Diddy ‘paid $1million for Tupac Shakur’s assassination,’ gangster Keefe D claimed before arrest for rapper’s murder
THE man accused of the murder of Tupac Shakur has made shock claims that hip hop star Diddy orchestrated and paid $1 million for the assassination.
Keefe D, who appeared in court in Las Vegas over the killing yesterday, has claimed several times that Diddy - real name Sean Combs - asked him to "take out" Pac and record label boss Suge Knight.
Representatives for Diddy did not comment when asked about the allegations – but previously Combs has dismissed claims he was involved in Tupac’s death as “nonsense”.
The U.S. Sun can reveal how the Compton gangster - real name Duane Davis - has made the allegation in his book, in social media interviews - and even in a secret police interview with LAPD.
Another former gangster from the era – James McDonald - previously known as Mob James – has also confirmed to The U.S. Sun he heard rumors about Diddy and others at Death Row putting a price on Suge and Tupac's head - as the New York-based rap artist was terrified of the record label boss.
In an exclusive interview, James, who used to work as a security enforcer for Death Row Records, said "everyone had a price on their head" at the time, as the war between the Bad Boy Records on the East Coast and Death Row Records on the West, heated up.
He said: “Diddy was scared of Suge.
“New York wasn't going to come down there and try to find Suge. That wouldn't have never happened.
“So when ... it happened with Tupac, our side had to feel like, 'Okay, we can't just let that one go'.....
“They was going back and forth tit for tat. So I believe that it got too big for Pac and Biggie because not one of them seen it coming. Not one of them thought it was going to come that way. And like I said before, Puffy was so scared of Suge, he had to put something, somewhere to get Suge out the way.”
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James, who is now reformed and helps younger people leave the gang life, added: “A lot of guys had prices on their heads.
"So us being where we were from and what was going on, we had to step our game up and do the same s***.
"So at that time, taking a life didn't matter. It didn't matter. Beating a motherf****r a** didn't matter. Nothing mattered. But we did what we were supposed to do.”
'NONSENSE'
In a recording of an LAPD interview, sent to The U.S. Sun and circulated online, Keefe appears to tell detectives that Diddy called a gangster associate of theirs called Eric Von Zip shortly after Tupac's shooting to ask if they were responsible. Keefe could not be prosecuted for the claims he made to LAPD due to legal agreement he had in place.
Keefe claims in the recording that when Diddy was told it was their entourage who shot Pac, he was “happy as hell”.
In another LAPD audio clip, Keefe then claims Diddy paid the fee for the hit to Zip, who kept the money for himself.
In his book Compton Street Legend, Keefe claims Diddy - known then as Puffy or Puff Daddy - ordered the hit one day while they were out in New York eating pastrami sandwiches and drinking pink champagne.
'FULL OF FEAR'
Keefe said Diddy told him: "I need to speak to you big dawg," and the pair went to the side to talk.
He wrote in the book "I'm able to smell and see fear. Puffy was full of fear".
Keefe then alleges that Diddy said: "I have a couple of problems I need to be handled. Big CEO [Suge Knight] and Pac."
The gangster says he replied: "That's not a problem. We can make that happen."
In the book Keefe explains Diddy had issues with Pac after he released the diss track Hit 'Em Up, saying: "That song made Puffy mad."
FBI CLAIMS
In a more recent interview with Youtuber from May this year, Keefe even claimed that FBI agents told him that Diddy had paid $1 million to Zip for the assassination.
Asked about a rumour in gang circles that “after Tupac got killed Puffy gave Zip a million dollars, that was supposed to be handed over and Zip ended up keeping it.,” Keefe D told the interviewer that “The Feds said that too.”
Keefe said: “FBI said Zip is a dirty mother f***er. Everybody crossed you. Even lawyers and your friends everybody he crossed your ass it is just you do not know it. Even dudes he rode with in the cars everyday.”
Witnesses have also spoke about Diddy's deep-rooted rivalry with Suge and Tupac in a grand jury, which was held last month in Las Vegas to decide whether to charge Keefe, court papers show.
In a transcript of last month’s grand jury, a witness who used to be a member of the South Side Crips with Keefe, told jurors how animosity had started between Diddy and Tupac, after Pac joined Death Row records and told everyone that Diddy and fellow rapper Biggie Smalls were behind the attack the last time he got shot.
RAP WARS
“Tupac going to Death Row and telling them that… Puff and Biggie and them had something to do with it when he got shot up …the first time. He really believed that they did it. They probably did it, I don't know," Lee said.
“But that right there added fuel to the fire so it was like any time that any Death Row affiliates or anybody that dealt with Death Row, if they see anybody from Bad Boy it can go all bad, you know.”
He later testified that Keefe had met P. Diddy through Zip – and that Zip had provided the gun for the shooting of Tupac.
When asked where the gang had got the gun for the Tupac shooting, he said: “Zip, one of these players that's out of New York out of Harlem, that's actually how we met Puff, that's how we got connected with Puff is through his drug lord.
“Even bigger, he was bigger than Keefe, way bigger than Keefe D, but out of Harlem.
“And he had a compartment built in his Benz and he told Keefe, you know, ‘I got the pistol if you all need it’.”
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Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department did not comment when asked about the Diddy claims.
Representatives for Diddy declined to comment.
