On September 3, 1994 at the Mecca Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a concert took place that included BOSS, Big Mike, Xscape, Spice 1, and more, including the headline act, 2pac.

What Happened Was Chilling

  After all the acts had done their thing, which included an appearance of MC Eiht with Spice 1, which really got the crowd pumped, it was time for 2pac and the crowd was ready--or were they? To the roar of "2pac" and "THUG LIFE," he hit the stage with vengeance, opening with a track called "Bury Me a G" from the new Thug Life album. But he seemed like a man out of control. Midway through the song, his mic started fading in and out. And while Thug Life were doing their verses 2pac was running around trying to get his mic to work. Finally, he got a working mic and all hell broke loose in Milwaukee. Half way through the second song, 2pac stopped the show for a "moment of silence" for the 14-year old girl killed in Chicago by an 11-year old boy (who was later killed himself.) But before the "silence" began 2pac yelled out: "You better stop killing those babies or else I'll murder you myself!"

He Was Out Of Control

 I sat with my camera in hand wondering, Where did that come from? But I didn't have time to think about it for long. 2pac was now yelling: "I taught you all about harming those babies. Keep it up and I'll murder all you muthafuckas." With that I started looking around the arena to see if anyone else was a shocked as I was. They were. Then I started thinking that it must be a skit or something in the act. But then I looked in his eyes. I was very close to the stage and I realized that this wasn't a skit. 2pac was serious. Before he could get to his next song, the audience started throwing coins at 2pac, and he wasn't gonna take that. No way. "I don't know who the fuck you all think I am. You muthafuckas better stop throwing shit at me!" He then offered a 200 dollar reward for anyone to bring an offender to him on stage and said: "He will get you paid, but he will die tonight."

A Violent Reaction

  Again, I was shocked! Where was all this coming from? Did a coin tossing incident cause this violent reaction? But what came next was even worse. People in the audience started throwing up gang signs at 2pac and taunting him. That did it. "You can flash them gang signs if you want," screamed 2pac, "but I'll kill all you muthafuckas! This is Thug Life!" Then he invited people to come on stage and try to "kick my ass!"

Things Were Definitely Out Of Control

  Thug Life rushed on stage to be with 2pac and I started thinking that this looked like a scene from West Side Story and when I thought it couldn't get worse, it did. A shouting match occurred with a guy in the pit (great, just where I am). A member of Thug Life and this guy just kept at it. Suddenly the guy threw a cassette on stage and then a water bottle was hurdled at him, missed and hit someone else in the audience. 2pac grabbed the mic stand like a sword and started daring people to come at him. Chaos was erupting all around me and then it happened. A member of Thug Life pulled a gun. The photographer next to me said, "Let's get out of here." And he didn't have to tell me twice! As I gathered my gear I kept glancing at the gun that was being held at his side. 2pac announced he would continue his show for the "real G's," but people now were beginning to run. Some for the exit, other, who were gangbangers, to the stage to challenge 2pac and Thug Life. I began to run as well and it wasn't toward the stage.

Gunfire

  Shots were fired from the stage, but luckily no one was hit. Police started entering the arena and the Mecca security tried to guide the people out so they wouldn't get trampled. I was glad to be out of there safely, but I felt I had to find out what happened. Later I interviewed the Chief of Security, Sgt. Delroy Roberts, who told me that the police had to kick in 2pac's dressing room door. They made everyone kneel with their hands behind their heads as they searched the dressing rooms. They found two semi-automatic weapons. No one admitted to knowing about the guns.

Had He Snapped?

  As I was leaving, people who had been in the audience were saying, "What was wrong with him?" "Has he snapped?" "We all could have been killed!" And we could have! I was shocked and saddened. Why did this happen? I had just witnessed another chapter in the troubled life of Tupac Amaru Shakur.

But Where Will All This End?

  This was the end of the story I wrote when I reported this incident. Now we know the answer to my final question. It ended badly and sadly. Personally, I liked 2pac. Having met him once in Chicago, I found him to be very pleasant and corporate as I took photos and interviewed him. I sincerely liked the guy. So I wanted to hear his side of what took place in Milwaukee. But a call to his manager's office informed me that the office was no longer representing Mr. Shakur. And that was the last time I had contact with the late Mr. Shakur.

  After Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas, few people paid attention to the shooting which occurred in 1994 at a Times Square recording studio. This was never fully explained, even by Tupac, but police ruled it a robbery attempt of Tupac's thousands of dollars in gold. There are still many questions which need to be answered especially concerning the beef between Tupac and Bad Boy records since Tupac claimed they set the 1994 shooting up. The following story reports everything which I have learned about the shooting. My sources are very credible but keep in mind that I have no hard evidence to back up my claims. Please feel free to judge for yourself whether what I say makes sense or not.

  First we must go back to November 30th, 1994. At 12:20 a.m., Tupac and his entourage of three men, including "Stretch" Walker of the Live Squad who was a close friend and his manager Freddie Moore, enter the building. One black male sits on a desk in the entranceway of the office building where the Quad is located. The man gets up from the desk as two other men walk through the door. Little Caeser had yelled down to Tupac's crew from the top of the recording studio so Tupac knew Biggie was there and felt safe thinking that these men were his security. The three men start to follow Tupac's entourage until they get to the elevators. It is at this point that they draw their guns and yell, "Give up the jewelry, and get on the floor!" Tupac's entourage quickly get on the floor but Tupac curses the gunmen and goes for one of the guns. In the struggle, Tupac is shot five times while his manager is hit once. The robbers then get off with $40,000 in jewelry. Moore gives chase to the robbers but collapses next door. Tupac is dragged into the elevator and taken upstairs where there are several well known individuals including Biggie Smalls and Sean "Puffy" Combs. Tupac would later describe the scene as very strange. He said that nobody even got up to help him but only stared at him as if they were surprised he was alive. Tupac said that the only person showing any emotion was Little Shawn who was crying. Later Tupac would mimic this scene in a rare video in which he walks from the elevator covered with blood as Biggie begs for his life blaming Puffy for the set up. This was perhaps Tupac's way of getting the truth to his fans. As he lay riddled with bullets, Tupac reportedly had someone roll him a joint and then he made a call to his girlfriend who called his mother and then he called 911.

  Officers arrived on the scene soon after the call was placed. When officers arrived, Tupac was greeted by the same officers which had arrested and testified against him in the sexual assault trial. This would lead many to believe that the police may have had something to do with it or the rape victim was seeking revenge but these would apparently turn out to be false accusations. Tupac had been shot five times throughout his body including two shots to the head. Miraculously he survived and was loaded into the ambulance where one of the greatest pictures of him ever was taken. Covered in blood and bandages, he flips the photographer off. He is rushed to the Bellevue trauma department where he is rushed into surgery. To everyone's surprise, Tupac later checks out less than three hours after his surgery claiming that he fears for his life.

  The next day, Tupac makes a surprise appearance in a Manhattan courtroom in anticipation of the verdict in his sexual assault trial. He is surrounded by Nation of Islam bodyguards and is in a wheelchair pictured). Although the verdict comes back guilty of a lesser offense, Tupac is rallied around by friends Jasmine Guy and Mickey Rourke. He remained free on $25,000 bail. Soon after he was sentenced to serve time on Rikers Island. Very little happened while he was in prison although he would reveal later that people in prison were telling him that it was Biggie's boy who shot him. Tupac's cousin even witnessed the shooters bragging that they had just shot him. These details were revealed by Tupac in one of his last interviews with KMEL. Almost one year later, Tupac was freed on bail pending appeal by Marion "Suge" Knight of Death Row records in exchange for a three album deal with Death Row.

  As soon as Tupac got to California, Tabitha Soren of MTV met with him for an interview. In that interview, Tupac looked deeply troubled when asked about the shooting as if he were scared to give too many details to the public out of fear for another attempt on his life. His confidence seemed to build up after that interview as he went on to point the finger at Bad Boy records as being responsible for the shooting. Puffy would later say that they had nothing to do with the shooting and that Tupac knew who shot him. It seems obvious that it was an inside job based on the fact that the robbers knew where he would be. Also, the robbers went right after Tupac rather than deal with Stretch who was much bigger. Tupac would later have a falling out with Stretch as Stretch became close with Bad Boy and had possibly known of the setup. Stretch was later found murdered execution style in Jamaica, Queens (NYC) exactly one year to the day after Tupac was shot in New York. Is that just another coincidence? I have heard that Stretch had been warned that his life was in danger, but he disregarded these warnings. Tupac tells a lot of things in the song "Against All Odds" on the Makaveli album. When he says, "And that nigga that was down with me/ Restin' dead/ Switched sides, guess his new friends wanted him dead/ Probably was murdered for the shit that I said", he is talking about Stretch. When he says, "Puffy's gettin' robbed like a bitch/ To hide that fact, he did some shit he shouldn't did/ So now he's ridin' for that", he is talking about Puffy being involved in the set up and being robbed by the financiers of Bad Boy. Perhaps he wasn't robbed as much if he helped set Tupac up. That would explain Puffy being more involved while Biggie just knew about the set up. There is another part of the song which possibly relates to the set up. When he says, "And did I mention/ Promised a payback, Jimmy Henchman/ In due time/ I knew you bitch niggas was listening/ The world is mine/ Set me up/ Wet me up/ Niggas stuck me up/ Heard the guns bust/ But you tricks never shut me up" he could either be implicating Henchmen Management/Entertainment in the shooting or the verse is split and he is just talking about another beef he had with them. Interpret how you want, but Tupac was telling the truth when he said "This be the realest shit I ever wrote."

  All signs pointed to Bad Boy at least knowing before hand of the shooting. Tupac never said Bad Boy was directly responsible, only that they "set him up." He would later say that he had met the shooter because he was a friend of Biggie's and Biggie had warned Tupac not to mess with him. When Tupac said that Bad Boy "set him up", he meant that they didn't warn him of the coming attack and possibly provided info about his location that night. Tupac had also said that he kept getting calls asking why he wasn't at the studio yet because he was delayed an hour trying to get some weed. Why would Bad Boy have been so concerned about getting him to the studio that late? It seems very obvious they were in on it.

  Now, that all the details are laid out, the new question becomes what was the motive if it wasn't just a routine robbery? This question must be asked because why would Bad Boy set Tupac up for a $40,000 robbery by common thieves. That wouldn't make sense at all since they were all friends at the time. There was a more powerful party at work here, not just common thieves, who were powerful enough to force Puffy and Biggie to cooperate out of fear. This is where things get really interesting.

  The story is that Tupac was shot because of some dealings with some shady people in New York known as the "Black Mafia." These people, it is rumored, financed Bad Boy records. Tupac met some of these people in New York, including the mysterious Trevor who later admitted to some undercover cops that he had been involved in the shooting and it was because Tupac "needed to be disciplined." That is a straight quote which has come from more than one source. It is said that these "Black Mafia" characters demanded that Tupac sign on to Bad Boy records since Bad Boy still really wasn't on the scene and needed an artist like Tupac but Tupac refused the demands. Tupac was supposed to die that night. This was punishment for saying no. If you remember Tupac, in his first interview after being shot, said in Vibe that people were trying to kill him. These were those people. That is another reason why Tupac went to Death Row, because Suge could provide the protection he needed. Puffy played the real role in this shooting, although Biggie knew about it. Puffy didn't order the shooting, he however, helped set up Tupac. Also, if you recall, Tupac never said Puffy did it, he said he was set up by Puffy.

  This is the story of the 1994 shooting in New York City. Think of it what you will but realize that there is more to the music business than the ordinary media will show. With all the details emerging from this shooting nearly 2 and a half years later, we must ask ourselves if the shooting in Las Vegas was just another jewelry robbery or if it was the complex situation like that which surrounded the 1994 shooting. Keep in mind that Tupac was shot in 1994 because he didn't sign a contract therefore not making money for Bad Boy and it was covered up with the front of a robbery. Now we must ask, was Tupac shot in Las Vegas in 1996 because his contract was over with Death Row and it was covered up with the medallion robbery story. Did history repeat itself? You be the judge.

  Six months after the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas-- a case in which no arrests have yet been made -- MTV News has obtained a 29-page document prepared by police in Compton, California, which reveals that only a few days after Shakur's murder last September 7th, Compton police had already learned the name of the man some local gang members believed to be responsible for the crime.

  This document, it must be emphasized, is based largely on the words of Compton police informants. It does not legally prove who killed Tupac, nor does it legally prove that his death was a gang murder. Proof is the job of the courts. However, the Compton police document does contain a startling account of the events that led up to Shakur's murder and a  shot-by-shot account of the five day blood bath his killing seems to have set off in Compton. A gang-war that apparently left three men dead and ten wounded. It also deals with a host of questions as to the identity of the man who allegedly shot Tupac Shakur.

  This 29-page statement of probable cause offers some intriguing answers. It was written up by Compton police last September and was attached to a motion filed in February by Suge Knight's defense team as part of their attempt to overturn Knight's probation violation. Based largely on information provided to the Compton police by their gang-informants, the statement (or affidavit) gives an unverified but considerably detailed account of gang-related  activity in Compton before and after the shooting of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas on the night of Saturday, September 7th.

  According to the statement of probable cause, five days after Shakur was shot, an informant with special knowledge of the activities of the Bloods -- a man identified in the statement as CRI or "confidential reliable informant" #3 --provided police with a sequence of events which suggested that the shooting in Vegas might have been the culmination of a beef that began at the Lakewood Mall in Compton. The informant told Compton police that a man named Travon Lane -- a Death Row affiliate also known as "Tray" -- was at the mall's Foot Locker in July or August of last year when he was confronted by several members of the Southside Crips. There was a scuffle during which Lane's Death Row medallion was taken from him.

  Fast forward to September 7th in Las Vegas -- the night of the Tyson/Seldon fight at the MGM Grand. According to the affidavit, CRI #3 told the Compton cops that moments after the bout, Travon Lane was walking through the hotel as part of Death Row's entourage when he spotted a man later identified as Orlando Anderson. The same man, Lane thought who'd taken his medallion at the Lakewood mall two months ago. Lane pointed the man out to Shakur. Shakur confronted Anderson with the question "You from the South?" -- an apparent reference to the Southside Crips. A melee ensued -- captured on tape by MGM Grand surveillance cameras.

  Little more than an hour later, as a line of Death Row cars snaked its way to a party at Knight's Club 662, a white Cadillac with California license plates -- according to one report -- pulled up to the right of Shakur and Knight's vehicle. According to the affidavit, a passenger opened fire with a Glock .40 caliber handgun, grazing Knight and critically wounding Shakur - as members of the Death Row entourage watched from the cars behind Knight's.

   In the affidavit, the informant is also said to have told Compton police he heard Travon Lane at Club 662 declaring that the shooter was the same man who'd been in the melee at the MGM Grand and that the shooter was "Keefee D's nephew." According to police, Orlando Anderson is the nephew of the man known by Compton police to be Keefee D. Both are reputed to be Southside Crips.

  Back in Compton on September 9th, the day according to the affidavit that another informant noticed a late-model white Cadillac being driven into a local auto shop by Orlando Anderson's cousin-- three separate Blood sects convened at Lueders Park. The topic of discussion, according to the affidavit? The need to retaliate against the Southside Crips for the attack on Tupac Shakur. Compton police were told by their informant that five sites for drive-by shootings were chosen. Three potential targets were singled out.

  At 2:58 that afternoon at a location on East Alondra, one such man -- whose name was mentioned to Las Vegas police as someone who might have been riding in the white Cadillac -- was shot in the back. The war was on.

  Two days later at 9:05 on the morning of September 11th, Southside Crip Bobby Finch was gunned down on South Mayo. The next day, Vegas police told Compton cops that they'd received calls that Finch had been riding in the white Cadillac. By early morning on the 14th, five more people had been shot in what Compton police regarded as related assaults. Meanwhile, three Bloods were fired on and wounded in two separate shootings. On September 13th, the day Tupac Shakur died, two more Bloods were shot and killed by an assailant who fled on foot.

  As the gang war raged, police in Compton and Las Vegas continued to receive unsubstantiated tips that "Keefee D's nephew" or " Baby Lane" -- aliases for Orlando Anderson -- had shot Tupac Shakur. On the 13th, the affidavit says, one reputed member of the Bloods identified the man who'd shot him in Compton two days earlier as Orlando Anderson. On the 20th, an eyewitness fingered Anderson as the trigger man in an April 1996 homicide. Around that same time, the affidavit states, an informant told one police officer that Anderson had been spotted with a .40 caliber Glock handgun -- a potentially significant tip, since it hadn't yet been revealed publicly that a .40 caliber Glock had been used in the attack on Shakur.

  On October 2nd, as part of a gang sweep, Compton police arrested Anderson in connection with that April 1996 homicide, but the District Attorney's office declined to press charges and asked police to gather more evidence. Compton police told MTV News that Anderson remains the prime suspect in the April 1996 homicide, and charges are expected to be formally filed imminently. As for Anderson's attorney, he declined to comment on this or any other allegations contained in the affidavit. And says that he has not been informed that his client remains the prime suspect in that April 1996 homicide. He has previously denied that Anderson was in any way involved with the killing of Shakur.

  While testifying under oath in Suge Knight's probation hearing, Orlando Anderson invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked if he was a member of the Crips and denied that Knight had assaulted him. Vegas police questioned Anderson briefly in October after which one Vegas cop was quoted as saying that Anderson was not a suspect in Shakur's murder. Four months later, Vegas Sgt. Kevin Manning told the Los Angeles Times that Anderson was indeed a suspect in Shakur's killing, but that the department lacks hard evidence against him. Vegas police say that since the night of the shooting they have not been able to speak to Travon Lane -- who the affidavit asserts was involved with the scuffle with Anderson at the Lakewood Mall, who pointed Anderson out to Shakur at the MGM Grand and was heard at Club 662 hours after the shooting ID'ing Anderson as the shooter. Efforts by MTV News to talk with Travon Lane were unsuccessful.

  There's a new literary giant going under the microscope at the University of California at Berkeley, and he's sold more albums than Shakespeare, Keats, and Yeats combined. Tupac Shakur is stirring up attendance rosters in a new class that studies the poems of the late rapper, reports the Associated Press. When the class was offered this semester, it drew more than one hundred students. "He's the Bob Dylan of our day," said Arvand Elihu, a junior who has been given the university's blessing to teach the class for full credit. The pass-or-fail course is based on a collection of poetry and unreleased material left behind by Shakur, who was murdered on the Las Vegas Strip on September 13, 1996. Also lending a hand in the class is the woman who says she was Tupac's first manager, Leila Steinberg. Steinberg is currently working with Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, to publish a volume of the rapper's poetry.

  Not the first of its kind, the Tupac Shakur class follows a recent university trend of offering pop classes in lieu of the classics. Back in 1992, Syracuse University offered a course on the cultural impact of MTV--and over four hundred students signed up. Since then, universities all over the world have gotten the itch to offer slices of pop culture as higher education. In April, Amsterdam University started signing 'em up for Madonna 101, where fifty followers of the Material Girl could study the cone-shaped bra and learn what makes Madonna sing. Earlier this year, a high school in England offered a Spice Girls class for parents, to try to help them understand exactly what their teenagers were listening to.