14 years ago, a shooting happened that forever altered the course of Hip-Hop history and the lives of three of its most significant artists – Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G. and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
On November 30, 1994 Tupac Shakur was shot five times, pistol-whipped, and robbed in the lobby of the Quad Recordings Studios in Manhattan.
His friends, the Notorious B.I.G., Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Lil Cease, were present in the studio at the time of the robbery.
Over the last two years of life, Shakur publicly accused Diddy, Biggie, Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond, and several other New York rap figures of masterminding the crime.
The accusations culminated most famously with “Against All Odds,” Shakur’s final track off the posthumous Makaveli album.
The details of the incident remained confined to hearsay and innuendo until this past March when Los Angeles Times writer Chuck Philips published an explosive piece claiming that Diddy knew in advance that Shakur would be shot at the Quad.
The allegation was based on FBI documents detailing statements from James Sabatino, an informant and alleged son of a captain in the Colombo crime family.
Sabatino claimed he told Diddy personally that Shakur would be assaulted at the studio and that he later did business with the mogul during the 1997 “No Way Out Tour.”
He also allegedly planned the attack with current Czar Entertainment CEO Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond.
Despite Sabatino currently serving a 12-year sentence in federal prison for racketeering and wire fraud, writer Chuck Philips insisted he was a reliable source and the incident is what sparked the East-West Hip-Hop feud.
“Tupac was mostly right about what he wrote about [in his songs],”” Chuck Philips told AllHipHop.com in March.
“Tupac’s shooting at the Quad was really a catalyst for everything that happened afterwards including his own death and including the death of Biggie. It started the whole thing off and if you lay it out in a timeline which I do, you can see; it’s obvious and kind of sad for two guys to be this talented. I ended up with a much larger story than imagined,” Chuck Philips said.
Diddy immediately refuted the claims, calling them irresponsible on the part of the Los Angeles Times and Philips, who years before wrote a story claiming Biggie had ventured to Las Vegas to personally order Tupac’s 1996 murder.
That story was later discredited by eyewitness accounts.
“The story is beyond ridiculous and completely false,” Sean “Diddy” Combs told AllHipHop.com’s Grouchy Greg. “Neither Biggie nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened. It is a complete lie to suggest hat there was any involvement by Biggie or myself.”
Rosemond, long accused by some of being involved in the shooting and named as a conspirator on Tupac’s “Against All Odds,” pointed out that the story had no merit when one analyzed the writer’s credibility.
“In the past 14 years, I have not even been questioned by law enforcement with regard to the assault of Tupac Shakur, let alone brought up on charges,” Rosemond explained. “
“Chuck Philips, the writer who in the past has falsely claimed that the Notorious Biggie Smalls was in Las Vegas when Tupac was murdered and that Biggie supplied the gun that killed Tupac only to be proven wrong as Biggie was in New Jersey recuperating from a car accident, has reached a new low by employing fourth-hand information from desperate jailhouse informants along with ancient FBI reports to create this fabrication,” Rosemond continued.
Diddy and Rosemond’s claims proved true when the Smoking Gun website exposed that Philips’ article was based on forged FBI documents from Sabatino.
Furthermore, the LA Times admitted that James Sabatino’s alleged role as a confidant of Diddy and Rosemond was also a lie created to add authenticity to his story.
Although the story was retracted and a lengthy, public apology was given to all involved, and the LA Times was highly embarrassed.
The incident marked the second time a high-profile story involving Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. was proven wrong based on unreliable sources from writer Chuck Philips.
In the fallout, the LA Times laid Chuck Philips off his longtime staff position, citing budgetary constraints.
Diddy and Rosemond were and likely still are contemplating legal action against the Times for what can be considered libelous accusations made against them.
To date, there has been no investigation into whether similar disinformation was supplied to Shakur while he was incarcerated after his 1994 conviction.