after the attack, Tupac said: I’m limping and everything, but I can’t feel anything. It’s numb. When we got to the top, I looked around and I was scared out of my mind.
In a disturbing turn of events, Tupac said he found Combs, Biggie and others in the studio, but that their lack of reaction and shock made him doubt whether they had known about the attack in advance.
“Nobody approached me. I noticed that nobody was looking at me,” he shared, expressing his growing sense of betrayal.
‘Andre Harrell didn’t look at me. I had been out to dinner with him the last few days. He invited me to the set of New York Undercover and said he would get me a job.
Pictured: Tupac Shakur on August 15, 1996, one month before he was murdered
This photo, provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, shows the bullet-riddled car in which rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in Las Vegas in September 1996.
“Puffy was in the background too. I knew Puffy. He knew how much I had done for Biggie before he came out,” he said.
Years later, in 2008, when the allegations resurfaced, Combs repeatedly denied any knowledge or involvement in the attack.
The now disgraced music mogul issued a strong statement denying the claims, saying: ‘The story is a lie, it is utterly ridiculous and completely false.
‘Neither the late rapper Notorious BIG nor I had any knowledge of an attack before, during or after the attack.’
Two years after the Quad Studios shooting, Tupac was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas after leaving a boxing match at the MGM Grand.
He was sitting in a black BMW sedan with Suge Knight, the head of his record label, when a white Cadillac pulled up next to him and a gunman opened fire, hitting him several times.
Six days later he died of his injuries.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that the former LA gang leader accused of killing Tupac had claimed that Combs offered him $1 million to kill the rapper.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis is accused of orchestrating the drive-by shooting that killed the rapper, but he has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Davis, the only surviving person in the vehicle from which the shots were fired and the only person ever charged with a crime in the case, has been held in a Las Vegas jail since his arrest last September and has filed a motion to have his bail reconsidered.
Davis told LAPD detectives in 2008 that Combs allegedly offered him $1 million to kill Shakur (left) and Death Row Records boss Suge Knight (right)
Combs was arrested a week ago in a sex trafficking case, accusing him of forcing women into “freak off” orgies and running a sordid criminal empire of sex crimes.
But Clark County prosecutors filed an objection to the request in July, arguing that Davis should remain in prison because he had previously implicated Combs in Tupac’s murder.
Prosecutors cited a 2009 interview with Las Vegas police, alleging that Davis “suggested” that Combs “pay Eric Von Martin $1 million for the murders” and “offered to set up a secret phone call” with driver Terrance Bown, according to the July 18 court document obtained by Fox 5.
Combs, who was named 77 times in the nearly 180 pages of court documents, was never a suspect in Shakur’s murder. Law enforcement sources told TMZ at the time that he was still not considered a suspect in the case.
The shocking footage of the interview resurfaces after Combs was arrested a week ago in a sex trafficking case, accusing him of forcing women into “freak off” orgies and running a sordid criminal empire of sex crimes.
The disgraced musician was sensationally arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel in New York City and has since been charged with human trafficking and transportation for the purpose of prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in a Manhattan court on Tuesday.
The charges relate to “freak-offs” — forced sexual acts that Combs allegedly orchestrated and recorded, according to a federal indictment.
In a desperate bid to remain free, he pleaded for bail, offering his own home and that of his mother as part of a $50 million bond.
But Combs’ request was denied and he remains in custody, as it was announced he could face more than 20 years behind bars if convicted of the charges.