If you listen closely to the first three seconds of Makaveli 7 Day theory you can hear "Suge shot me". It's hard to say how, by who, and when it was put there. It remains a mystery. When Tupac was sent to prison in 1994 he was planning on spending atleast 3 years there. He hated prison and would have done anything to get himself out of there. Suge had previously asked him to join Deathrow, but he said "he just wasn't ready." The reality of it is that Tupac didn't want to join Deathrow, but changed his mind when faced with prison. Suge said he'd get Tupac out, in exchange Tupac had to do 3 albums for Deathrow. They worked out a contract in which Tupac would receive an advance of $1 million for the first album, in addition to $125,000 for a car, a $120,000 expense allowance for one year, a $250,000 legal fund to be spent as Tupac desired, and David's legal services. Tupac would be paid a royalty of 18 points for sales of the first album, plus a bonus of 1% if it went Gold, and another 1% if it went Platinum. For the second and third, Tupac would be paid an advance of no less than $1 million, or $1 million for every million copies of the prior album which was sold, and he would be paid a royalty of 18% of sales, plus a bonus of l% if it went Gold, and another 1% if it went Platinum. Tupac said at the time he signed the contract "I know I'm selling my soul." But he couldn't stand another few years in prison.
Tupac agreed and Deathrow lawyer David Kenner went about bailing Tupac out of jail. The New York Court of Appeals granted him leave to post bail. $850,000 was raised by Atlantic Records, which was posted in a corporate guarantee. The rest was put up with a $300,000 bail bond and $250,000 in cash from Suge or Interscope. Tupac immediately began and released the album All Eyez on Me, a double CD which covered the first 2 cd's of the contract. While on Deathrow Tupac really seemed to change, influenced by Suge in the mob lifestyle and obviously bitter for the setup in the rape case and being shot 5 times. While on Deathrow he was jacked by Suge Knight repeatedly. He was charged rent on a Wilshire apartment that other Deathrow artists lived in on 9 seperate occasions. He was charged $23,857 for repairs to a porche owned by Steve Cantrock and Suge. Suge and another Death Row representative, who were in California at the time, on the phone told him that he had spent $2 million more than he was entitled to receive. He was charged $115,507 for three pieces of jewelry from B.L. Diamonds, Suge said that the jewelry was a gift to Tupac from Suge, but the bills were never paid. On May 2nd, Tupac was charged $14,500 rent for a house in Malibu which David Kenner lived in. He was then charged $100,000 rent for David Kenner, then $12,000 more. He paid $2700 for Nate Dogg's child support and charged $5,845 for jewelry that Suge bought from XIV Karats Ltd. Sept 3rd he was charged with expenses associated with Michel'le Toussa's Range Rover for $1,453.51. He was also charged over $28,000 for a Chevy Suburban Title. It was taken in Tupac's name initially, but was given to Suge's brother-in-law, Norris Anderson. Tupac was charged $51,425 in connection with the cost of transferring the car to Norris. In August Tupac was charged $2,965, for an American Express bill from Suge's wife. Tupac was charged with expenses that he never agreed to pay which were attendant to the production of albums released by Death Row. He was charged $3,421,842 in video production costs and $663,012 in audio production costs. When Tupac died he had no mutual funds, IRA, or real estate. He owned no stocks or bonds, and had a checking account that had less than $105,000. He also didn't own his Woodland Hills house in San Fernando Valley that he had recently thought he had bought. There was a five-figure life insurance policy, the beneficiary was Sekyiwa, a $61,000 Jaguar that Suge got for Tupac's appearance in a commercial, and a Hummer. His apartment, Rolls-Royce, and Mercedes were listed in Death Row's name.
There's no question Deathrow was run corruptly, and they owed Tupac a lot of money, which is reason enough to kill Tupac. With Tupac's last CD, Makaveli The 7 Day theory, Tupac was poised to leave the row as he'd filled his contract agreement. He was ready to setup Makaveli Records and Euphanasia, a production company from which he wanted to make movies. He was going to be the first artist on the label, One Nation was the second and he had plans to sign Greg Nice and Smooth, another group at quest and Ghetto Starz which is an offshoot of The Outlaws. He also had another company called 24/7, for his music and video work, the scripts he was writing, and the books he would begin as soon as he finished the plans he was doing with Leila to reform the educational system. On August 26th, 12 days before Tupac was shot, he was on the set all day and at the studio all night. On the 27th, Tupac sent Yaasmyn Fula, who managed his business affairs, to the studio to get tapes of what he had done because he wanted to listen to them. Deathrow said no, David Kenner wouldn't allow it. Tupac fired him. Yaasmyn wrote a letter saying that Tupac had finished his last album and he wanted to leave Death Row. Tupac gave Yaasmyn permission to hire another lawyer. On september 7th, Tupac went back to L.A. He decided he wasn't going to go to Las Vegas, but to Atlanta to settle problems with some relatives instead. Suge got him to change his plans because weeks before he'd promised Suge he'd go to the Tyson/Seldon fight with him. He said he didn't want to go, but he'd given Suge his word. At the MGM Grand Tupac was mad because Suge showed up at the last minute. He sat in section 4, row E, seat 2.
After the fight they got into a fight and beat Orlando Anderson, a crip who snatched a deathrow chain from Travis Lane. They went back to Suge's place and got ready to go to club 662 owned by Suge. Tupac had wanted to drive his Hummer, but Suge said that they had things to discuss and got Tupac to ride with him. They drove first in a caravan of cars towards club 662. A white cadillac pulled up beside them and opened fire. Tupac tried to get into the backseat, but Suge pulled him down, and a bullet bounced off of his right hip bone and hit is lung. He was also hit in his right hand and chest. Suge was grazed by a bullet, and suffered a minor head wound. Immediately after the shooting, the Cadillac went south on Koval. Suge made a U-turn from the left lane of Flamingo and sped West toward Las Vegas Blvd., away from the nearest hospital. Yafeu Fula (Khadafi) had been in the car behind the BMW with bodyguards and said he could identify the shooter. He was later found dead in New Jersey with one shot to the back of his head. What reason would Suge have to kill Tupac ? Well Tupac had over 200 master tapes, tapes which would leave Deathrow if Tupac left, if dead they would own rights to the tapes and they wouldn't have to pay the enormous amount of money they owed him. Perhaps Tupac had knowledge of the Row that Suge didn't want him to have if he left. Whoever it was that shot Tupac, didn't seem to want to kill Suge. 13 shots were fired at the car and Suge was grazed by one. Orlando Anderson, who was rumored to have been part of the shooting was a crip, and Suge was a blood. Anderson originally testified that Suge had participated in the beating in the MGM theater, a violation of Suge's parole. He later changed his statement. It was rumored that Anderson was paid off.
