#399: 13 Deaths Around Diddy: 9 Victims of City College Incident, Tupac & Biggie, Kim Porter, and more
Rotten Mango- 399 views
- 24 Oct 2024
In September 2024, Eminem released a new song - the lyrics read:
“I’m like a R-A-P-E-R
Got so many SAs
Wait
He didn’t just spell the word rapper and leave out a P-Didhe?
RIP, rest in peace Biggie and Pac
Both of y’all should be living
Cause he might put a hit on me like - Keefe D get em”
Notorious BIG & Tupac were two of the most influential musicians in the world. They were both murdered within 6 months of each other, and Diddy has always been connected to their deaths.
One of them - he saw as his competition
Another he saw as his money-making machine.
Which means - did Eminem just ask the question - Did Diddy kill them?
Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ramble. Bada bing, bada boo.
May 7, 2012. Machine Gun Kelly makes a tweet. That tweet reads, okay, so I just saw a picture of Eminem's daughter, and I have to say she is hot as fuck in the most respectful way possible because Eminem is king. The problem with this tweet at that point in 2012 is that Eminem's daughter would have been 16 years old at the time. And then nothing happened from this tweet for about five years. Nothing happened. There were no repercussions. There were these little whispers and interviews that MGK does that allude to the idea that perhaps Eminem was unhappy with that tweet and perhaps Eminem was trying to blackball him from the industry because of that tweet. These are just Internet rumors. These are celebrity gossip. It's not until 2018 that it gets confirmed these two do not like each other. In 2018, Machine Gun Kelly drops a song called Rap Devil. Now this is very interesting because it's a play on words. If you guys know anything about Eminem's discography, one of his most famous, well known songs in the rap world, if you're a rapper, you know this song. It's called Rap God. So for Machine Gun Kelly to drop Rap Devil, it's clearly a hit on Eminem.
Now, once you read the lyrics, it gets even crazier and these two start dropping diss tracks against each other. And we're not here to talk about MGK and Eminem. It's just that as they're releasing these diss tracks, there is one name that keeps popping up in all their songs. Diddy Sean Diddy Combs. In Rap Devil, MGK raps about how he signed with Bad Boy Records and the lyrics read, why are you claiming that I'm going to call Puff when you're the one that called Diddy? Then you went and called Jimmy. Jimmy is a guy that runs Interscope Records, which MGK is also part of. They conference me in in the morning and they told me that you was mad about a tweet. You wanted me to say sorry. I swear to God, I didn't even him. Please say it's not so. The big bad bully of the rap game can't take a fucking joke. He's basically saying, hello, world. Eminem was so mad for the past six years, so mad about this tweet from six years ago, that he called both my record label bosses, Diddy, who owns Bad Boy Records, and Jimmy, who owns Interscope Records, to bitch about it.
But that's crazy because he's the big bad wolf that can do anything, right? So he can do anything but take a joke. To which Eminem releases a diss track titled Killshot, where he makes many a disses towards mgk. But again, we're not here to discuss that. We're here for Diddy. He makes a reference for Diddy in that song as well. The lyrics read, but Kelce, the day you put out a hit is the day Diddy admits that he put the hit out that got Pac killed. Eminem in his song, whether he is serious or it's just creative liberty, he has just now accused Diddy of murder. But at the end of the song, Eminem says, and I'm just playing Diddy. You know I love you. Diddy never made a public statement about Eminem's lyrics, but sources that were close to Diddy said he was furious. He was pissed off. So what the hell does this all mean if he's not joking? That means Eminem truly just accused Diddy of killing one of the biggest names in the rap world, Tupac. But that was in 2018. Nobody was focusing on Diddy. Nobody was focusing on these lyrics.
They were so caught up in the diss tracks between MGK and Eminem and the fact that Killshot was one of the most viewed videos within 24 hours of releasing. Some people picked up on it. They thought it was clever. But again, it doesn't make mainstream news like that until 2024. This year, Eminem releases yet another song called Fuel. And this time it's in your face. The lyrics read, I'm like an R A, P, E, R. Got so many essays. Wait, he didn't just spell the word rapper and leave out a P, did he?
What?
Rest in peace, Biggie and Pac. Both of y'all should be living. But I ain't trying to beef with him. Cause he might put a hit out on me like Keefe D did him. Whoa.
When was this?
A few months ago.
Whoa.
Now, in a three and a half minute song where Eminem is rapping at an unhumanly fast speed, it might be hard to realize, especially if you don't know many of the people that he's referencing. I mean, the raper. That one is very obvious. He's calling P. Diddy a raper. But the next part, he's talking about two rappers that were murdered. Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac. They were both related to Diddy. One he saw as his main competitor, and the other one he saw as this money making machine for his label and within six months of each other, both of them were murdered. There are new allegations surfacing that Diddy might be responsible for both, which a lot of people find it very easy to believe considering that Diddy has a past of people dying around him. This is part three of the Diddy case where we cover the 13 deaths closely linked to Diddy and all the supposed evidence there might be linking him to those murders. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the Arizona Anti Trafficking Network. They work constantly to bring solutions to the illegal sex and human trafficking network in the States.
This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team. We would also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available@roottenmangopodcast.com now a big disclaimer on this case. It is currently ongoing and developing as we speak. There have been no court verdicts yet, so unfortunately I must legally state that these are all the current allegations and accusations. People are innocent until proven guilty. Some statements have been shortened for time and all these theories and speculations mentioned are netizen opinions that can be found publicly available online. Furthermore, all reporting for this episode is taken from the information that is already available online. Please form your own opinions and do your own research. I am not here to convince you of anyone's guilt or innocence. Some potentially triggering themes involve heavy use of illicit substances including date R, word drugs, dv workplace and gang violence essay, sex trafficking. This case is going to be very heavy. So in part one we did a deep dive on Diddy and Cassie's lawsuit as well as the allegations of the freak offs and this opposed Illuminati connection. In part two we did Diddy's yacht parties and the mysterious death of his ex girlfriend and the mother of his children Kim Porter and the so called memoir that was released on Amazon.
This part we will be Talking about the 13 people that are mysteriously linked to Diddy that have died, including hip hop legends Tupac and Biggie. In part four we're going to go over current ongoing allegations, new lawsuits and all the celebrities that have been listed on the so called Diddy's list. So another quick disclaimer. I did not grow up in the Tupac Biggie era. I've listened to their songs before and I know that these are two of the most influential artists to this day and the significance that they played in the music industry even posthumously. I mean I know that much. But in terms of their upbringing, their beliefs in the world, I can only tell you from researching. In hindsight, I did speak with people who have a deeper appreciation for the two artists, and I tried to include as much possible. But given the runtime of these pods and the fact that most of the conversation is still going to be centered around Diddy and the potential connection in their deaths, this is not going to cover their artistry, the way that they create music, their beliefs, and the impact that they had on the greater world.
I think that would take three more episodes. I also know that there's people that are still pro Tupac or pro Biggie and not the other. I tried to get a comprehensive overview on both, but I don't have a preference for either. Nor am I trying to convince you to like one more over the other, truly. So with that being said, let's get into it. Do you know one of Diddy's biggest songs?
No.
It's called I'll Be Missing you. When it was released, it hit number one on the Billboard's Hot 100 charts for 22 consecutive weeks, which is kind of insane. The lyrics read, every day I wake up, I hope I'm dreaming. I can't believe this shit. I mean, I saw your son. He looks just like you. You will always be the greatest. You'll always be the greatest. I miss you, BIG the chorus of the song goes, every step I take Every move I make Every single day Every time I pray I'll be missing you. Think of the day when you went away what a life to take what a bond to break I'll be missing you. This song is probably the song that many people think of when they want to really resonate with lyrics of losing someone. It's often played at funerals. It's. It's about missing someone that's gone too soon. The whole thing was technically taken, actually, this whole song from Sting's Every Breath youh Take. He took the backtrack, he took a sample of that song and he just rewrote the lyrics without receiving the proper permission. Sting actually gets 100% of the royalties for that song to this day.
But that is besides the point. It was probably one of the most pivotal songs during that time, and it was a tribute to his Fallen friend, Notorious B.I.G. it actually won him a Grammy. But the wild thing is, in 2024, if we live in a world where some of the conspiracies turn out to be true, that means Diddy would have written this song as a tribute to the man that he may have helped kill and sang it alongside wife of the man that was murdered. This is the Diddy connection to Tupac and Biggie and their murders that everybody suspects Diddy was involved in. This particular elevator ride is taking a lot longer than normal. This is way back in the day. Typically, to go up eight floors, it would take about 48 seconds. But this is feeling like a lifetime. When Tupac gets up to the eighth floor, he can't even feel anything. His whole body is numb. He says, when I got upstairs, I looked around, and it's scared the shit out of me. He sees standing there, Biggie, Notorious B.I.G. famous rapper, alongside 40 other guys, including Sean, Diddy, Combs. They were all there working on a new album titled, interestingly enough, Conspiracy.
Then one of the guys there burst out crying, oh, my God, park, you have to sit down. You have to sit down. Tupac said, I was feeling weird. Like, why do they want me to sit down? It's like nobody wanted to approach him. He says, I noticed that nobody would look at me. Diddy was standing back too. And I knew Diddy. He knew how much stuff I had done for his artist Biggie, before he came out. Whatever was said, or rather not said in that room would solidify everything. Because in that cramped room, Tupac is practically alone, having been shot five times. Twice in the head, twice in the groin, once in the hand. And he has a feeling that one or a few people in that room have something to do with it. He was shot in the lobby of a studio. He hides in the elevator, takes the elevator up to the eighth floor, and there's Biggie, Diddy and all these other artists on the east side.
He just got shot.
Just got shot. He's bleeding out by himself, and no one wants to approach him, according to Tupac. And it was in that moment that he felt someone in that room had something to do with this shooting Diddy and Biggie. And perhaps he was right, perhaps he wasn't right. But within two years, Tupac would be dead. There is a conspiracy out there that Tupac Shakur, one of the biggest artists of all time, that he's more actually commonly referred to as a cultural phenomenon than a rapper, has faked their death. That's the conspiracy. Tupac is alive. He's faked his death. He's out there. He's just watching all of us. What? This is the conspiracy, that he's still alive. So if you know anything about Tupac, a lot of people might have wanted him dead. The vice president at the time, Don Quayle, who served under George W. Bush, he would state about some of Tupac's music. There is absolutely no reason for a record like this to be published. No reason at all. Why? I mean, some would say because Tupac would release songs that served as social commentary. He was trying to enact change. One song is titled White Man's World.
Notable lyrics read. One thing they ever did wrong was being born black in this white man's world Being born with less, I must confess, only adds to the stress. Proud to be black but why we act like we don't love ourselves don't look around, check yourself Know what it means to be black Whether a man or girl we're still struggling in this white man's world we must fight for the countless political prisoners who are locked up falsely by the white man he names prominent activist who fought for black rights. The government did not like this song for a long time. Tupac was actually on the FBI watch list. What now? It's really hard to summarize who Tupac was. And obviously, nobody is defined by their career, but Tupac is different. He had a lot of intense views, and I say intense to highlight that it was intense for him. It was not smooth sailing for him to say these things because they might be considered normal right now, but the things that he was saying, like 20 years ago, back then, he's making people uncomfortable. He's making the FBI uncomfortable. So all that's to say, he's very ahead of his time.
He's saying things like, I would have to change the world or I have to be changed by the world. In an interview, he once said, this world is such a world. And when I say world, I mean it. I don't mean it in an ideal sense. I mean it every day. And every little thing you do, it's such a gimme, gimme, gimme. Everybody back up. You get taught that from school. Every business you want to be successful. Give me, give me, give me. Push, push, Step, step, crush, crush. That's all it is. Nobody ever stops. There's too much money here. I mean, nobody should be hitting the lotto for $36 million. And then we got people starving on the streets. That is not idealistic. That's just real. I mean, that is stupid. There is no way. There is no way that these people should own planes when there's people that don't have houses. I think that if they earned it, that's good. I think that they deserve it. But even if they still own it, they still owe it. He's known for being very, very vocal about the state of the world and what it means to be black and successful, but still feel indebted to the communities that you started from.
He says being black and successful is like being the last person alive. What can I do? Where can I go? There's no black neighborhood with black people who have the same amount of money as me. There's richer and then there's poorer. There's no, oh, I did a movie and got a little bit of money living, okay, black neighborhood. So I have to go be in a white neighborhood. And when you don't fit in, I mean, that's hell. You can't be around your peers. All my life I've been around black people, poor people, but I can't live around poor people now because they'll rob me. And why are they robbing me? Because they're starving, because there's no money there. So nobody ever deals with that area. They just all move away from it. All the society is doing is leeching off the underserved areas. They use that area for their pain, for their sorrow, for their culture, for their music, for their movies. I don't want to be 50 years old at a BET Awards with an achievement awards, you know what I'm saying? That's just not me. Every time I speak, I want the truth to come out.
Wait, he mentioned 50 year old BET award.
Yeah, exactly what Diddy received. Whoa. To the point where Tupac had a lot of people who did not like the way and the things that he spoke about. They said, yeah, we would rather him not speak like the vice president at the time. And he would say a lot of interesting things that I think ring true today. He would say things like, the government is the mob. Like, that's the mob. I want, want to read the books that Clinton is reading because he does the same shit that we do that I do, but he doesn't get in trouble for it. He says, I think this country still runs on gangs. Republicans, Democrats, the police department, the FBI, the CIA, those are gangs. Even the correctional officers. I had a correctional officer tell me straight up that they were the biggest gang in New York State. Which side note, Tupac, he comes from like a line of activists. His mother was a prominent activist. She was part of the Panther 21, part of the larger Black Black Panther Party. Tupac was speaking at Black Panther Party rallies since he was 17. He's also had quite a notable personal life as well.
I think a lot of younger people might know this part of him more than the activist part of him, which is sad, but you get it. He's been romantically linked with Jada Pinkett Smith. I believe they've known each other since high school days. I don't know if they dated, dated, per se, but they were really close. Jada Pinkett Smith like to call them soulmates, and it was a whole thing. By the time that they were ready to date, allegedly, she was already dating Will Smith. He wrote about it in a book, talking about how he would never live up to Tupac because he's Tupac and he's just the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Tupac was also linked to have dated Madonna briefly. The two of them kept it a secret. It was recently in the news because one of the breakup letters that he had written her before his passing, it went to auction for over $100,000. And it was this whole ordeal. Madonna tried to stop it. She's like, that's my private life. That's my romantic life. Why is that letter going up for auction? Who okayed this? Turns out her former personal assistant had gotten rid of a bunch of her stuff.
This was included in that stuff. The judge allowed the auction to go forward.
The assistant was selling her love letter.
I don't know if they were selling or if they had just gotten rid of some clutter in the house and thought that this was clutter, but it seems. It seems little nefarious. I'm not sure. Don't quote me on that now. Side note, in an interview from jail, Tupac had nothing but amazing things to say about Madonna. He did some not so nice things to her, said some not so nice things to her because he felt like he was a big Black Panther type of guy and she's white. Even though she's shown him nothing but love, he never felt like he could date a white woman. And he said that he felt really, really bad because once he went to jail, he called her. She was the only one of that level, of that stature that was willing to help him. Which shortly after prison, he would be the one to say, my mama always used to tell me, if you can't find something to live for, then you best find something to die for. And he would die shortly after prison at 25 years old. There have been allegations throughout the years to keep this theory, conspiracy theory, that he's still alive, alive, if you will.
People were reporting from all over the world. I saw him in New Mexico. I saw him in South Africa. And then Tupac's former bodyguard states I know the truth. The truth is Tupac is alive and has escaped to Cuba. He states that Tupac has been smuggled into Cuba with the help of Fidel Castro himself. Which, side note, this is not a random connection. Tupac's aunt is a political activist that is living in Cuba right now as an American fugitive. So he does have connections. He says, I have definitive proof. As his former bodyguard, I helped him fake his death. He's alive, he's in Cuba, and I'm gonn show you that proof in a few days. I mean, this feels like the real deal, Shirley. This is like his former security detail. This is not some random person on the Internet. That's like, I saw Tupac when I was vacationing. But right before he's going to release the evidence, he dies.
What?
He dies.
How?
Nobody knows. And then a year later, he comes back from the dead and releases a YouTube video. He says, my name's Michael Niess. I faked my death on the 18th of December. I'm here today, back from the dead, to show why and how I faked my death. I'm gonna put the record straight. I confess. I faked my death, and I feel quite ashamed about it, but it had to be done, and I'm here to explain the reasons why. He argues that he had to fake his own death because he had to prove that he has the capabilities to help Tupac fake his death.
What in the world?
Yeah. He alleges that he has audio and video of Fidel Castro confirming that he sanctioned Tupac's move to Cuba. But the evidence has still yet to be publicly presented. People are skeptical about his claims now, but it has fueled the conspiracy that Tupac is still alive and well. And there's so many things to this theory. Yes, there's the reported sightings in New Jersey, Boston, Wall Street, Louisiana. But there's also in his posthumous album that he did under Machiavelli, the lead single is called Hail Mary, which shows Tupac quite literally rising from the earth to murder all of his enemies. Now, the explanation here is he has all these unreleased music videos, these unreleased records that are now slowly getting released. But people thought it was weird. He's talking about rising from the earth to murder all of his enemies. Also, the album Machiavelli is a play on the word. Machiavelli, the political philosopher. Apparently, he studied him extensively while he was in prison. And he was particularly a fan of the book the Prince, which some people have interpreted. One of the lessons in there, one of the strategies for general Principles of deception by Machiavelli.
To be faking your own death to control and fool your enemies. Some people went as far to rearrange the letters in Machiavelli because he could have spelled it differently for copyright reasons, because Machiavelli and Machiavelli are spelled differently. But also, what if it's an anagram for am alive? K. What does K mean? K is a friend of his named Casanova the Don, which he might want to reassure that he's alive.
Why was he in prison?
Oh, we'll get there. It's a very complicated issue. Side note, he actually releases a lot more music posthumously than he did when he was alive. And in one of the songs, you hear lyrics, expect me like you expect Jesus to come back. I'm coming. People thought it was strange. Then in another song, he sings, I heard the rumors. I died murdered in cold blood. Dramatized pictures of me in my final state. You know, my mama cried. But that was fiction. Some coward got the story twisted. Furthermore, the way the unreleased songs, when they were released, they always sounded with the times. They always sounded modern, if you will. Now, some argue that's because the way they cut and piece together, remastered the song to be with the times. But still, still.
But why would he be faking his own death for?
Because it's not just the rap world that was missing Tupac. He was on the FBI watch list for being a political activist. And then it all comes full circle in 2024, when a book gets published alleging to be Kim Porter's memoir that we talked about in the previous episode about the horrors that she allegedly faced being Diddy's longtime girlfriend before she died. This supposed memoir is published on Amazon under the name Jamal T. Millwood, which is one of the many names that people believe Tupac is living under as his alias. Because he's still alive, is the theory. There are a few things that you should never do during a bail hearing. One of them is probably lashing out at the prosecutors. It's probably advantageous to not point at the prosecution team and say, these two dudes right here, they're not only ugly on the outside, they're ugly on the inside, too. September 2023. A man named Dwayne Keith Keefe, D. That's his nickname. Davis, gets arrested for the murder of Tupac. He's part of the Compton Crips. Evidently. He likes to call himself the Compton Street Legend. That's also the title of his memoir.
You say last year, Last year, like, decades later, this guy got arrested for murder of Tupac.
Yes, for killing Tupac. Decades later, he gets arrested, and he's pointing at the prosecution team, calling them ugly. And you're like, what does this have to do with anything? Right. Well, Duane Keith Keefe D gets arrested. And just like the case in episode one of Jonathan Odie, after his arrest, he starts saying some very interesting things. He starts singing to the authorities. And honestly, he had been singing to the public, to the documentaries in his own memoir for years, that perhaps a certain someone had put a hit out on Tupac worth seven figures. $1,000,000. Kill Tupac, you get a million dollars. Now you do the math. What kind of person has that kind of money to take down another person? The police don't have to guess because Keefe Dee tells them Sean Diddy Combs.
He says Sean Diddy hired him.
Yeah.
Paid him a million dollar to kill Tupac.
Well, that's the thing. He killed Tupac. Well, he. He wasn't the guy that pulled the trigger, but they did it. They killed Tupac. And Diddy still didn't pay him. And he's very upset about that. He says that he still, to this day, never received payment, and Diddy owes him big time. Now, this is very intriguing because this was just last year. He was arrested before all the allegations came forward about Diddy. Tupac was killed back in 1996.
Yeah.
Is there any new evidence or supposed evidence linking Diddy to the murder? According to a new lawsuit filed October 15, 2024, a few weeks ago. I don't know when you guys are seeing this. Ashley Parham. She's going public with her name. And Ashley said that she was sitting at a bar when this guy next her named Shane calls Diddy on FaceTime. He FaceTimes Diddy. She said this was back in 2018.
Ashley is sitting there with a guy.
Named Shane and he's FaceTiming Diddy. Now, this happened according to her lawsuit in 2018, but she is just now filing the lawsuit along with all the other victims.
Okay, got. Got it.
Yes.
And this is related to Tupac. Tupac. Okay.
So he facetimes Diddy, and this is like around the height of the MGK and Eminem diss track. But I digress. The court docs are publicly available online. I'm telling you what she alleges in her document. But again, do your own research before you form an opinion. Everyone is innocent till proven guilty in the court of law. People have unfortunately lied before on court documents. I'm not saying that she's lying, but I'm also saying don't. Don't take it from me. Like, we have to see how it plays out in the court of law, legally speaking. The document alleges Ashley is sitting at the bar with Shane. Shane is trying to brag. He's trying to get those Brownie points for FaceTiming Diddy the Sean Combs. It's kind of icky, you know, the way he's allegedly trying to impress people by having a famous friend. Let's just say Ashley is not impressed. The initial ick of, like, you're doing this right now, calling your famous friend, but also, it's Diddy. Ashley states out loud that she's not impressed, especially because she always believed Diddy had something to do with Tupac's murder. Because there were rumors back then, right?
And this Sean guy is just a random friend.
Shane, Shane, Shane.
I'm sorry. Random guy.
Yes. Okay, Now, Diddy, still on the FaceTime, mind you. And he makes a passing remark that Ashley's going to pay for that comment. He hears her say, oh, I never really liked Diddy because I always thought Diddy was involved in Tupac's murder. And he's like, you're going to pay for that. Which, Okay, I mean, how. The next month, Ashley gets a call from Shane, the guy from the bar, and he explains that he has cancer. Could you please come over? Because I'm having a hard time opening my medications. I'm in this weakened physical state. And, yeah, she goes over, because who's gonna say no to that? She goes over, she opens his medications, helps him, and the two of them turn on a movie when out of nowhere, the main door to the apartment slams open and allegedly, in comes Diddy, his bodyguard and his chief of staff, the woman that has been compared to Ghislaine Maxwell in lawsuits and by netizens. The way Diddy walked in as described in the lawsuit was, like, ready to party, but it just feels maniacal because nobody's trying to party with him. He allegedly gets into Ashley's face and starts taunting her.
Oh, you never thought you were actually gonna see me, did you? In that manner is how it's described. But she still has to pay for what she said about Tupac during the FaceTime, doesn't she? Diddy allegedly grabs the knife, puts it up to Ashley's face, and threatens to give her a glass glow smile. Retaliation for her for what she said about Tupac. She states that the chief of staff allegedly tells Diddy not to because then they can't sell her she threatens her, the Chief of staff, the AKA second, Ghislaine Maxwell, that they could easily just ship her off anywhere into the world and they would never see her again. Her family would never see her. Nobody would ever know. Know.
That's crazy. So this is a. A trap from the beginning?
Yes. So the call from Shane is allegedly, according to the lawsuit, a trap.
What, so she's not dating this guy either? No, she's just being nice to help him.
It seems like maybe they are forming, like an acquaintanceship.
Wow.
She alleges that Diddy puts the knife down, takes off all her clothes, and starts squirting this oil liquid that he just takes out of his fanny pack all over her. This is the very strange part, but allegedly Diddy and his chief of staff spend a bit of time trying to insert an IUD into Ashley, which, if you know an IUD is like a copper metal T shaped device that you stick into your cervix so that you don't get pregnant. Getting an IUD from a doctor is probably one of the most painful experiences that some people have ever had, to the point where there are conversations about why are there no anesthetic as an option for patients. I mean, it has to go into the uterus. Some parents have stated it's worse than childbirth. One person said, my soul left my body, I saw a white flash of light. I'm not even being dramatic. It was the most painful thing ever. And these people are getting it done at medical facilities. And these people allegedly trying to stick an IUD into her have presumably no medical experience. Eventually they stop the Chief of staff along with another one of the entourage.
They leave, but there's still two other of Diddy's entourage there. So it's Shane, Diddy, and two of Diddy's entourage. Four guys there that she had never met other than Shane. She's naked, she's terrified. And allegedly Diddy grabs a TV remote from nearby and violently essays her with it. While he's doing that, he's allegedly scathingly telling her that her life is in his hands. He could do whatever he wants to her. He could. He could take her so that she's never seen again. Again. The lawsuit alleges that she was already in pain from the IUD assault when Diddy throws her over onto her stomach and allegedly instructs Shane. Again, these are all allegations you can find online. I wasn't there to tell you definitively if this is how it happened and if this happened. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but these are quite specific allegations. Now, Ashley states in the lawsuit that Diddy tells Shane to put a pillow over her head. He he's sick of her hearing her crying. The next instruction is Diddy tells Shane to allegedly essay Ashley anally. She states it was gang essay. First Shane, then Diddy, then John Doe 2 and John Doe 1.
She doesn't even know the names of these people that were gang essaying her. John Doe 1. Before he even essays her, she said that he grabbed a bunch of baby oil, gets it all over her and gets on top of her to use her like some sort of quote slip and slide. But due to how big his allegedly enormous stature was, the wind gets knocked out of Ashley and she noticed the whole time Diddy was recording the assault while self pleasuring. She also notices someone's phone had fallen off near the bed. She tries to reach for it to call for help, but the massive amounts of baby oil everywhere, it slips out of her hands. To which the lawsuit alleges Diddy found this quite hilarious. He also kept commenting that he owned her. Now Ashley, in her attempt to leave, somehow ends up in the backyard where they're all smoking. So after they're done, they just go to the backyard, allegedly, and smoke like nothing happened. Now at this point, again, allegations, Diddy asks her in a very strange, probably even more terrifyingly friendly way, why haven't we partied together before? You're so much fun.
I haven't had ass that tight in a while. One of the guy allegedly laughs and states, yeah, because you only have anal sex with men. Which everyone laughs, but Ashley, she does not entertain them. She tells them this was not partying, this was rape. Diddy allegedly did not like that. He offers her money and tries to convince her that she's a sex worker and that this was consensual. Ashley allegedly loses it, telling him that she's not a sex worker and she's going to the police. He threatens her that the whole family, her whole family is going to be harmed if she does anything like that. She he states that at this point, Diddy calls someone and that person picks up a FaceTime and they're outside of Ashley's sister's home. And then he allegedly does the most bizarre thing. He calls his own mom, Janice Combs, who allegedly starts yelling at Ashley that she's just like a sex worker, saying all these crazy things. She better not go to the police and hurt her son. But the craziest part is a whole fight breaks out. One of the entourage essayers did not hear the comments that she had made about Tupac.
And when she brought that up again, he pulls a gun out and points it at Diddy, allegedly. Because he's like, you killed Tupac?
Well, she mentioned that right now in that.
Yes.
And then one of the guys just pull a gun out on Diddy.
Yes. And Ashley states, alleges that she took the knife that she had been hiding to defend herself. Everyone starts running. A neighbor comes out to investigate. Shots are fired into the fence. Ashley grazes Diddy in the stomach with a knife. More shots are fired. Ashley and a neighbor are taking cover behind a car. They make it to shelter in another neighbor's house, where they state they called the police. Ashley alleges that the sheriff came, but after taking her statement, they didn't call her an ambulance. They didn't take her to the hospital. They didn't even offer to help her to get her clothes or phone from Shane's residence. Eventually, Ashley goes home, unsure of what to do. She did spend the night at Shane's, which is a lot of thing that netizens have been pointing out. Like, if you were that scared, why did you stay? But of course, that's like a crazy question to ask right now. Eventually, Ashley goes home. She's unsure of what to do. The first call that she makes in regards to this appears to be a few days later. She calls her primary care doctor asking for an HIV and STD test test.
She just didn't think anyone would believe her if she called the police because they already called the police according to her allegations, and they did nothing. Side note, I do see some netizens calling this story so intense that it almost feels over the top. Right. But other netizens have been pointing to Lil Rod, which we covered his lawsuit in the last episode. He was a producer that worked with Sean Diddy combs for his 2023 album, the Love album. And he talks about how he has a head of security that can make things go away because he has lots of connections to law enforcement. For example, we're going to talk about this in the next episode. But there was at one point in the recording studio, Diddy, Justin and another guy, allegedly, according to little Rod, get into a fight. Diddy, Justin and the other guy go to the restroom. Justin, Justin Combs, his son. Son. Oh yeah, Diddy's son. They go into a restroom, shots get fired, and the guy ends up shot in the stomach. Now, this actually did happen, but Diddy and Justin allegedly told everyone, hey, just tell everyone we were on the other side of the studio and we weren't there.
We don't know who shot him. And they never got investigated for it. And Lil Rod is alleging that it's because his head of security has a lot of law enforcement connection. A lot, who knows? I'm not saying those two things are related. I'm just saying these are what netizens are bringing up when people are saying, I don't know, this lawsuit sounds really over the top. Right. And it's also so oddly specific that a lot of netizens are like, I mean, how do you make up such oddly specific things? Yeah, yeah, you know, but again, I. I don't know. I wasn't there. She states in the lawsuit she didn't call the police again because she already told the police. And now what? She just wants to get tested. And the crazy thing is she's just terrified. Her family is in danger. So days after the assault, she sees Shane, the guy that called her over, set her up, the guy from the bar, driving around in a new car. She believes that he got paid for that.
Wow. Is her identity out with the lawsuit?
She stated that she didn't want to hide her identity, which a lot of, a lot of victims are hiding their identity. And I think it's totally understandable. Right. But I think she just really wants people to see that she's, you know, I think it adds. Definitely a lot of netizens are saying it adds more water to her claims. It's not until a few weeks later that Ashley presumably feels brave enough to go somewhere about it. She goes and does an essay kit at the hospital. Ultrasound X rays. She lost a substantial amount of weight in the past few weeks because of the trauma. The police are contacting once more at the hospital, but this time she doesn't name Diddy because she's scared. That's the part that makes her sound crazy, like, oh, sure, yeah, an a list billionaire did that to you? Sure, sure. She named Shane. She says there's two other guys. She doesn't know their names. And she thinks in the lawsuit it stated. She believes that the footage is likely somewhere on body cam footage for both police incidents the day that it allegedly occurred and the day at the hospital.
Uh huh.
Even the day of the incident. It must be somewhere right now. The next month, May 2018, Ashley says that she seeks assistance from therapists. She tries to have her therapy appointments covered by victim compensation funds. But then she's told that there's no law enforcement agency with an active investigation into her report, meaning she can't get free therapy because there's no active investigation. She's not a victim. So she's like, wait, what? This is confusing. The lawsuit states, quote, ashley asked police for a copy of her report from the Walnut Creek Police Department. On July 19, 2018, plaintiff Ashley was provided a letter from the police department stating that it was, quote, unable to furnish this information as it is confidential and not subject to public release. But she's not public. She's the victim in this case. But they allegedly refuse her a copy of her own police report. Court where she's the victim.
You can do that. I thought foia, even for Publix, we can.
There's a few legal barriers. So they're saying that this is strictly confidential. So I would imagine that they're telling her, hey, you got to get signed off by all the parties involved to get this receipt, you know, which has happened before in cases. The Contra Costa County Sheriff did make a statement that reads, a report was taken March 23, 2018. We take these cases seriously. And detectives thoroughly investigated the accusations. It was later determined that the claims were unfounded. So they're just saying, like, yeah, we did take reports, but they're not real. Like, the claims were unfounded.
Wow.
Now, just to reiterate, a civil lawsuit does not mean that this is the truth and that Diddy will be found guilty in the court system. Some netizens state bullshit. More gold diggers with these lawsuits. But most netizens, from what I could see, believe Ashley. They state all of that just because she said Diddy had something to do with Tupac's death. Now, that is absolute confirmation to me that, yes, he is indeed guilty of Tupac's death. Another comments. This just doesn't stop getting worse. To which someone responds, oh, I'm just going to imagine they're going to get a lot more worse. Which it does appear to be that way because now with Tupac being brought up in association with Diddy, all of Diddy's past is seeing the light of day. And it's a lot. Over the summer, a family friend's daughter who had just graduated high school was talking about this personal finance class that she had taken. Instantly, my jaw was dropped because I was pleasantly surprised at how much she took away from that class. Class. It was a very practical class, honestly. What a great way to get started with investing early, which if you're like, I wish I had something like that.
Luckily enough, today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. Acorns makes it easy to start automatically saving and investing for you, your kids and your retirement. You don't need a lot of money or expertise to invest with Acorns. In fact, you can get started with just your spare change. Acorns recommends an expert built portfolio that fits fits you and your money goals. Then automatically invest your money for you. And now Acorns is putting their money into your future. Open up an acorns later ira and get up to a 3% match on new contributions. That's extra money for your retirement. I told our family friend's daughter about Acorns. She's now all set up with Acorns. She's in her first semester of college now, which is kind of crazy to think she's she's so old now and she's leagues ahead of everyone her age. Invest in your financial future by investing with Acorns. Head to acorns.com rotten or download the Acorns app to start saving and investing for your future today. Paid client testimonial compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns. Investing involves risk Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures@acorns.com rotten one of the most intelligent people I know is a polyglot, AKA she knows multiple languages fluently.
She even dreams in each language whenever she travels travels to that specific country. It's like a super cool secret superpower or a cool party trick and you would never guess just by looking at her, which is all the more impressive. I grew up learning Korean, but I am nowhere near close to being fully bilingual, nor can I sit down and read a book in full Korean either, unless it's like a children's book. But my family friend who's a polyglot, she reads, writes and can even tell the difference between accents and each language speaks. She grew up speaking English and French and now she's completely fluent in those, plus Chinese, Spanish, and she knows a little bit of Arabic for religious reasons. So with Rosetta Stone you can become bilingual, trilingual, or even 25 lingual because Rosetta Stone offers 25 different language learning programs. Rosetta Stone is the most trusted language learning program available on desktop or an app in case you're actively traveling around that country, the app is the way to go and it truly immerses you in that language that you want to learn. If you're looking to brush up on a childhood language like me with Korean or starting from scratch like I am with Chinese, or looking to advance your vocabulary and more, Rosetta Stone is the most affordable, best option for long term retention and fast language acquisition.
One of the only ways my family friend is able to stay fluent in all four languages is because she has the ability to travel to each country for work. However, that's definitely not the majority of us and take it from her, Rosetta Stone is the best alternative option. The programs immerse you in so many ways and even if you can't travel or converse with native speakers in person, Rosetta Stone has built in True Accent feature that gives you feedback on your pronunciation like a personal trainer for your specific accent. And remember how I said that with Rosetta Stone you can be bilingual, trilingual, even 25 lingual. Well now with Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership, you get access to all 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Spanish, French, Italian, German, Korean, Chinese, Dutch, Arabic, Polish and so on. Don't put off learning that language. There is no better time than right now to get started. Rotten Manga listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. Visit RosettaStone.com rotten that's 50% off. Unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your Life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com Rotten Today 33 years ago, Puff Daddy at the time, aka Diddy, was going to host a fundraiser for AIDS at the New York City College where you would just pay $20 to watch celebrities play basketball.
Boyz II Men, run DMC, Joe to C, heavy duty, Big Daddy Kane. It was rumored that Mike Tyson was going to be there. This is a huge event. Nearly 5,000 people show up to the gym. The problem being the maximum capacity in that gym is half of that, less than half of that, and nobody knew how to turn away the crowd. Around 6pm the crowd manages to break through the exterior doors, but there's another set of doors that you have to get through to get into the gymnasium. They break through the first exterior doors and the crowd surges. Surges so much that they bend a lamppost near that door and they just want to get in. They've been waiting here all day. What do you mean some of us have tickets? Some of us were told that you're still selling like half the tickets at the door. Why have we been standing standstill in the same spot in the line for like all day, five hours? They break through the exterior doors and they start running down the stairs. They just need to reach one more set of doors to get into the gymnasium. Once they get down, those doors are locked.
So you have a bunch of People squishing into this downward stairwell, trying to push up against these doors that are locked. These are the doors that lead into the gymnasium. And there's people behind the stairwell trying to push into the stairwell because they don't know that the door is locked. Now, not only that, even if someone realizes what's going on and they walk over the doors and they unlock the doors, you're not going to have people coming in because the doors have to be pushed into the group of people piled. It opens into the stairwell. It does not open into the gymnasium. It opens into the stairwell. But there's no room in the stairwell right now. Nobody at the top knows that they're all pushing into each other. One person said everyone was so close together, you felt you could not breathe because of the weight of people pressing on your back. Everyone's screaming at each other, get back. Get back. People are not taking it seriously. And even the ones that are, they can't move back because people are pushing into them. Finally, after 15 minutes, the doors to the gym almost basically pop off.
Everyone starts spilling into the gym. The people who have been standing near the doors that have been getting squashed the most, now they're practically getting trampled on by the people behind them trying to get into the gym because they also can't breathe. In that moment, someone comes onto the intercom and tells them the game is canceled because three people have died. You gotta leave.
Inside a gym, are there people. A lot of people.
I would say that they alleged that it was at around 40% capacity at that point already.
Oh, the inside. The gym is still empty at this point?
Yes, but they couldn't let people in because how do you stop them from coming in? And then they're gonna to reach over capacity. So they never really unlock those doors. They just waited till they popped off, which then they come on the intercom and say, hey, guys, three people died. Y'all need to go home. Which ensues another round of pure panic because. What do you mean, three people died? How did they die? Some people know about the stairwell, some people don't. One person said people started running. People are pushing each other down. People on the bottom were getting trampled. People jumped off the bleachers and were crushing each other. People are trying to leave through the same door that people had just been crushed in minutes ago, trying to go up the stairs now to leave. When the medics finally arrive, they said it was a state of chaos. One medic says, we had to break through the crowd. When we reached downstairs it's like an avalanche of people just trampling on top of each other. It was like a plane crash without a plane. I had a guy with a broken neck, and I had to haul him over to the wall to avoid both of us being trampled on.
One person at the event said at one point, there was a rush inside, and that's when you just saw bodies dropping. People were getting trampled. We were just chest to chest for hours. We could move a few steps an hour. That's it. Another woman at the event stated that before she left for the concert, she had put a tangerine in her pocket of her leather jacket. She had plans to eat it before, but she never got that chance. She said, when we finally got out of there, I reached into my pocket and there was nothing left but the skin of the tangerine. It stained my lovely jacket. And I kept that jacket as a reminder for years. Nine people died and 29 people were injured that night. The nine people that passed, according to the chief medical examiner at the time, the victims were 15 to 28 years old and had died from being asphyxiated. They were, quote, squeezed from the front to the back. There was no criminal trial, but Diddy was later asked to explain himself, and he states he knew something was wrong when, quote, as it started getting dark, we had to shut the doors because the line got so disorganized out in the front.
He states that eventually the police came in through the back door, and he was telling them, look, there's way too many people out there. We need help. But according to Diddy, the police just leave. They don't come back until an hour later, which is already too late. Everybody's piled in the stairwell, trying to get in. He says it was just an impossible situation. There was no way for them to be allowed in. There was already 40% capacity inside the gym. And, yeah, you could let in a few more people, but it would just. It was chaos. He claims anybody who got caught outside with tickets, we were going to refund their money. We just didn't. We just didn't want to take the chances by opening the doors back up. But people start pushing from the outside, and the doors just popped, snapped off the hinges, and people just start pouring in. They tore the doors right off the hinges. People started jumping down the staircase. People started piling up on top of each other, and glass started breaking and the doors and people were getting scared and running, just pushing and pushing, and it was pressure.
Then all of a sudden, I'm on the other side of the door pulling people through into the gym so that we could open some of the other doors. But even as we started pulling people in, more people were pushing through. We started screaming, get back. Get back to back up. And like a few minutes later, we saw people passing out because the heat. We started seeing some scary shit. People's eyes were going back in their heads. And I'm thinking, people could die out here. A big kid had gotten stuck in the door and we couldn't pull him through or anybody else. The cops were being called, but nobody was coming. And I could just feel it. I was thinking some of these people were dying or dead. People had started regurgitating. Nobody was trying to mouth to mouth resuscitation. So I started and other people started. One guy that I knew, we were trying to revive him for like 45 minutes. He was throwing up in my mouth, but I didn't care. We were like, yo, man, you gotta live. We were pumping his chest and breathing into him. And I'm seeing my girlfriend bugging out because her best friend's there not breathing.
And I'm trying to give her mouth to mouth. And I started to feel this feeling. And in the breath I'm getting back, the people were dead. I could feel the death going into me.
What, so he's the organizer?
Yes.
Of this event.
And he hired a bunch of associates who had no expertise. So there's a lot of people at fault. Diddy was definitely one of them, according to a judge, but the college was one of them for not having adequate safety measures. The police were also blamed for not having enough police detail at an event like this. This. But Diddy was also blamed for the fact that he had a bunch of. He wanted the biggest event in town is what a lot of people believe. The ego got the better of him. He hired a bunch of people who have never, ever organized an event of this size, of this caliber with all these names. Like, imagine you're like, I'm gonna go see all the top A list celebrities at a celebrity basketball game for 20 at my local college. Think about that.
Yeah.
He says later, I went home and I just kept saying to myself that it was all a bad dream, that I was going to wake up. But I never woke up. I never woke up. And the next day we contacted the police and the mayor's office, but people just looked at the flyer and saw my name and Heavy D's name and started blaming everybody. People saying, whoever threw the event must have fucked up. Press started drawing conclusions before the actual investigation, which A few witnesses state, really now Diddy, because they don't recall any of that. One woman who thankfully made it out alive, she said she actually saw Diddy that night. She alleges he walked right past me after there was that big rush inside the gym. He didn't seem concerned about what was going on. He just wanted to get his stuff and get out of there. I never got the sense of remorse or accountability. Just like, let me get my stuff and get out.
Wait, what? How is he walking if there's so many people?
So it's mainly people stuck in that stairwell. Just stuck. They can't even with the doors, it's hard to pull them out because the doors were, like, popping out. They weren't all the way open.
Okay. So everyone's jammed in this little stairwell. And he's, like, outside and just walking by.
Yeah. And he's like, I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna leave here. Yeah, I'm gonna leave. In fact, later, in a 1993 cover for Vibe titled Popular Daddy, this is not a puff piece. And I was just so confused. I didn't even know if this was real. It's real. He says it wasn't the tickets that oversold. Like, people said it wasn't the fire department's fault or the cops. It was just that overall, the black community, there's a lack of self love. The majority of these kids weren't necessarily going to put themselves in a situation they get hurt. But when it comes to loving their neighbors and moving back, they couldn't love their neighbors because they didn't love themselves.
No way.
Which is absolutely one of the most unhinged ways I've ever heard someone describe a literal stampede, a literal surge, a crowd surge. That's not how physics works. And also, what the fuck are you saying?
When was the stampede happen? Do you remember? What year was it? Oh, you say 33 years ago.
Yeah. Like early 90s. I wanna say, like, 93 or something.
And this piece was, like, years later.
Yes. So he had time to reflect and.
He decided blame black people. That is crazy.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah. There's a lot of even further allegations that I don't know if I can have an opinion about. But I'm gonna tell you exactly what was said online and, like, the discourse that's circulating. So later it said that Diddy was all about uplifting the black community. That's what he spoke heavily about, especially in 2023 when he changed his name to Brother Love. He was all about the black community and people that knew him. Some sources, like a former bodyguard, allege he's just taken the cards out of Tupac. Like, he wants to be Tupac. Tupac was all about uplifting black people, but also at the same time, it's like, this is what Diddy said 33 years ago. So I don't know, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, he says things that he thinks people will like to hear.
Yeah.
The judge ruled that Diddy was partly responsible. He will not be facing criminal charges, but could be, in fact, held liable in damages in a civil court, which. Side note, he just settled the last lawsuit pertaining to this matter in 2000, so we don't know because most of them were undisclosed settlements. But he's been paying settlement throughout the years. The judge said it does not take an Einstein to know that young people attending a rap concert camouflaged as a celebrity basketball game who have paid as much as $20 a ticket would not be very happy and easy to control if they were not allowed in. If they were unable to gain admission. A lot of people believe that it's just Diddy's inflated ego happening all over again now. Side note, remember how this is allegedly an AIDS fundraiser? They promoted the event, stating that it was going to help AIDS educational outreach program.
Yeah.
It's a questionable organization that is not a registered charity and is not known amongst anti AIDS groups, so. And anti AIDS groups, meaning, like, they're trying to help? Yes. Many attorneys representing the victim said there was ample time to suspend the event, shut it down to prevent a tragedy. That decision was not made. Another victim's mother said they were all they really wanted from Diddy because he was young at that point was an apology. That's it. He allegedly resisted all accountability. The mother says, I want Sean to step up to the plate and say, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done this. That's all she wanted. Now, to be fair, he does offer an apology. You can be the judge of how remorseful he sounds. He says, I'm sorry for being the promoter of the event. I just pray for the families and pray for the children who lost their lives every day. You know, it's a tragic event, and my heart goes out to the families. The families did not find him to be truthful. They said, I feel like he's just passing the blame instead of accepting responsibility. He's trying to cover for himself.
He also states, city College is something I deal with every day of my life, but the things that I deal with can in no way measure up to the pain that the families deal with one journalist who worked on the coverage of the college incident. They remember thinking, Puffy. Who the hell is Puffy? Who's this guy named Puffy Daddy? Puff Daddy, the event coordinator. He's a hip hop producer. That's all they know about him so far. The journalists. They remember thinking, man, this Puffy guy can't have much of a future after this. Huh?
Oh, are you saying, like, he wasn't that big back then?
Yeah. So all the celebrities, like Heavy D, Money, dmc, they were huge. But Puffy, like I said, he's not really a musician. He's like a producer. He's just a behind the scenes guy. And it says, organized by Puff Daddy. So the reporters are like, who the hell is Puff Daddy? Well, Puff Daddy's not gonna have a future in this industry anymore. Two years later, Puff Daddy would start his own record label, Bad boy Records. Within four years of opening, the label sold nearly $100 million worth of records. People said there's just something about Diddy. He just has this way of being able to convince people that whatever he's doing or wherever he is, that's where you want to be. That is the hot shit. He is a master marketer. I mean, that is. You have to give him that. Like, just to give you a quick example, he was working on promoting two of his artists, Big and Mac. But he has to give a bunch of journalists their music to sample because this was before streaming. So he has to give them CDs, mixtapes, he has to give them photos if they want to reprint him in magazines.
He has to provide original copies of photos. So he created this Big Mac sampler.
Mm.
It looked like the McDonald's Big Mac packaging. And he would put in all their mixtapes and he would call it the Big Mac.
It's like a PR package.
Yes. Before PR packages really existed.
So he was very creative.
Creative. Someone who worked really closely with him once said, puff was my young warrior. I could send him into the jungle and he would bring back the lion's head every single time. The company sold over 500 million records, produced over 38 platinum albums, and won multiple Grammy awards. That is Bad Boy Records. And it would be the start of the alleged boiled egg test. In a recent interview with Chris Cuomo, someone very, very familiar to Diddy was being interviewed by Chris, and he claims they.
Chris Cuomo.
Oh, he's like a news anchor.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, he was like that. Anyway, there's so much lore about Chris Cuomo, but he would say this man that knew Diddy, this man that was very, very familiar with Diddy, he would tell Chris Cuomo they used the boiled egg test. They used to take a raw boiled egg, had the guys pull their pants down at the studio, had them bend over and then stick it up their bottoms. If the eggs break, that means they're not ready. They said they didn't put in enough work because this is Hollywood.
What if the egg break?
That means they're still not loose enough in the back door. And that means they didn't put in enough work in Hollywood because the back door needs to be used.
This is a crazy statement.
Yeah. This is a crazy allegation.
Yeah.
But you have to take the whole story with a grain of salt. Because first of all, the claims, like I said, are allegations. They're unverified. Additionally, it's being said by a man named Shug Diet, Diddy's longtime rival and competitor, the founder of Death Row Records in California. Well, he's one of the founders. Death Row Records at its prime was making over $100 million per year. Bad Boy Records, we don't exact numbers, but they're doing 100 million in record sales, first four years. Death Row Records, 100 million per year.
Are they still around or no?
No. Snoop Dogg just rebought it because he was signed with Death Row Records. He was one of the most notable artists, so he's trying to revive it. But it did eventually go bankrupt, I believe now they had some of the biggest talent signed onto their label at their prime. They had Dr. Dre, who was a co founder, but also releasing and producing his own music. Snoop Dogg, MC Hammer, Outlaws. And eventually they would go on to sign Tupac while he's in prison. But we'll get there. Tupac was Shug's biggest talent. I mean, not just in terms of size, but in terms of potential. It is well known that Tupac was a poetic genius. He was literally into poetry. He took poetry classes. He would write poetry for Jada Pinkett Smith and then she would retell it on Instagram. It was like a whole thing. Tupac is a different breed. He would rap about his beliefs. One of his most well known songs, change the lyrics, read I'm tired of being poor and even worse, I'm black My stomach hurts so I'm looking for a purse to snatch Cops give a damn about a Pull the trigger, kill a He's a hero Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares?
One less hungry mouth on welfare first ship them dope and let Them deal to brothers, give them guns, step back and watch them kill each other. He would say in an interview, if the church was taken half the money they were making and gave it back to the communities, we would be all right. If the church take half the buildings they used to praise God and gave it to the motherfuckers who need God, we would be all right. Have you seen some of the churches lately? There's ones that take up a whole block in New York. There's homeless people out here. Why do some of these buildings have gold ceilings? Why does God need gold ceilings? To talk to me. Side note, Tupac clarifies he believes in God. He just doesn't agree with some of the organized religions where the heads of the communities hoard the wealth in this tax free haven and don't give it back to the communities. He says, just because I don't have nothing to pass around a bucket for people to put money in doesn't mean that I'm not doing God, God's work. These underserved kids ain't God's children. I don't see no missionaries coming through here.
He says, well, some reverends go to the middle class areas, get invited to dinners at the White House to pray over the President. Just because he's not doing that doesn't mean he's not doing God's work. He states, I'm not saying that I'm going to rule the world or I'm going to change the world, but I guarantee you that I will spark the brain that will change the world. And that's our job. It's to spark somebody else watching us. Which side note, Tupac was a very complicated person. I think some people, when they just hear, oh, he's an activist, he stands for these things, they want him to be this perfect person. But there are songs where he does rap and maybe in some people's opinion, yeah, to a degree, I would say he does promote violence in some songs. And people, people don't understand how you can be dual faceted and come from this very complicated background. And Tupac himself was so self aware. He says, quote, I'm missing some lessons. You can see the lessons that I'm missing when you talk to me. You can see where I haven't had a father when you talk to me.
You can see where I spend a lot of my time in the streets when you talk to me. Because the words that I say aren't the words that come from a mother's mouth or a father's mouth. It's the words that come from a pimp's mouth or a sex worker's mouth or a hustler or a drug dealer. But to me, those were my role models, which obviously, if you want, you can spin it as, look, this guy is looking up to pimps and drug dealers. But it's so much more of a deeper message. Please don't be thick headed. It's a message of like, young people in these marginalized communities. That's the only education they get. For a lot of nuanced, complicated, deeply tied to historical reasons. The black nuclear family unit was ripped apart not by black people, many times intentionally, by society to keep them down socioeconomically, but also, what other choice do these young kids have? It's not like the rich areas are just going to open up their arms. Yes, come to our school, we'll teach you. He's not saying he looked up to pimps because that's what he wants to be. So it's like there are a lot of complicated emotions in his music.
Yeah.
Now, if Tupac represents the west coast, the east coast equivalent would be Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, aka Notorious B.I.G. he was born the only child of a single Jamaican mom. He actually got his start freestyling in the streets of Brooklyn, but obviously that's not making a ton of money. So he did deal drugs on the side. He did go to jail for nine months on a weapons charge. And when he gets off, he's like, you know what? I, I don't like prison at all. That was not a good experience. I'm going to change my life. I'm going to make music. He actually gets discovered, if you will, by Diddy. This is when Diddy didn't have his own record label. He's working with Uptown Records, remember, okay.
Before the Bad Boy.
Yes. This is where he meets Kim Porter. Yes. He's working at Uptown Records. All the other executives, they freaking hate him. And Big Icky gets signed with Uptown Records and eventually he leaves Uptown to go with Bad Boy Records with Diddy. Diddy would say about Biggie, I mean, he just had so much melody in his voice, it was like he was rapping, but it was so catchy, it was almost like he was singing. And he was such a clever poet. The way he put his words together, the way he saw things. He saw, he saw things so vivid. If you sat and listened to a Biggie Smalls record in the dark, you would see a whole movie in front of you and the moment. Most amazing thing is Biggie never wrote down his lyrics. He'd sit and compose them in his head.
Wow.
Even one of his very first singles, it said that he recorded the entire track in one take. To give you context, some professional artists can take 20, sometimes 100, sometimes more, depending on how they're perfecting or improving, but one take is still insane. One person that they stated always does one takes is Bruno Mars. Like, one take is kind of crazy. Now, for the sake of being thorough, Biggie does have a very complicated personal life. Lil Kim was also an icon in her own right. She was signed with Bad Boy Records. She was having an affair with Biggie. So Biggie eventually marries a woman named Faith Evans, famous singer having an affair with Lil Kim. It has been stated that he was very violent towards her in the relationship. Very violent.
Little Kim, Yes.
And potentially Faith Evans and potentially any woman that he dated right now. Tupac did serve nine months in prison for first degree sexual abuse. He was charged with rape, which is the more serious charge, but he was acquitted of the more serious charges and just found guilty of sexual abuse, which is not me trying to downplay it, but there is more discourse about Tupac's personal life.
Why is that?
With Biggie's personal life, it seems like nobody really refutes the idea that he was violent with women. With Tupac's personal life, a lot of people think because of the time and because of how outspoken he was about racial inequalities and the fact that his parents and his aunt were all Black Panthers and the fact that he was already on the FBI watch list, a lot of people know that back in that time, yeah, there would be false convictions toward those people just to put them away, just to taint their image. Now, I'm not saying that that's true in this case. I'm just saying it has happened before during that time and probably even now. So a lot of people have a hard time.
Yeah. Who to trust.
Right. Yeah.
Really know.
Which is unfortunate because it's always believed the victims. Right. But I think it just gets really complicated in this case. And again, I don't have that much information about this specific case of SA here, but there's just a lot of discourse and it would be difficult to not include that. A lot of netizens have argued that Tupac was set up for the charge. They state that Tupac was already under FBI surveillance and he was very politically outspoken. He also maintained his claim of innocence. And previously he has only spoken highly of women in interviews. And most of the women that have known him, they've only spoken highly of how much he was a gentleman. See, he wrote a lot of songs for his mom. Like he has a very. It seems like he grew up with a lot of powerful woman in his life. So some people say it just doesn't make sense. Again, I'm not agreeing with them or saying you should agree, but these are what the netizen discourses. There was alleged evidence that could prove Tupac's innocence, but it was conveniently, quote, unquote, lost by the prosecution, which of course only fueled the theories that he did not commit any sort of abuse.
Now do your own research. I'm just giving you a brief overview. The victim has still been outspoken of how this did happen to her. It's very complicated, it's very messy and a lot of netizens have a lot of intense feelings about that case. So do your own research. Many believe, oh for sure. Tupac and Biggie, they must hate each other because they're competition. East coast, west coast, they hate each other. They were actually friends. In fact, when they first started hanging out, Tupac was a little bit more famous than Biggie. He was further along in his career, but they had both respected each other's musicality. And Tupac is not the one to feel like I should be the only famous one. He would actually help Biggie out. Biggie would crash on his couch when he was doing shows in la. He would invite Biggie out to freestyle on stage together, which is a big deal because you're sharing your audience with him, right? And eventually Tupac would even form a group called Thug Life, which he has tattooed on his stomach. He wanted Biggie to join. Biggie was like, I'm good, but again, they're still friendly about it.
Diddy says Biggie loved Tupac to death. Tupac helped Biggie out. When we were just getting off the ground, he would come and let us open his shows. But maybe Diddy was. A lot of people say Diddy was the third wheel in the relationship. Yeah, people said Diddy was, was fascinated by Tupac, he was fascinated with Biggie. But to him it seemed like Biggie was more of a money making machine. This is his biggest artist on the label and he's going to make him big so he can make money. But with Tupac, the way that it said that he was able to quote Mary street credibility with mainstream appeal. Like he's just a very multifaceted person. Like people would never say, oh, he's not taught tough. But also he stands and he, he's very Open about his sensitivity, and he even talks about bringing out his feminine side. And so it's like, just so multifaceted. And a lot of mainstream audiences liked him, which at this point, hip hop was not really mainstream like it is today. So Diddy is like, I am just fascinated by this man. He would get his team to study Tupac's records.
And honestly, it seems from insider reports that Diddy wanted to be besties with Tupac. According to Diddy's former bodyguard, Tupac was known for wearing Versace shirts. Then Diddy goes and wears Versace shirts, which, fine, he's like, some dudes will do that. But beyond that, Gene Deal alleges Diddy would do this bizarre thing where he would try to find all the women that Tupac had been intimate with and try to be intimate with those same woman. It's been analyzed. If true, this would be a really complex psychological situation, probably psychological mimicry. By having the same partners, Diddy might be trying to emulate Tupac in some way, trying to be him. There's also something called retroactive jealousy, which means instead of being fixated on the romantic partners, on your boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, right? Their sexual past, you're fixated on a competitor's romantic past, which is. It's like a thing. It's weird. And there's a sense of validation seeking. Okay, if these women are willing to sleep with Tupac, then they're willing to sleep with me. Then I must be on the same level as Tupac, is the idea now. Side note, Sarah Chapman, the mother of one of his children, one of Diddy's children, was actually a girlfriend of Tupac's.
Allegedly.
That is weird.
And allegedly, Kim Porter was a huge fan of Tupac. She actually wore a Tupac shirt on the red carpet with Diddy.
This is after Tupac's passing.
Oh, way after. This was like before her passing. Like in the 2000 and tens. Yeah.
That is weird. Too.
Weird.
Yeah.
Very strange. Some would say that Diddy was just obsessed with Tupac in every way possible in a very creepy way. But the feeling was not mutual. In fact, quote, according to an insider, park did not have any kind of respect for Puff. To all of them, Puff was just a corny executive. I guess they had this mutual respect for one another until Tupac gets shot five times. Tupac is in New York City when he gets a call to come work on a song in a recording studio. When he gets there with his entourage, he's got a whole group of people. He has a bodyguard. He sees People waving to him from the balcony, from one of the rooms on top of the building. So he's about walk into the lobby. He looks up and there's people on the balcony. Bad Boy Records artists, they're like, hey, hey, come, come, stop by, stop by. Tupac gets inside. He's waiting for the elevator to take him up. It's a dead end. You know, it's like a small little studio. The only way out of the building now is through where he came from. But before he can step into the elevator, two gunmen approach, demanding everyone to get down.
Everyone gets down except Tupac. He said that he wasn't even trying to be tough. He just froze. Okay, Everybody gets down but him. In fact, he's confused why everybody's getting down. Like he's frozen. The gunman keeps screaming at him, give up your jewelry. Give up your jewelry. About $40,000 in jewelry. Tupac. Some say he's not having it. Some say he was frozen in shock. It's unclear, but they end up shooting him in the groin, then in the hand, twice in the head. The bullet does not penetrate his skull. Biggie Diddy and a few other Bad Boy artists had been there working on their upcoming album called Conspiracy. So he goes up afterwards because the police show up and the police hate him. He's been very anti police and he's a very famous figure. So police, typically police in Tupac don't go well.
So those five shots, though, are those like. Are they trying to kill him? Like you say there's two to the head and hand in?
It's unclear. Technically it was supposed to just be a robbery, right?
Yeah, but the shots to the head, that is.
Yeah. They were also, like kicking him. It feels like there was a lot of hatred there.
Right. And they must know who he is too.
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was all planned because he arrives, he gets shot. It's all planned. Right. The shooting was carried out by someone that he is having trouble with. A former friend of his. His under associate decided to come at Tupac. But the problem is the Bad Boy Records artists were there. And Tupac felt like if something were to happen to Biggie in the West Coast, Tupac would know about it. He would get word, like, if someone is planning on robbing Biggie, Tupac would know. That's how small it is. The world is this hip pop world, and they're that big. They're on top of the game. Right, right. He's saying, how am I in New York getting robbed, getting shot. Bad Boy is in the same building and you're telling me not a single one of them knew that this was about to go down?
Right, right, right. Like they must have their own security details or just.
Yes.
Their own members around to make sure they're safe even.
Yes.
So how do you not know there's people like Red ready to do this in the same building?
On top of that, the guy that actually was involved in the incident, the alleged gunman, he was seen in Notorious BIG Videos later. So it's like, not only did you kind of know, but like you probably still hung out with these people afterwards, which is just weird. Now, some people think that Tupac was being overdramatic and that maybe Biggie didn't know. I will say I don't know if Biggie knew. Most people say that Biggie didn't know. Know. Most people say that. Did he knew, though? Biggie genuinely liked Tupac, is the vibe that people are saying. But he sees Biggie and he feels like Biggie is involved. After the shooting, Tupac gets sentenced for the SA charge. Which side note, after the shooting, the two are on weird terms, Tupac and Biggie. Some people would say, no, Biggie ran into the lobby with his gun to try and defend Tupac earlier, like it was crazy. Others would allege Biggie knew, but he didn't know what to do. Others confirm, I don't know about Biggie, but did he knew like he was. He was nodding like he knew what was going on. Regardless, after healing from his wounds, I don't think Tupac had a lot of time to confront Biggie or even think about Biggie because his essay trial is going on in New York City.
He even leaves the hospital against the advice of doctors to attend court. Ultimately, he does get convicted and is sentenced. Now this is where it gets very, very messy. And what feels like the very, very soon after Tupac sentencing, Biggie drops a song called who Shot Ya. Some notable lyrics include east coast motherfuckers, Bad boy motherfuckers who shot you? Separate the weak from the obsolete Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets Fuck all that bickering beef One false move, get Swiss cheesed up Fucking with BIG it ain't safe Big papa smash fools, bash fools everything around me two Glock nines. There's another line where he says, you rewind this. Bad boys behind this get high motherfuckers ready to die, motherfuckers, you'll die slow but calm. Open your fucking mouth. Didn't I tell you don't fuck with me? Which like why the hell would Biggie release that if he had nothing to do with Tupac shooting and had no bad feelings towards him? According to Gene Deal, Diddy's bodyguard at the time, he believes that wasn't Biggie's choice. He's not the record label owner. He's an artist. He doesn't get a say. He says this song was produced for a previous album and they took it down because it was just way too violent.
And Diddy thought that's the perfect time to release it. It's gonna get so much attention, so many plays.
Yeah.
This is from Gene Deals perspective. Allegedly. Right. It's gonna. It's gonna bring in so much money because it's starting this Beef. Of course. I mean, look at what happened with Drake and Kendrick Lamar recently. Beef sells tapes.
Yeah. Yeah. He's such an opportunist too.
Yes. This would be the misunderstanding that starts everything. Because Tupac didn't hate Biggie when he went to jail. He just felt like it was weird. He felt like Biggie must have known about it. It was weird. Right now, Tupac is in prison. He hears from everyone, biggie just released this track. He admitted that he shot you and was now, like teasing you while you're in prison. In fact, while he's in prison, Biggie is out there bragging about all of it, these records and all this. It's crazy. This is what Tupac is being told. Naturally, Tupac feels betrayed. And while Tupac is in prison, Biggie takes over the hip hop world. Now this is where things get interesting. He's in prison for like a year and a half, by the way. Some people think that Biggie had nothing to do with the shooting and again, had no idea that this song was going to go out or he kind of greenlit it, not thinking it was going to be a big deal. However, comma, it is not just the artists that are fighting. It's not just Tupac and Biggie that are fighting. Suge Knight, the owner of Death Row Records that Tupac gets signed to in prison.
So he's not signed with Suge Knight yet. He signed with Interscope Records from earlier that MGK was signed with. Now Shug wanted someone to compete with Big and it had to be Tupac. He doesn't know anybody else. He's saying that Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, they're so talented. But there's something about. Some people just have that musicality, they have that lyricism. It just. It comes to them so naturally. Shug mainly does this because he likes Money, let's be real. He likes his business, and he wants to take over bad boy records. He wants death row to be a monopoly. He's thinking of starting a death row east coast coast to take over that side. And he might have a vendetta against Diddy as well. He says that he and Diddy were actually very cool with each other. Like, they would pick each other out from the airport when they would visit. Visit the other coast, you know? And some people don't like, okay, I'm gonna break it down. It's a little confusing. Back then, east coast was the originator of hip hop is how they like to claim. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. They state that this is where all the biggest hip hop artists were coming out of.
Now, when there would be talented artists of west coast, they felt frustrated that they're not getting attention because they're not from the east coast. And sometimes the east coast rappers would make fun of the west coast rappers, like, they're just wannabes. So there was always this competition, but they always tried to help each other. Suge would even offer Diddy and his crew protection when they came out to perform on the west coast. There were a lot of groups of people, perhaps organized groups of people that would use this music to represent everything that they stood for and what coast they stood for. You get it? So for years, out of the goodness of Suge's heart, he says, which, take that as you will, because Suge Knight is in prison for manslaughter right now. So I don't know how much goodness he has in his heart, but he felt that once Diddy and Biggie got big, Diddy wanted to charge Suge Knight for everything, even though he helped him get big. Now Suge Knight is like, hey, can you come to the west coast to perform at a show? He's like, oh, I got to charge an appearance fee.
And it's like, what about all the times that I helped you without charging you? Suddenly you want to act like you're like, you're not indebted to me at all. It's is the feeling that Suge Knight has. Rightfully so or not, I don't know. But Suge Knight is pissed. He feels like Diddy owes him. Now, to be completely transparent, Suge Knight is also known as a bully in the game. That's how he's described. Some people think that Diddy and shug are cut from the same cloth. It's like comparing a terminal. Terminal illness to a different kind of Terminal illness. They're both cancers in society. They're both terrifying, both are ruthless, both get what they want no matter what. But other netizens argue two key differences. One, Suge Knight never pretends that he didn't do everything himself. Like, you know who you're getting into bed with when you get into bed with Suge Knight. Whereas Diddy does so much PR to be brother love. And two, from what the public knows, Suge is someone who hurt and exploited people. No question, he was a quote unquote gangster. But Diddy did all of that. And he's an alleged sexual criminal.
On top of that side note, Suge Knight has been arrested multiple times and charged with domestic violence. So keep that in your mind. But that's just what netizens have been stating. Now Suge Knight signs Tupac in prison and pays a $1.5 million bail to get him out. That's another part of the conspiracy. People are like, why is his bail so high? Because usually people with these types of charges, he got convicted, he's appealing it and he could get on bail while the appeal is being, you know, worked.
Okay. Cuz he's rich.
Yeah, some people say that, but he wasn't that rich at the time. Oh, yeah. He pays the bail. Which Interscope Records, the massive record company that he was signed with, did not want to because he wasn't mainstream enough for them. They didn't like the risk. Suge Knight pays the bail and immediately he comes out, signs with Death Row Records and both of them are ready to take down Bad Boy. Yeah. And they're very vocal about it. At a music awards, Suge Knight tells the east coast artist to come to Death Row Records. Unless you want your executive to dance in your videos and be in all the thumbnails of your records. Okay. He didn't say that at the time, but he didn't say the thumbnail part. Most of Biggie's songs on YouTube, if you go right now, they have Diddy on the thumbnail. Like, why does Notorious big song called Nasty Girl? Why is the thumbnail two women whispering into Diddy's ear?
Biggie's not in there?
No.
Oh, just Diddy.
Yeah.
Is. Did. Did he singing in there?
A lot of the songs that he's in, he's not even singing. He's just like dancing around Biggie. What? I mean, he's like a producer, but it's just like he's the ghost of Christmas past. Why are you always there? It feels like, what is the purpose? He's not singing really. He's not really dancing. Sometimes he'd be in the car driving. Biggie's in the passenger seat rapping. And then all of a sudden, Diddy would be like, hell, yeah. And that's it. It's weird.
So that's what Suge Knight was saying.
Yeah. Like, what are you doing? Why are you like, you're weird. You're like a corny executive is what they're calling him. Like, are you a hallucination? Why are you always there? It's just bizarre. What's the purpose? Diddy would later state that he was at the awards show. He said he was shocked that Suge said that because he thought they were friends. Regardless, the east coast versus west coast war battle, if you will, was ignited. And really without much of their own say, Tupac and Biggie become the faces of it. Tupac of the West Coast, Biggie of the East Coast. There are further allegations that Suge Knight might have been seeing one of Diddy's ex girlfriends and the mother of his child, Justin Combs's mom, Misa Hilton. Do you remember from the last episode, Suge Knight was allegedly seeing Misa Hilton, and they have pictures of Suge Knight hanging out with not just Misa Hilton, but Diddy's son Justin, and they wanted to run magazine ads with that picture and a caption to read. The east coast can't even take care of their own. Yeah. So it's getting really dirty really quick. Some state that Suge was actually protecting Misa from Diddy because others allege that Diddy was very violent with Misa.
But like I said, Shug seems to be violent with women as well, or he has a record of being violent with women. And others state that Suge was just doing it to get back at Diddy. But after all of this, after Suge Knight publicly insults Bad boy and Diddy, the next month, Suge Knight's friend Jake Robles is shot and killed at a party in Atlanta, allegedly by Diddy's bodyguard, Anthony Wolf Jones. The one that was also at the Manhattan shooting. Shooting with Jennifer Lopez, Same bodyguard, The bodyguard shot. That's the allegation.
Okay.
Other people are saying, no, it was a different guy that's also Diddy's longtime friend. But Suge Knight's best friend is killed at a party in Atlanta by someone who is apparently on Diddy's side. Now, it was later disputed, and Diddy vehemently denies it, saying, that's insane. Why would I have his friend killed? I have too much to lose. I fear God too much. It's just getting very messy. It just feels like the record labels have a lot more skin in the game. Whereas Tupac and Biggie were friends who had a falling out, and everything just escalates from there. I will say that most people believe that Suge Knight and Diddy were encouraging this anger from both sides. Whereas Tupac and Biggie, if they had sat down, I think that they could have talked it out. I mean, even the way that Tupac talks about in interview, he sounds more betrayed. He brings up the fact that he was the one that gave Biggie his first shows. As for having beef with Biggie, Tupac says, you know, Suge Knight told me something enlightening the other day. Having beef with Bad Boy Records is like going to a playground and picking on the kids.
Tupac says he sees himself like a big brother to Biggie. He can't have beef with him because he grew up and made money. He's mad at Biggie because he disrespected Tupac. That's it. That's why he's mad. He said Biggie got seduced by the power, not because he's an evil person, but because money is evil if it's not handled right. Fear got stronger than love. And they did things that they know they weren't supposed to do. They know in their heart. That's why they're in hell now. They can't sleep. That's why they're telling all the reporters, why are they doing this to us and to hip hop? Da da da da. Because they're in hell. They can't make money. They can't look at themselves because they know. All I ask for is if you're going to act like a guy gangster, you're gonna act like the king of New York. I'm gonna expect that. And when you don't come through, then I'm gonna want to crush your empire. And that's what it's time for. All five bullets touched me, but you couldn't kill me. So all you did was just give me more ambition, more drive.
You're really not gonna be able to stop me now. For the ones that shot me, thanks, but no thanks. I'm still alive. You missed. I'm hard to kill. He does go on to State, but he does love the East Coast. He was actually born in the East Coast. He was born in Harlem. It does get even messier, if you can imagine. It's almost the holiday season, and one of the most fulfilling gifts we've ever given was with the help of Shopify a couple years back my husband, my sister in law and I were able to surprise my grandfather, well my husband's grandfather with a storefront for his paintings. He had been this classical Chinese painter for basically his entire life. He shelved his professional dreams for his family and with the help of my husband, his other granddaughter and a lot of help from Shopify's global commerce program, we were able to turn his hobby into a full blown business and surprise him with all the profits which honestly he was just so astonished to even make a dollar from his artwork. To him he felt like a true artist. It was fulfillment of a lifelong dream and it would have been really difficult without Shopify.
From the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage all the way to did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow at every stage of your business. That's exactly why we love Shopify because even though we were selling limited editions of Grandpa Mango's work, Shopify was with us through all of it. For Grandpa Mango we were able to sell more artwork like posters, prints, originals with less effort. Just like millions of brands. Because Shopify powers 10% of all E commerce in the US and they are the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, Brooklinen and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Because Shopify helps you sell everywhere, turning browsers into buyers with the Internet's best converting checkout 36% better on average compared to other leading e commerce platforms. From their all in one e commerce platform to their in person POS system. Wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify and their new AI powered all star Shopify Magic have got you covered. Their award winning help is here to support your success every step of the way because businesses that grow grow with Shopify.
Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com rotten all lowercase go to shopify.com rotten now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com rotten a week after Tupac is released from prison, it's alleged that Biggie's wife Faith Evans, who is a signed with Bad Boy records the one that's on the song I'll be missing you, she flies out to LA for work, runs into Tupac and it's alleged that the two of them would end up sleeping together. Faith Evans has always denied this story, which side note they were actually supposed to meet each other. Faith said that she had Biggie's go ahead to go to LA and work with Tupac on his album.
What, after all of this?
Yeah. I don't know if Diddy was the one that was mainly having anger towards everybody, but it seems like Biggie at that time, I guess if this is true, if he did give the go ahead, he seems like, oh yeah, this is just music to get sales. Like were just beefing with each other to get sales, quote, unquote. And it's alleged that those who saw them in the studio, Faith was sitting on Tupac's lap. And it's not a great part. This is, this is not a great part in this. But Tupac would tell the New York Times in an interview that Biggie's wife bought him this new shirt and a new suit. And he did enough in terms of thanking her, which you can kind of draw the connections there. Now there's different versions of what happens after that. Some state that Biggie was very upset and potentially violent with Faith when this New York Times article came out. Others state that he understood Faith was put in this weird position because all of these rumors and this is the west coast just trying to fuck with Biggie because of the song who Shot you?
And things just start escalating quicker and quicker. Very soon after that, Tupac releases his second album, All Eyes on Me. This album would actually outsell Biggie's previous album, making him the most successful rapper. Death Row Records was back on top after this release. There was a confrontation at a music awards show in la, but thankfully nobody was injured. Guns were drawn. It's alleged that Biggie was confronted by Tupac and Shook while Diddy just ran up out of there. Which Biggie was allegedly upset with because what the hell was that? But Diddy allegedly told him, I can't be caught up in a gun play. It's not good for business. After that, it seems like things calm down, things are getting better. At future events, Shug would just kind of side sweep all these comments about Diddy saying, look, there's nothing between Death Row and Bad Boy or me and Puff. Death Row sells volume. So how could Puffy be a threat to me or Bad Boy be a threat to Death Row? But the next month everything blows up when Tupac releases a track called Hit Em Up. It is one of the most well known rap songs.
It's a pretty scathing response to Biggie's song. Notable lyrics include. And it kicks off strong. I effed your bitch, you fat motherfucker. West side Bad Boy killers You claim to be a player, but I fucked your wife. He also name drops Lil Kim, who is notably a music icon in her own right, like I said. But also the alleged mistress in the relationship with Faith, Evidence. And Biggie, he name drops her. There's also another play on words. Biggie has this very famous song called Player's Anthem, where he says, grab your dicks if you love hip hop. Tupac raps, grab your Glocks. When you see Tupac, call the cops when you see Tupac, who shot me but you punks didn't finish five shots couldn't drop me I took it and smiled. Now I'm gonna set the record straight. Now you tell him who won. I see them, they run. They don't want to fuck with us. Fuck Biggie, fuck Bad Boy as a staff record label and as a motherfucking crew. And if you want to be down with Bad Boy, then fuck you too. West side Till We Die is often referred to as, quote, the hardest diss track netizens have stated.
The diss tracks between Kendrick Lamar and Drake pale in comparison to the pure anger and betrayal that you can feel. Tupac has some people say rightfully so, some people say it's misplaced, but again, it's just a song. To which Diddy does an interview about the song, and he tries to reason with the reporter that it's just gone too far. He says, if I'm gonna set a man up to get shot, which I would never do, I'm not gonna be in the country. I'm gonna be in Bolivia somewhere. He says, I hope that T H u g life shit is really over. But on the real, if you're gonna be a motherfucking, you gotta. You gotta live and die a you know what I'm saying? There ain't no jumping in and out of that thug life if that's what you choose to do. You're gonna go out like that. I'm not one. The only ones I know are dead or in jail or about to be. But now the public is even more invested in the situation between the two. Bad Boy Records employees even receive death threats at this point, which one ex employee says, I don't recall reading in the employee manual that dodging bullets was part of my job description.
Tupac goes on to do an interview where he states he believes he knows the police know who shot him, but they're doing nothing about it. He says, I already know who shot me. Everybody knows who shot me. The police know who shot me. But that situation, what Comes around, goes around. I believe in karma. I believe in all of that. I'm not worried about it. They missed. I'm not worried about it unless they come back. And by some accounts, they do come back. September 7, 1996, at the Mike Tyson Bruce Selden fight at the MGM grand in Las Vegas. Tupac is shot four times in the streets of Vegas. He was sitting in the passenger seat of Suge Knight's car. Tupac allegedly had a previous run in with the Crips gang at the casino. They had a brief fight. They're separated, pulled apart. Suge and Tupac are headed to this new club. They're driving. After this fight, they're driving away. Cadillac pulls up and A gunman fires 14 shots into the car. Tupac is hit four times. Suge Knight is injured with a bullet fragment that hits him in the head, but he is not directly shot.
Six days later, Tupac dies from his injuries. He's only 25 years old. The conspiracies that he's still alive, it appears, are fueled understandably by a combination of wishful thinking and the way that his estate was able to continuously release his back catalog posthumously. Now, Snoop Dogg revealed when he went to see Tupac in the hospital, they were going through a rough patch. Like, they. They'd always loved each other, but it was just complicated. And he said he. When I walked in, I could just feel Tupac wasn't there. And I fainted. And his mother pulled me aside. Tupac's mother. And reminded me how strong I was. She was like, my baby. Ain't never seen you weak. I don't want you to be weak in front of him. You go in the bathroom, you fix yourself up, and you go back in there and you talk to him and you tell him how you feel.
That's. Tupac's mom is comforting Snoop Dogg.
Yeah. And Tupac is dead. His mom even said, my son called me every night. I haven't received a phone call in years. That's how I know it to be true. In regards to the conspiracy theories. Now, briefly, the main suspect was the guy that had a run in at the casino that got into a physical fight hours before Tupac's murder. His name is Orlando Anderson. He's a gang member. Now, officers were told by everybody, oh, yeah, the shooter is Orlando Anderson. Which they were like, okay, thank you so much for letting us know. We're gonna do absolutely nothing about it. How come they arrest him for a few hours? But they're like, I do think that the police didn't care.
Oh, they hated Tupac, right?
Yeah. It was said that even when Tupac was shot the first time in New York City at the Quad Studio, there was a police officer that came, did not like him and was basically laughing at him, taunting him as he's being taken away on a stretcher to the ambulance. Officers were told that it was Orlando Anderson. They do detain him for like a few hours and then let him go and they do nothing about it. It's just strange. For two years they barely look into him to figure out if he's involved, which he likely was, and if he was, was he ordered or hired by someone else to do it? Because he's part of this gang and it's known that he's not a high level person in this gang. He's not just going to go rogue typically. So what is this? The authorities don't even pretend like they're interested. Instead they wait it out and then two years later, Orlando Anderson is dead. He's shot in a gang related shootout that is unrelated to Tupac's death. But now he's dead. And one might presume. Okay, put the dots together. That's so embarrassing, right? So the lvpd, the Las Vegas Police Department said investigators have reason to believe that the altercation had no connection to the shooting.
But people are like, what are you saying right now? That doesn't even make any sense. And they just keep pushing it off. Now. The death of Tupac would make the east versus west coast rivalry reach its peak. There's a big reaction to this, I don't know if I want to call it because there is actually a different conflict that's called by this. But some LA police have said it was the 10 day conflict where it was gang shootouts nonstop between the rival gangs because it feels like they took out your representative, you know.
I see.
So there needs to be payback. There needs to be eye for an eye. Meanwhile, Diddy is very busy stating he has nothing to do with this. He says, we were shocked at first and we were hurt. It was like, damn, why did that have to happen then? We were scared because we know how the media is. We're the ones that they're pointing their fingers to. Kept on talking about it. I don't have nothing to do with Tupac getting kills. Which is crazy because in 2023 they're going to arrest someone who was allegedly in that car that gave the order that night. And he says, Keefe D says Diddy was going to pay me a million Dollars to do it. But it seems at that time, Biggie had no idea about any of this. Witnesses who were around him when he found out that Tupac had been shot, they said Biggie was. Was nervous and hopeful. He tried to reason, maybe just to himself, it's okay. He had been shot before. It was fine. He survived. He's gonna survive this one. He's fine. Once it was confirmed that Tupac was gone, it's alleged by Faith Evans that Biggie called her.
His voice was so low and small, and he was sobbing, and he just kept saying, something ain't right. Faye got up somewhere along the way, but that was my man. This is where things get stranger. Two days after Tupac's death, Biggie gets arrested for marijuana possession. They do get out in a few days, but when they do, the car that the cops had taken in, it won't start anymore. So Biggie and his friend, they go over to a dealership to get a rental car. It's like this big old Chrysler white van. Because they have to drive all the way from New York City to New Jersey. They need a car. They rent this old van, and on the highway, they get into a large accident, causing Biggie to fracture his leg. The accident is bad enough that he had to be cut out of the van. They had to come cut him out. So for the next two months, he's in rehab. He. He finds Faith, not his wife, but he finds God. I mean, I think this situation with Tupac, he's just trying to change his life. I think it's this feeling of waking up because what are we doing here?
Like, my. I'm gonna die if I keep going down this route. Like, it was never that serious. What is happening right now? He had a cane that he needed to walk with, and he would just stay home or in the studio working on his next album. He was getting death threats every single day from the West Coast. And I'm not saying, like, west coast hasn't Suge Knight potentially, but, like, the ones that are sending death threats are, like, the gangs that resonate with Tupac. He's just working on his next album, Life After Death, which he's gonna die soon. This will actually be released after he died, guys.
He named the album Life After Death.
Oh, this is even creepier. His first album with Bad Boy Records is Ready to Die. Then his second album that's released after he's killed is Life After Death.
But he started working on this album, naming it that name. Because of Tupac's death.
No.
Oh, no, it's not.
No, just life after death. It was about just reincarnating. Yeah, okay. Which will be eerie, you know. But before this album is released, Tupac's album is released posthumously. So he's passed. But he had this in the vault. It's the Seven Day Theory under the name Makavelli, because obviously these are done by Tupac. He had no intention of passing. He didn't know it was going to happen. There are a lot of disses towards bad boys scattered through throughout the whole album. In fact, on the back you have cartoon characters of Biggie and Diddy. Diddy is wearing a pink ballerina dress and he's dancing while Biggie is depicted as a. Depicted as a pig. And his beanie says pig instead of like Notorious B.I.G. it says pig. Biggie does not respond. In fact, he goes on to interviews to talk about how Tupac's death has enlightened him, if you will, because he realized it's not just two guys that have issues with each other, but they ignited this whole coast to coast rivalry. He says, I kind of realized how powerful me and Pak was, which is very valid. But that statement isn't really going to calm down the west coast or the East Coast.
And at its height, the west coast just want payback. They want to take one out on the East Coast. And the east coast feels defensive because Tupac is the one that was accusing Biggie in the first place. And the tensions just keep getting worse. Biggie's got this new album coming out and Diddy is allegedly telling him, you have to go to LA to promote this new album.
That is crazy.
Which a lot of people were confused by because technically he doesn't have to go to LA to promote this album. And so soon after Tupac's death, six months after Tupac's death, a lot of people would say that is very ill advised because he's getting death threats. They're telling him, don't come to California. You come to California, you're going to find out what California is about.
Did. Did he go?
Yes. Did he did go. Okay. It seems like Biggie really did not want to go. He actually scheduled like a press conference in Europe. He was going to go to Europe. They canceled that trip so that he would go to la. He didn't want to go to la. He didn't even really want to go to Europe. He didn't want to be on a plane. He still has that leg injury. And Biggie's like a big dude is how Gene Deal Describes him and says, sitting on a plane, even in first class, he's not going to be comfortable. Like, he doesn't want to travel, he doesn't want to be outside. It's just weird. So they end up doing all these meetings, these press tours, and then eventually one night, Diddy is like, hey, we got to go to a party. Because, like, I don't want to go to a party. I don't want to do any of these things. But for some reason.
How do we know these exact details?
Gene Deal, the former bodyguard, was Diddy's bodyguard guard the day he was there. He was holding Big's body when he died. Biggie's body.
So that. That's his first person encounter. Okay.
But still alleged, but first prison encounter. The bodyguard Gene Deal says he was gonna go ride with Biggie because the whole time he said in la, he was telling Diddy, we don't have enough protection for Biggie. Like, Biggie's the one getting all the threats. It's not really you, Diddy, Sorry, no offense, but, like, we need more protection for Biggie. But Gene Deal was specifically hired to protect Diddy, and he seems like the type of guy that's pretty punctual with his job. He's like, I like to dot my eyes and, you know, whatever, cross my T's. So he's like, we gotta. I'm gonna go in the car with Biggie on the way to the party because everybody knows we're going to that party, so I'm gonna be in the car. And Diddy allegedly forced him. No, you're riding with me unless you never want a job again. He gets into Diddy's car and he alleges that Diddy was riding very low, like he had popped his chair all the way down, which was weird.
Wow. So this former bodyguard is basically, you know, pointing fingers at Diddy without like actually saying that Diddy did it.
Yes. So there's, you know, there's a mix of people. There are some people who think Diddy facilitated Biggie's death. Some people think he just knew it was gonna happen and he just needed to make sure it wasn't him and he wasn't gonna stop it.
Then you might. Then he. He basically, you know, made it happen.
Yeah. So they're traveling in separate cars. Diddy and Biggie are in separate cars. And that is when, at a red light, similar to Tupac, Biggie is shot and killed. He is shot four times. Diddy's version of events is, so we're going out to the parking lot. And my car's in front of his car. I make a right. He's right behind us, but not right right behind us. We get to a light, and we're waiting there for him. And then this car pulls up. Then we cross the light. As we're crossing the light, I hear shots ring out. I duck down. I'm thinking, someone's shooting. And I've. I've been at parties before where people do that, shoot in the air. And then somebody in the car looked back. Biggie's car had been hit. I jumped out the car while the car is moving. So I run towards the car, and it's just him and his best friend. Everybody else had jumped out the car and ran. His best friend Damien is there. And I'm like, I'm here, I'm here. And Biggie slouched over, and I'm trying to push him because he's real big, and he got caught under the steering wheel.
So me and Damian are trying to push him off. I'm yelling, where's the hospital? We're driving to the hospital. I'm talking to him, touching him. I'm not feeling nothing. And due to the fact that I've seen people actually die, seeing that happen, I could kind of feel like it was death. It's like a feeling that you get I can't really describe to you. It's not a gift that I'm proud of having. I was like, damn, I think he's dead. I'm saying it inside myself. So we get to the hospital, running lights, everything. We carrying him inside, and we were there for maybe like half an hour. Then doctors come and tell us the news. I was on my knees praying the whole time. I was just stuck. I couldn't. I couldn't understand. It gets worse, though. I had Damien call Biggie's mother, and then in the middle of telling her, Damien breaks down. So I had to tell her.
Who's Damien?
Biggie's best friend that was in the car, thankfully alive. So I had to calm her down and try and get somebody over to the house. Biggie was just 24 years old. Tupac was 25. Diddy would talk frequently about Biggie's murder. He would say that dealing with the trauma and the stress really pushed him to release his debut album, no way Out. He had always been more of a producer and executive until Biggie died. And then he released no Way out with the song I'll be missing you, the tribute to Biggie. He says, I think I always Feel some sort of responsibility because I'm in this thing with him. He was my artist. Diddy says after Biggie's murder, he had to channel Biggie's mother. He says, I saw the strength in Biggie's mother. If she isn't giving up, if she's not jumping off a bridge, she's having to get up and go to work, still take care of her kids. I've got to get myself together now. Even back then, there were a lot of conspiracies of what happened. Some people believed face value, the east coast had someone take out Tupac. So the west coast retaliated and took out Biggie.
Right. But there were other conspiracies of what happened. The first being that Suge Knight took out his own artist, Tupac. Okay, yeah.
Why would he do that?
The allegation being the record label owner of Death Row Records knew that Tupac was gonna leave, was going to leave his label, start his own label and had him killed. I know some people really believe in it. I don't know why. Like I was reading through netizen theories, I just believe. Not that one for some. I'm not saying Suge Knight is a good person, right? But it seems like the connection that Tupac had to him and his connection, rather lack of indifference for money and hoarding money. It just doesn't sound that accurate. There were a lot of convincing netizens that were like, I mean, Suge Knight's not a good guy. And honestly, Tupac would have been better off without Suge Knight. But they don't think that Suge Knight was the one that ordered that hit. They think it was Diddy or somebody else. Then there are a small group of people. There were brief allegations that the goal wasn't even to kill Tupac that night. It was to kill Suge Knight. He was the real target. The theory goes that Suge Knight's ex wife and the former head of security of Death Row. I don't know if they had a thing, but the conspiracy goes.
They had planned to kill Suge Knight so that they could take control over the label. Both have denied the accusation. It was just a floating theory. Most people believed that Diddy was involved. But then when Biggie died, it was confusing. The west coast felt like, okay, maybe it's west coast versus East Coast. Something happened there. This is back then. But those close to Diddy said, we don't know if that's entirely true. They allege Notorious B.I.G. was planning on leaving Bad Boy. In fact, he had already hired Attorneys, and they were trying to get his publishing rights back from Diddy. Some even go on further to allege that Biggie did not like what Diddy did with all the Tupac stuff. Releasing the song who Shot you, Like, generating all this drama and then getting people killed. Like, it. He just wasn't. He didn't like that. He didn't like everything that was happening there. In which Diddy allegedly told Biggie's attorneys, I will never give up his publishing rights until I'm dead and my bones are crushed into powder. And I think it's true. I don't know specifically, but it seems like Tupac's family and his estate have been able to have more control over his legacy and have been able to continue that family line for Tupac.
Whereas for Biggie's case, it seems like Diddy still has a lot of control of his estate. I don't know if he gave it up recently when he was saying he's giving all his publishing rights back. Remember right before the Cassie lawsuit, he was like, I'm such a good person. I'm gonna give artists all their publishing rights back. Turned out to be a very sleazy move because he's asking all these artists, hey, you want your publishing rights back? Sign this crazy NDA where you can never speak about me publicly.
Wow.
But I don't know. Maybe he took care of Biggie's family. I don't know. I don't know. Like, I'm not Biggie's family. I don't know if they feel some type of way about him, but it just.
They haven't spoken up. Right?
They have spoken up about, like, the video of him beating Cassie.
What did they say?
Biggie's mom said if I see him, I want to slap him. Yeah, yeah, we'll get that. Now, according to some that knew the situation, said Biggie was absolutely gonna leave Puff. I know for a fact, because Biggie told me that the bodyguard Gene deal said that everybody wanted to leave Puffy. Everybody always leaves Puffy. Which side note, there is some foreshadowing because everybody does leave Diddy. It seems like he only has, like, three artists still signed under Bad Boy. Two of them are his own sons. Even Machine Gun Kelly left him to start a own label.
Oh, so he doesn't have that many artists. I thought he has so many.
He has all the publishing rights, so he's making money off their, like, royalties, I guess.
Oh, you're saying they sign and then they leave?
Yes. And then he's like, oh, I'LL give you your publishing rights back for those songs and stuff. Yeah. Now, Suge Knight would later state along the lines of, when Tupac died, he lost a lot, including a lot of money. Death Row Records lost a lot of money. So it seems like maybe the Tupac estate had some sort of arrangement with Death Row again. I don't know. Maybe they were upset with how Suge Knight handled it. I'm not sure, right? But when Biggie died, Diddy gained a lot. He gained a lot of money. On top of everything, he gained sympathy. He had his new debut album. He had that tribute to Biggie. He has all of this. But to this day, Diddy has denied all conspiracies and allegations about Tupac. Diddy says Tupac was the biggest star hip hop has ever seen. Hands down, his charisma, his personality, his whole shit. He was loved. But when it came to a situation, when you're in a war with somebody and you don't even want to fight the war, like, he was the worst. I was like, why do I have to be in a war with this motherfucker right here?
This motherfucker is crazy. It was unfair. Like, we ain't doing shit and we're getting accused of all this shit. We got motherfuckers making records about us, dissing us. He was later asked on the Breakfast Club, a podcast, about the situation with Tupac and how some people think he was involved. And he responds, and this whole thing is crazy. His whole demeanor changes throughout the interview. He's very animated with his hands, larger than life character. And then immediately when Tupac comes up, he's like a statue, like a Greek statue, very little movement. In fact, he takes a pen and he keeps pressing it into the side of his face. A lot of body language experts, which you guys know, I'm usually not the biggest fan, but they state that it's a way of him releasing tension. And he tells the host, look, check this out. We don't talk about things that are nonsense. We don't even entertain nonsense. So we're not even going to go there. With all due respect, I mean, I appreciate you as a journalist for asking, but it's nonsense. To which the comments read. I've only ever done one year of psychology classes, and I can tell you something's not right.
Another comment reads his mannerisms and his refusal to answer questions about Tupac's murder clearly says he's guilty. And in that same podcast, they went on a whole rant about 50 Cent potentially being gay, which, like, don't even get me started on 50 Cent. 50 Cent will be included in the next episode. This man has hated Diddy for as long as anyone can remember 50 Cent. If there are no haters, 50 Cent is gone. Like, 50 Cent is Diddy's number one hater. And they spent so long talking about it there. At one point, did. He's like, no, 50 loves me. And everyone's like, no, he doesn't. He does not love you. He doesn't like you. And he's like, okay. Like, they spend so long talking about all this nonsense, but then now you're saying, oh, that Tupac thing, where I would. If I were innocent, I would try to claim my innocence. I suddenly don't want to talk about nonsense. I'm so serious. He also rants during his first Rolling Stone cover that he got because of the success of his tribute, so songs too. Biggie, he says, I wanted to talk about the success that I had, the moves I made for black culture, things like that.
But this is what you want to talk about, like Tupac and Biggie. I'm not mad at you. This is what the readers want to hear. But it's fucked up. I've gotten my fame through tragedies. That's not pleasant for me. I'm even more popular now because of the tragedy of Biggie not popular in a good way, which this seems to be a trend about. The college crush incident, he says, basically on the line, along the lines of, it's not fair that everyone will remember me by the nine people that died. No matter how many platinums I sold, I'll always be known for that incident. Which is crazy. But what did he really do all of this for? Fame and money. I mean, murder and conspiracy to commit murder are extreme crimes. I guess we'll only know if it's discussed in court. But one who allegedly knew Diddy says, that guy was all about himself. All he cares about is power and this odd, strange, deep desire to remain famous. He loves having his photo taken. He loves showing off his extravagant life. He wants to keep Diddy at the top. Being part of his company is like a circus, and he's the ringmaster.
The main reason he's such a superstar is because all he thinks about is Diddy from the minute he wakes up until the minute he goes to bed. Diddy's hobby is Diddy. One insider source says everyone always chalked it up to him being a creative genius when it came to his obsession with controlling things, but he just really had a thing for fame. Okay. They nicknamed him at Bad Boy Records, Notorious vip, because he always wanted to be treated like a VIP Life after death. Biggie's album came out after Biggie passed. Diddy's debut album came out after Biggie passed. And it was this debate of who's going to be on Rolling Stone, according to the former bodyguard Gene Deal. And everyone was saying, it's gotta be Biggie, it's gotta be Biggie. This is his legacy. This is to remember him. And allegedly Diddy said, no, he's dead. I need to be on the COVID of Rolling Stone. The conspiracy. Now. This is a conspiracy. Nothing about this information is verified. It could have been made up by some guy in a bunker eating Pringles and drunk out of his mind. So please, do your own research.
I have no intention of convincing anyone. But the condition conspiracy that is widely available online is that allegedly Diddy put a hit out on Tupac. Once Tupac was gone, he realized that he is the prime target for revenge. People are pointing the finger at him and Biggie. So allegedly he went and had Biggie killed because he knows this isn't going to stop. I mean, it's only getting more and more intense. There's no end to this. A lot of people have interpreted the conspiracy theory in a few ways. That either either he planned for Biggie to get killed or he knew about it and did nothing does help Diddy a lot. First, the east coast versus West Coast. It ends a little bit after this because it's like, okay, we've lost everyone and everything. Let's just. We can't do this anymore. We can't keep going. Eye for an eye. They took someone, we took someone. It's then the truce 2. Instead of being the guy that might have been involved with the murder, he becomes the guy that lost so much. He lost his best friend. He lost so much in this rivalry. It's alleged that Biggie wanted to leave and take his publishing rights.
This way, he likely could have held onto it for much longer. And some people actually take it far past that and say they actually connect Kim Porter's death to this Biggie conspiracy. And they say after Biggie, Diddy's stardom and the trajectory of his life completely skyrocketed because of the tribute, all of this. People saw him in a certain light. He was very marketable. And then it seemed like his prime. After Ciroc, the alcohol brand, was dying down. There were new people coming onto the scene, which, I mean, he's still a billionaire. You would think that he'd be very happy. But the conspiracy theory is he still wants that fame. Like some insiders say, he loves fame. He loves being the Diddy. And so after Kim's passing, perhaps it was another way to reinvent himself. Because his next album after Kim's passing, there's a lot of tributes to Kim Porter, and he changes his name to Brother Love.
Oh, his actual name is Brother Love?
Well, he says, call me Brother Love, but he stated that he changed his government name to Sean Love Combs, but it doesn't appear so because alleged jail records show Sean John Combs.
I see.
But people are saying perhaps he, again, a conspiracy had something to do with Kim Porter's death. Because he wanted this another reinvigorated stage of his life. Because nobody was really talking about Diddy. Yeah, he just, like, existed. He's like a billionaire mogul, but no one's like, oh, my gosh, new music. He is, oh, the A lister, Right? Just a conspiracy. Gene Deal alleges that he once heard Diddy say, I'm a businessman. I'm about making money, but something's got to change. I don't care if Pac got to die. I don't care if Big got to die or if Suge Knight got to go to jail. This was during the East Coast, west coast rivalry. Another artist who knows Diddy well says he's a bitch. I mean, somebody have to. Somebody had to die. After Tupac died, he knew somebody was going to die. It's just the art of war. Like, they're going to take someone down.
Like, do we know who shot Biggie?
Yes. It seems to be someone that. Yeah, we do, but it's. It's, like, complicated. It's a whole other lore. Some people say that Suge Knight has connections to him. It's very complicated.
Yeah, but that's also. The case is not open. Like, nobody's investigating that murder.
I don't know what the investigators were doing on both these cases. It's unlikely that they were doing their job. But what I do know is allegedly Keefe D took a deal in 2009 in LA. Keefe D is the one that was arrested last year for Tupac's murder.
Okay.
He was arrested 2009 in Los Angeles on a massive narcotics charge, trafficking a lot of drugs. And so he more or less went into an agreement where he said that he would tell the police a lot of stuff about Diddy and the Tupac murder.
I thought the killer is. Is it Orlando?
Orlando, yes. He's the one that pulled the Trigger. Keefe D was in the car. He did not pull the trigger, but he was the one that allegedly ordered the hit because he wanted to get the $1 million. Orlando is his nephew. So it seems to be like they were all in the car. Orlando had just gotten into a fight with Tupac earlier, and they knew that Diddy had a one million dollar hit out on Tupac. So it wasn't even just them. He was like telling a few different people, like, hey, I'll give you a million dollars if you take out Tupac. So his nephew just gets into a fight with Tupac. It seems what he's trying to describe is, okay, then let's fucking settle it. Let's get our million dollars. And he said that basically, like, he just went on. He was released from his narcotics charge. Nothing happened to Diddy. Nothing happened with the Tupac case. He went life as normal. Went on to documentaries, went on to podcasts, wrote a book. We must require standardized testing for microphone purchases because he's just out here confessing to crimes. He said, we couldn't let no record company, studio gangster do us like that.
Had they lost their fucking rapping ass minds because they beat up his nephew at the casino? And he says when conversations would come up about a million dollar bounty on the heads of Suge Knight and Tupac Shakur, that was business. But after Tupac, Shug and them Death Row jumped on my nephew Baby Lane, AKA Orlando, that shit became ominously personal. The police would state Keefe D took down Keefe D. They say he put himself squarely in the middle of the conspiracy. He had acquired the gun. He had given the gun to the nephew, the shooter. And he had been present in the vehicle when they hunted down and located both Tupac and Suge Knight. All the other direct conspirators or participants are all dead. The other people in the car, they're dead now. He is the last man standing among the individuals that conspired to kill Tupac. But now the Internet does not believe that to be true. They believe. No, there's another person still standing or laying down or bent over. I'm not too familiar with how people pass time in federal prison. And that person is Sean Diddy Combs.
I see. So that's why, like, Eminem and all of these people in the industry keep referencing to us.
Yes. And they keep saying Diddy called the hit.
But none of this is confirmed.
No. And it's not like these two are strangers. Diddy actually knew Ke since the 90s. Yeah. Allegedly Diddy came And was like, I have a couple problems. I need to be handled now. Ke, his biggest problem with all of this, though, is that he never got paid.
He never got the million dollar.
No, there's a guy. There's a different guy, a middleman between Keefe D, I guess, and Diddy. And he allegedly got paid and gave nothing to Keefe D. That's what KVD is saying.
Okay. Are they looking for that guy? Did they.
He's dead. He died in 2012. Yeah. So I don't think that Diddy would ever go to court for Tupac's case because it's really. It's really Keefe D's word against Diddy's word. And if that guy is dead, I'm sure he paid him in cash. Likely there's no proof evidence of that cash. And with him being dead, who's to say Diddy could say I gave him that cash for watering my lawn, for supplying my baby oil. You know, it's like, who. Who is to say? Who's to prove that it is connected with kfc, right? Keefe D says, if he would have just given us half the money, I would have stayed strong. Meaning he wouldn't have ratted Diddy out to the cops. Which. Side note, Keefe D would later state that that's the only reason Diddy might get away with it because he never got paid for it. Like, he never directly paid Keefe D. So there's no connection to Diddy and Tupac? His death. He said he even went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony when Diddy got his star. And KVD said he went there to get his money. But there were so many cameras, so many people, he couldn't get in contact with Diddy.
Prior to his arrest, Keefe did an interview where he expresses his annoyance with how much Diddy didn't pay him. He says, you know Gene Deal, the former bodyguard? Complaining about you. I'm complaining about you. Goddamn, homie. I was on top of the world till I met your ass. Throw a dog a bone. Standing up there talking about daddy love. Some shit. Show us Some love, Mr. Love. I'll be watching you, dude. You just walk around me like. Like I'm some shit on the ground. God damn, dog. Fuck. What the fuck? Throw my kids something. Throw somebody's kids something. God damn. Daddy love. That ain't love. You ain't love. That's some bullshit. That ain't cool, dude. Just every fucking body. You just leaving bad taste in everybody's mouth, homie. Forget where you came From God damn. Fuck. Life ain't been the same, bro. Fuck. Men don't leave a bad taste in everybody's fucking mouth, dude. Shit ain't right, dude. Show some love, brother love I be seeing you do your little pretty dance show some love. God damn. And yeah, this is like before his 2023 arrest. So like, imagine just going on a podcast and being like, the person who hired me to murder someone, did not pay me for the murder, and you.
Need to show me some love.
Yeah, brother, love. Yeah. And the podcast host asked, do you feel like Diddy owes you? He says, yeah, I think you should look out. I'm still here, still waiting, bro. Perhaps it's time for Diddy to pay. Jason, whose 20 year old brother passed away during the celebrity basketball game, says, I believe in karma. He never really owned up to anything. He never told us he was sorry. Whatever is going on with him now in 2024, I guess it was meant to be. But me, I lost everything that day. I lost my big brother and I lost my best friend. Somebody who was present at the City College crowd crush said, I think his past deeds are coming back to him. I can't say I'm surprised, but it.
Took so freaking long. Yes, this was crazy. Like, this all happened decades ago and he's been living this mogul life. Yeah, that is crazy.
Being honored, giving lifetime achievement awards.
Yeah.
50 Cent, who we will talk about in the next part, he's a longtime hater. He responded to Keefe D implicating Diddy and Tupac's murder, tweeting, damn. So Pac got lined up by Brother Love. Lol. Time to lawyer up. Shit might get sticky.
Who's who should get lawyer?
Diddy. This is before he was arrested. As for Biggie's murder, Diddy's former bodyguard said he was there when Biggie was shot. He was in the car with Diddy. He said it was traumatizing to hold Biggie in your hands as he died and then to tell his mother what happened. He says there needs to be some accountability. It's in his humble opinion at least that Diddy and Bad Boy Records should be accountable for the lack of security because they knew what was going on at that time.
I see.
Regarding Tupac's death, one netizen writes, of course KVD isn't a hugely credible witness, but it seems like his story gains credibility every day. Another says he was obsessed with Pak because Pak represented everything he isn't and never could be about Diddy. Regarding Biggie's death, one netizen writes, Puffy creamed off Biggie's death. He knew what he was doing, sending him to la. He became a well known rapper and made more money off Big after he passed. Another comment reads, and then after his death, Puffy made a shit ton of money off tribute songs for Biggie. Like I'll be missing you pretend be Biggie's best friend when he was behind this murder. That's beyond evil. RIP Biggie, you were too young and you deserve better. Another just comments about how much new stuff is coming out about Diddy. And they write, I wouldn't be surprised if Diddy was revealed to be the Zodiac killer at this point. The Zodidiac. Others think this is actually way bigger than Diddy, that the people at the top have sent Diddy to be taken for the slaughter. They write, who did it? He with to be clapped with. All of this now, like everyone has known this stuff for decades, but within six months his life is basically over.
They're saying like the Tupac stuff, it was not a hidden secret.
Yeah.
The comments on the song I'll be missing you, the tribute song to Biggie, the comments now read every breath Diddy takes, every move Diddy makes, every single day, every time he prays, the guards will be watching you. Another reads, making a song for the guy you killed such a spineless animal. Or it's amazing how in the span of a year of song with beautiful lyrics that are so powerful it can shift and morph into something dark and strange. In terms of meeting, there is a lot of discourse on how this is impacting Diddy's legacy because there is argument that Diddy did help make black culture along with rap music, hip hop, he helped make it more mainstream. And indirectly he's likely helping a lot of black artists move forward in their careers, which is not my place to neither agree nor disagree about that discourse. Also, a lot of netizens have pointed out that a lot of his victims are black artists. Freddie P. One of his former artists states, so he said that he had been attacked recently because people are saying you're trying to take a black man down. And he's saying, how are people upset with me about.
Wait, what did he do?
He's been very vocal about how shady Diddy has been in the past with business. And a lot of people have been saying like nothing has been proven in the court of law yet, like you're just trying to take down a black man when there's probably a lot of white men involved in this, which is Very true. But Freddie P. Says we're just dealing with telling our story. And it sounds so harsh coming out. It sounds like we're trying to kill a legacy. But no, bro, I'm just trying to tell my story. If it sounds harsh, then you could look at Diddy how you want to. These are his actions. I'm not asking you to look at that, man. Harsh. I'm not saying judge that, man. Man, I'm not trying to make anybody look bad. I'm just telling you my truth. Is my truth offending you to. Which furthers the discourse of then why didn't they say anything before? Which some commented. People are so tough on the Internet. He's a supposed billionaire killer with connections. He threatened to blow up a dude's car and that shit happened. But sure, be tough on the Internet. Cassie opened up Pandora's box and now people have the courage to come out.
Others have stated that Diddy being behind bars is what encouraged a lot of people to come out, because a lot of the lawsuits now are after he's behind bars.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Tupac's family have hired Alex Spiro to investigate any links between Diddy and Tupac's murder. Which, side note, Alex Spiro is not a random lawyer. This is one of the top high profile attorneys in Hollywood. Previously repped Megan the Stallion, Jay Z, Elon Musk, Alec Baldwin, recently in the Rust case. And because everything comes full circle, Alex Spiro is also repping New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Eric Adams is the one that gifted Diddy the keys to the city of New York City and then took the keys away from Diddy. And then he is now facing his own corruption and bribery charges.
Wait, when was he hired by Tupac's family?
Oh, after Keefe D. Came out to say Diddy hired him.
So, like, the last few years.
Actually, recently, in the span of a few months.
Oh, yeah. Whoa.
So.
So this. This whole murder double murder from decades ago is unraveling, like, ongoing now.
Oh, like developing very quickly now. And Ke's trial is one month before Diddy's.
Wow.
Or two months. March.
That is crazy. Like, it just like you said, like, everything unravels, like, right now. Yes, decades of crimes.
And I mean, I wasn't too familiar with Diddy or any of the artists involved in this one. I think it was a little bit before my time, but I didn't even know about this college stampede, the college crush incident, which you would think that that would follow someone forever because, I mean, it's pretty bad. But regardless, Tupac's brother even did an interview recently where he states, decades ago, when his brother was killed, Diddy had called him. And he says, he basically said he had nothing to do with my brother's murder. I told him the truth has still yet to come out. So we're gonna see. Here we are 28 years later. It looks like there's some doubt in that statement. It does not appear that Biggie's family have hired an attorney to look into his death. But. But his mom did comment on the video of Diddy beating Cassie, and she says, I'm sick to my stomach. I'm praying for Cassie, and I'm praying for his mother. I don't want to believe the things I've heard, but I've seen the hotel video. I pray that he apologizes to her. I hope that I can see Shawn one day, and the only thing I want to do is slap the daylights out of him, and you can quote me on that.
Wow.
And she has stated about Diddy's relationship with her son, Biggie. I believe Sean loved my son after he was dead.
You're kidding me.
Yeah.
Wow. This is crazy. Like, truly, like, I think finally karma is catching up to him. Like, decades and decades. Like, every single person is coming out to, you know, share these stories.
Yeah. And like what you said. Tupac once said in an interview, I believe in karma. I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you, and maybe it's time. And that is part three of the Diddy case. I will see you in the last and final installment in a few days for part four. Please be safe, and I'll see you in the next one.