Tupac Shakur was shot five times in a recording studio in 1994, and in an unearthed interview he claimed that his rival Biggie Smalls knew about the attack beforehand

Tupac Shakur’s heartbreak as he claimed P. Diddy ‘knew’ he would be shot

A chilling video of Tupac Shakur discussing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ alleged involvement in a shooting incident two years before his death has re-emerged online in the wake of Combs’ recent arrest.

Combs, 54, found himself under arrest at a New York City hotel on Sept. 16 and later detained without bail on federal charges including sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has denied all charges, with his attorney asserting that the Bad Boy hitmaker is “an innocent man with nothing to hide.”

Following Combs’ arrest many have been looking back on the well-connected celebrity’s relationships with other musicians, including his mentoring of younger artists like Usher, 45, and Justin Bieber, 30. Resurfaced interviews with late rapper Tupac have also resurfaced on social media.

The iconic rapper was shot five times during a robbery at Quad Studios in Times Square on November 30, 1994, just two years before he was fatally shot dead in Las Vegas. In an interview with Vibe magazine in April 1995, Tupac suggested that Combs orchestrated the attack.

The footage from the interview, recently shared on Twitter (X), shows Tupac being asked if he believed Combs – then known as Puffy Daddy – was involved in the shooting. “It’s between me and him, and only he knows,” he responded. On the day of the shooting, Tupac had agreed to contribute to one of Little Shawn’s songs but expressed concerns about his safety before entering Quad Studios.

“As we’re walking up to the building, somebody screamed from up the top of the studio,” Tupac told Vibe Magazine in the 1995 interview: “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 reassured, Tupac and his entourage entered the building. However, as he neared the elevator, he spotted a group of men he assumed were associated with Biggie. The situation quickly escalated when Tupac realised they were not Biggie’s security.

Tupac, Biggie Smalls and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs performing together in New York in 1993(Image: Getty Images)

In the interview, he recalled: “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, born Lesane Parish Crooks, was shot five times, resulting in severe injuries from the unexpected attack, including a bullet grazing his skull. As the gunmen fled the scene, Tupac and his crew hurried upstairs via the lift. Recounting the moments after the assault, 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.”

Upon entering the studio, Tupac says he found Combs, Biggie Smalls and others. Their lack of reaction and shock led him to question if they knew about the attack beforehand. “Nobody approached me. I noticed that nobody would look at me,” he revealed in the interview conducted two years before his eventual death.

“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 added. “Puffy was standing back too. I knew Puffy. He knew how much stuff I had done for Biggie before he came out.”

Combs issued a statement in 2018 denying Tupac’s allegations (Image: Instagram / @iamdiddy)

In 2008, Combs denied knowing anything about the shooting. “The story is a lie, it is beyond ridiculous and completely false,” he said in a statement. “Neither the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during, or after it has happened.” Tupac died on September 13, 1996, six days after a man in a white Cadillac shot the Ghetto Gospel hitmaker four times in the chest at a stoplight in Las Vegas.

Back in 2018, Combs responded to Eminem’s diss track Killshot, which takes a dig at the music mogul and links him to Tupac’s murder. In the song, Eminem can be heard rapping: “Kells, the day you put out a hit’s the day Diddy admits that he put the hit out that got Pac killed, ah!” – a sly nod to the infamous 1996 drive-by shooting where the iconic Tupac Shakur was fatally gunned down. Eminem bushed it off later in the song saying: “And I’m just playin’, Diddy, You know I love you.”

However, Combs didn’t let Eminem’s lyrical shade slide and fired back in a since-deleted episode of the Joe Budden YouTube podcast. Dropping by as a guest, Combs cryptically addressed the controversial bar, expressing a vague but ominous sentiment. During the podcast, Combs declared the spat with Eminem was all sorted out behind the scenes and added, “He said, ‘There’s nothing to say about it. It’s in my hands. He wild.”

Adding fuel to the fire, NME reported rapper Jay Electronica chipping in amid his own beef with Eminem and tweeting out a fierce warning over the accusations levelled at Diddy: “How dare you accuse Diddy of killing Tupac…You best tread carefully, Son, before I come tear your ivory tower down like Sulaiman done the Templar Knights.”

Combs was arrested on Monday September 16 in New York City on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He’s been denied bail multiple times and is currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Centre (MDC) in Brooklyn. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denied all wrongdoing. His attorney Marc Agnifilo told the press outside court on Tuesday September 17: “Mr Combs is a fighter, he’s going to fight this to the end. He’s innocent. He came to New York to establish his innocence. He’s not afraid, he’s not afraid of the charges.”