The trial over Tupac Shakur‘s 1996 murder revisits the bitter East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry that surrounded the hip-hop legend before his death.
This week, jurors in the murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis heard a once-secret 2008 police interview in which Davis appeared to detail his role in the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur. But testimony from former LAPD Det. Daryn Dupree also revealed just how tangled the case became with the broader East Coast-West Coast feud, connecting Death Row Records’ Suge Knight and Bad Boy Records’ Sean Combs to the investigation in ways that went far beyond Las Vegas.
According to Rolling Stone, investigators were originally focused on a separate case, the 1997 murder of Notorious B.I.G., when Davis unexpectedly volunteered information about Shakur’s killing during questioning. “We didn’t ask him any questions about Tupac. He offered that on his own,” Dupree testified, describing how surprised investigators were by the admission.
The East Coast-West Coast angle deepened further when Dupree revealed that Davis was later enlisted as a confidential informant in 2009, part of an effort to investigate whether Combs had paid for Shakur’s murder through an alleged intermediary. According to Rolling Stone, “Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs supposedly had given money to Zip Martin to give to Mr. Davis for payment for the Tupac murder,” Dupree testified, though he said the plan to confirm that claim ultimately fell apart. (*It’s important to note his testimony does not establish that Combs was involved in Tupac’s murder.)
Mary Evans/FILMFOUR/LAFAYETTE FILMS/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection
Dupree also testified that federal investigators were simultaneously pursuing a broader RICO case examining whether both Death Row and Bad Boy Records had ties to drug trafficking, tying the Shakur investigation to a larger web of industry rivalry and law enforcement scrutiny.
Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty and remains held on a murder charge with use of a deadly weapon. His defense argues he fabricated his earlier statements for leverage, entertainment, and money, while prosecutors maintain his own words amount to a confession.
As for Combs, he has vehemently denied any involvement in Shakur’s death and is currently serving a 50-month sentence stemming from a separate 2025 conviction. Nearly 30 years later, the trial is bringing the complicated history surrounding two of hip-hop’s biggest stars back into the spotlight.
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