The trial is to begin of a former gang leader over the decades-old killing of the rapper Tupac Shakur, one of the most high-profile unsolved murders in the US. The proceedings, which begin in Las Vegas on Monday and are expected to last a month, are unlikely to make clear who fired the shots that killed the musician on 7 September 1996 while he was in the city to see a Mike Tyson boxing match.
Prosecutors aim to show that Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips, ordered the killing and provided the gun used to kill Shakur in a drive-by shooting. Davis, 63, faces life in prison without parole if convicted. The killing of Shakur, also known as 2Pac, has prompted endless debate among music fans over who did it and why. The rapper, who died at the age of 25, was a key figure in a hip-hop rivalry pitting the east coast against the west coast.
Known for hits such as California Love and All Eyez on Me, Shakur – the son of a Black Panther – was raised in Harlem and Baltimore, but quickly became the epitome of a California bad boy when he signed with the Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.
The trial will revisit the battle between Death Row, founded by Marion “Suge” Knight, and Bad Boy Records, the east coast label created by Sean “Diddy” Combs and featuring Christopher “the Notorious BIG” Wallace, who was murdered in March 1997.
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