E.D.I., so named
for his physical semblance to former Ugandan President Idi Amin, may be an outlaw
by moniker, but he’s a hustler by nature. The Co-CEO of One Nation Music Inc.,
along with his Outlaw partners, Young Noble and Kastro, has managed to triumph
over tragedy and advance through adversity to become a major figga in the independent
rap game, powerful and savvy enough to turn down numerous major label offers
that would have stripped him of his independent hustle in favor of the one major
(can’t spoil the surprise) that will finally bring the Outlawz to their well-deserved
place on the world stage while allowing them to stay on their indie grind.
Currently wrapping
up his work for the soundtrack to this fall’s Tupac: Resurrection feature film
documentary, a compilation album entitled Outlawz: Reloaded, as well as work
for the major label debut from the Outlawz due next year, E.D.I. agreed to revisit
the night that forever changed his life, offer some shocking insight into the
murders of both his mentor, 2Pac, and his outlaw comrade, Kadafi, and shine
a light on the darkness of a purposefully sabotaged police investigation.
Allhiphop.com:
Who do you believe murdered Tupac Shakur?
E.D.I.: I don’t
think it was one person, I think several people had something to do with it,
several persons had something to do with it. I can’t point the finger at one
individual person, I just feel it was more of a conspiracy type of thing, and
you know conspiracies involve more than one person.
Allhiphop: Is there
any particular theory out there that you align yourself to?
E.D.I.: No.
Allhiphop: Where
were you in that caravan of cars that night on the strip?
E.D.I.: I was in
the car behind Tupac.
Allhiphop: Where
in the vehicle were you?
E.D.I.: I was in
the back seat, passenger side.
Allhiphop: What
did you see?
E.D.I.: I just
seen a white Cadillac roll up and start shooting.
Allhiphop: This
has been reported different ways; did you happen to see if someone got out of
that Cadillac?
E.D.I.: No, nobody
got out of the Cadillac.
Allhiphop: And
were you able to make out any type of description of the person who actually
did the shooting?
E.D.I.: No.
Allhiphop: Did
you happen to see how many people were actually in the shooter’s car?
E.D.I.: I thought
it was only three individuals, I’ve heard there was four, I heard there was
only two, I thought I saw three.
Allhiphop: Did
the Las Vegas Metro Police interview you after the shooting?
E.D.I.: No, they
didn’t interview me that evening; they more or less sequestered us. They were
more or less thinking that we had something to do with the shooting.
Allhiphop: Were
you actually placed into custody, were you put in handcuffs?
E.D.I.: For a short
period of time, then they took the handcuffs off of us and we just sat on the
strip.
Allhiphop: Did
they order you to sit there?
E.D.I.: Yes.
Allhiphop: How
long did all of this take place before they actually let you go?
E.D.I.: It was
about two, three hours, maybe even longer than that.
Allhiphop: So they
put you on the sidewalk, and then they take you to the station to interview
you or they interview you there on the spot?
E.D.I.: No, they
just asked the questions, "what did we see," "did we see the
vehicle," "did we see the shooters," and that was pretty much
it, they just had us sitting there. And then they started getting into a whole
bunch of other questions that didn’t even have anything to do with the shooting,
like, "what gang are you from," "who got guns on ’em," "who
got weed on ’em."
Allhiphop: So they
had automatically assumed this was gang related?
E.D.I.: Yes, especially
when they saw we had tattoos. When they saw our tattoos, they were like, "what
Outlaw gang is in L.A., is it a Crip gang or a Blood gang?"
Allhiphop: How
would you categorize the overall treatment that you received from the police?
E.D.I.: I’ll put
it to you like this, anybody that’s been to Vegas know how Metro get down. Metro
is basically the same as LAPD, probably even a little bit worse. When ‘Pac and
Suge spun out we all ran up to the vehicle and the police immediately approached
us with shotguns to our face and said, "don’t step an inch further."
Allhiphop: Did
the police ever follow-up with you after that night?
E.D.I.: No.
Allhiphop: They
never called you up and asked you to come down to the station or anything like
that?
E.D.I.: No, not
at all.
Allhiphop: Were
you ever shown any kind of photo lineup to identify anyone you may have seen
in that car?
E.D.I.: No.
Allhiphop: What
are your personal feelings overall about the police investigation?
E.D.I.: I don’t
wanna weird people out, but I really think they are under direct orders from
some agency, somebody, someone not to really investigate this any further. It’s
Las Vegas, nothing that big can happen on the strip without a whole lot of people
being involved. I feel like it would behoove them not to pursue this anymore.
Allhiphop: I interviewed
Cathy Scott and she has spoken to cops who were close to the case and they said
they didn’t pursue it because it was bad for tourism.
E.D.I.: Right,
there it is, money! There it is right there. And if it ever got out to the general
public that something like this can happen in Las Vegas on the strip tourism
goes down. And that goes all the way up to the origins of Las Vegas, the people
that started Las Vegas, and even higher than that.
Allhiphop: Do you
believe Suge Knight had anything to do with Tupac’s murder?
E.D.I.: I don’t
really have an opinion on that, my opinion is time will tell, and that’s where
I’ll leave that at.
Allhiphop: Do you
believe Biggie had anything to do with Tupac’s murder?
E.D.I.: Same as
in Suge’s case, time will tell. I feel that there was more than one person who
had something to do with this, or was involved with this, or can have responsibility
placed on them.
Allhiphop: So basically
in your mind nobody can be completely ruled out.
E.D.I.: Exactly.
Allhiphop: This
next question ties into the events that transpired after Tupac passed. The Outlawz
have long maintained that Kadafi was murdered accidentally by Napoleon’s cousin,
however some people, such as Cathy Scott, believe this claim is false. Do you
still maintain today that Kadafi’s murder was an accident? And before you even
answer that, you know the theory, he was the only eyewitness who was going to
testify and people think he was murdered to prevent him from testifying.
E.D.I.: I’ll say
this off top, there’s no way in the world Kadafi would have testified in any
criminal case against anyone, unless he was forced, unless he was subpoenaed
and had to facing jail time, and even then I don’t know if he would. Because
we play by a bunch of different codes that just don’t allow us to do that. So
there’s no way in the world Kadafi was gonna testify, so that’ll answer the
next question. His murder was in no way related to ‘Pac’s. What happened to
Kadafi was something that happened in Jersey, it was some street sh*t that happened
in Jersey, at the time it went down I thought it was an accident, as time goes
on I don’t really know whether it was an accident or not. But I can say this
much, it had nothing to do with Tupac’s murder. I know that for a fact.
Allhiphop: Thank
you for that answer, that clarifies a lot right there. Well, my final question,
I think you may have just indirectly answered, but would you testify in court
to anything that you’ve told me here today?
E.D.I.: No. And
I told Vegas PD that also. We can’t do their job for them. That’s the one thing
Suge said that was right, they got a job to do.
Allhiphop: You
know it’s interesting; when I interviewed the District Attorney, and I asked
him if he’s ever prosecuted murder cases where you don’t have eyewitnesses to
the crime and you don’t have witnesses who’ll get up in court and testify, and
he basically said all the time, and they win them all of the time.
E.D.I.: Of course
they do! They’ll convict somebody on murder charges with nothing.
Allhiphop: Cathy Scott was telling me how she believes the guy they convicted
in Bill Cosby’s son’s murder didn’t even do it. They just put him in jail to
hurry up and solve it ’cause it was Bill Cosby’s son.
E.D.I.: Unbelievable.
And Bill Cosby has the money to lock that up, and to make sure that somebody
gets prosecuted.
