Over a decade has passed since the unsolved slayings of the two greatest rappers to ever live.  Several documentaries have been made detailing what was going on behind the scenes during these dramatic times, but none get both sides of the story...rather your left with a bias view from the creator which usually paints Suge Knight as the reason for the downfall. But the fact of the matter is, this tale goes much deeper than one person or one event.

As any good story starts, this one begins with happy times and unity amongst the two talented emcees. Tupac started out in the early 90s with Digital Underground making an impact with 'I get around' and then going on to drop his classic, Strictly 4 my Niggaz. Around the same time, Puff was startin up his own label and landed a rap monster in Biggie as his clean up hitter. Big and Pac had a good relationship kickin it anytime Pac was in New York. Cue the entrance of the gangsta's...

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In 1994 King Tut came home from an 18 month bid for shooting an undercover cop at a barbor shop; Tut was very lucky as the Jury agreed that he was acting in self defense and had no idea the man was a cop. Feeling like he earned a new life, Tut swore to leave the street life behind...with police cracking down on street violence and drugs a few of Tuts friend's had already made the move to rap as it was seeing huge commercial success. One of these dudes was Jimmy Henchmen, who BIG had called his mentor and who he borrowed his hustling stories from. Henchmen was real heavy in the streets, making his first mil at the age of 19 off strictly hustling, and serving time at Rikers Island where he controlled the house (also the same place he met the original 50 cent).

Seeing as there was already a Brooklyn connection at Badboy, King Tut decided to approach Puff for some insight into the record business...offering to be an intern of sorts for no cost to Puff. Make no mistake, Puff was a straight as an arrow dude straight out of private school so he was iffy about having Tut in his circle. Tut swore that he had changed his ways and Puff let him ride.

Around the same time Pac was in New York filming 'Above the Rim', where he met Hatian Jack. Jack was another wild dude with a history of violence trying to make it as a hip hop Mogul; as an interesting side note...the hip hop cop wrote in his book that Hatian Jack humiliated Jay-z in public when he felt disrespected by the emcee (this is why Jim Jones made his claims on the Ballin Beef mix saying that Haitian Jack had him tied up).  Coincidentally, Jack was also down with Henchmen and Tut...therefore part of Bad Boy. In numerous reports and in a Vibe article Pac says that Haitian Jack and King Tut were part of the "Black Mafia" and funding Bad Boy records. Pac started chillin with Haitian Jack and his friends, becoming really close to the big names of the New York underworld. This is where Pac says he matured and learned his flashy ways, since these hustler friends of his were wearing rolex's with big chains. It starts to come full circle now as these new gangsta friends of his are also in the background at Bad Boy....where he has more friends in Puff and Big.

Big was always trying to look out for Pac, and in an audio interview Pac claimed that Big had warned him about his new company.  Big kind of turned out lookin like Nostradamus because a little while later Pac and Jack had a fall out when Pac was pinned with the rape charges. Haitan Jack was actually Pac's co-defendent...him and King Tut were the ones SUPPOSEDLY raping the girl with Pac tryin to play the role as the hook up for his boys. Pac was hit with the maximum penalty while Jack got off very light....with already swirling rumors of Jack being a snitch, this made it even clearer to Pac. Later Pac would call Jack a snitch in an article in the NY Daily.

That's the official back drop...this all led to the Quad studio shooting. The story here has different sides, but first lets look at what both sides agree on. Pac was in New York with some of his boys including Stretch. Jimmy Henchmen gave Pac a call and asked him to get on a song with one of his artist for $7000. Pac agreed...there was clear tension since Pac was at odds with some of Henchmen's good friends, and Henchmen wasn't appreciating Pac's delay in coming to the studio when they are paying for time.

Now let's get Pac's side from Vibe magazine....FYI, he is disguising the names in the article...but Nigel is Haitian Jack, Trevor is King Tut, and Booker is Jimmy Henchmen. They dont call me Scolla for nothin ;)

while i get part 2 going...enjoy the video below. To me it's pretty clear that Pac got mixed up with the wrong crowd (damn i sound like my mom) but truth is truth, he was a good hearted guy...and fell victim to some bullshit stemming from the street.

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check for part 2....*Here she is..* http://thisisscolla.com/cms/content/view/63/1/