A resurfaced interview featuring Tupac Shakur has stirred the internet, as it shows the late rapper speculating on Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ possible involvement in a shooting that occurred two years prior to the California Love singer’s unsolved murder. This comes after the recent apprehension of Combs, who was arrested on Sept. 16 at a New York City hotel and currently faces a litany of federal charges including sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation for prostitution, allegations he staunchly denies.
While fans reflect on Diddy’s connections in the music industry – from mentoring talents like Usher and Justin Bieber – attention is drawn back to the 1994 Quad Studios shooting in Times Square, where Tupac survived being shot five times. In a 1995 Vibe magazine interview following the horrific event, Tupac hinted at Combs, then known as Puffy Daddy, having a role in orchestrating the attack.
The explosive interview clip, now circulating on Twitter (X), captures Tupac being asked about Puffy Daddy’s potential ties to the November 30, 1994 shooting. “It’s between me and him, and only he knows,” Tupac declared enigmatically.
Prior to the Quad Studios incident, Tupac had shown hesitation regarding his security while going to record for Little Shawn’s track, reports the Mirror.
“As we’re walking up to the building, somebody screamed from up the top of the studio,” Tupac shared with Vibe. “It was Little Caesar, Biggie’s sideman. That’s my homeboy. As soon as I saw him, all my concerns about the situation were relaxed.” Feeling at ease, Tupac and his crew entered the building.
Tupac was shot at New York City’s Quad Studios in 1994 ( Image: Instagram / @iamdiddy)
However, as he approached the elevator, he noticed a group of men he thought were part of Biggie’s team. The situation took a turn for the worse when Tupac realized they weren’t Biggie’s security.
In the interview, he remembered: “Even Biggie’s homeboys love me, why don’t they look up? I pressed the elevator button, turned around, and that’s when the dudes came out with the guns – two identical 9 mms. ‘Don’t nobody move. Everybody on the floor. You know what time it is. Run your s—. I was, like, ‘What should I do?”
Tupac, whose birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks, was then shot, suffering severe injuries from the unexpected attack, including a bullet grazing his skull. As the gunmen fled the scene, Tupac and his entourage rushed upstairs via the elevator.
Recalling the moments after the incident, Tupac said: “I’m limping and everything, but I don’t feel nothing. It’s numb. When we got upstairs, I looked around, and it scared the s— out of me.”
Tupac suspected insiders like Diddy and Biggie might have had prior knowledge of the attack that nearly took his life, as he noticed their odd reactions upon his arrival at the studio. “Nobody approached me. I noticed that nobody would look at me,” Tupac recalled.
He felt a cold shoulder from industry contacts, including record executive Andre Harrell. “Andre Harrell wouldn’t look at me. I had been going to dinner with him the last few days. He had invited me to the set of New York Undercover, telling me he was going to get me a job,” he said.
“Puffy was standing back too. I knew Puffy. He knew how much stuff I had done for Biggie before he came out.”
In 2008, Combs vehemently refuted any foreknowledge of the incident. “The story is a lie, it is beyond ridiculous and completely false,” he declared. “Neither the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during, or after it has happened.”
The world lost Tupac on September 13, 1996, following a drive-by shooting where he was hit four times in the chest by an assailant in a white Cadillac at a Las Vegas stoplight.
Tupac Shakur was killed in September 1996
In 2018, Diddy had a bone to pick with Eminem over his diss track, Killshot, which insinuates the Bad Boy CEO’s involvement in Tupac’s murder. Eminem raps in the contentious song: “Kells, the day you put out a hit’s the day Diddy admits that he put the hit out that got Pac killed, ah!”
Nonetheless, Eminem later backtracked in the track, saying: “And I’m just playin’, Diddy, You know I love you.”
Unamused by Eminem’s jab, Diddy swiftly shot back during a now-removed episode of the Joe Budden YouTube podcast, sending a chilling but vague message regarding Eminem’s bar. In the podcast, he ominously stated that the issue with Eminem was handled privately, asserting: “He said, ‘There’s nothing to say about it. It’s in my hands. He wild.”
