On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot in a drive-by shooting just outside the Las Vegas strip. At the time, the rapper was in the passenger seat of record executive Marion “Suge” Knight’s BMW after leaving MGM Grand when he was shot four times. Tupac was rushed to the hospital and underwent multiple surgeries before he died six days later. He was just 25 years old.
In the months and weeks leading up to Tupac’s death, the artist’s life was busier than ever. Here’s what we know about his final days.
Tupac’s acting career was thriving
Though best known for his music, Tupac was a talented actor who’d appeared in multiple films. During the summer of 1996, he worked on the thriller Gang Related with Jim Belushi. Tupac had plans to keep making movies. He even founded the production company Euphanasia, which had numerous scripts coming in at the time.
In a promotional interview for Gang Related that August, Tupac said: “I could be the best actor anybody’s ever seen, given the chance, the opportunity and the experience and the lessons from people. I could be the best, but right now, I don’t even wish to be the best, I just want to be one of them.”
He was involved in his community
Throughout his life, Tupac felt it was important to aid his community and create more opportunities for Black youth. One organization he supported was A Place Called Home, which offered dance lessons, counseling, tutoring, and health services to at-risk youth in Los Angeles.
Tupac also participated in political activism. On August 15, less than one month before he died, he appeared at a rally with Brotherhood Crusade, a Black activist group, to oppose a three-strikes law and an anti-affirmative action measure in California.
Tupac recorded his last album in seven days
In the fall of 1995, Tupac was behind bars while appealing a conviction for sexual abuse (he maintained his innocence regarding the charges). He had no money for bail, but Suge Knight and Death Row Records offered to supply the funds, prompting Tupac to sign a three-album deal with the label.
Following his release from prison that October, Tupac returned to California and began making music for Death Row. The following, his album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory was recorded and mixed in just seven days. The album, credited to Tupac’s alter ego Makaveli, hit No. 1 when it was released after his death.
Tupac’s time with Death Row also included confrontation and controversy. In his 1996 song “Hit ‘Em Up,” Tupac claimed he’d slept with Faith Evans, the wife of Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace, also known as The Notorious B.I.G. Wallace and Tupac had once been friends, but after Tupac was shot in 1994, he’d come to believe Wallace had been involved in the incident. Evans denied any affair, but this didn't keep Tupac from taunting Wallace with these allegations at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards.
He had problems with his record label
By the summer of 1996, Tupac was wondering where his Death Row royalties were. Since his return to California, he’d been putting out hits and had reached $60 million in album sales, but he’d seen very little money. At the time of Tupac’s death, Death Row calculated he owed the label $4.9 million, and his bail money was among the costs on his tab.
Tupac remained loyal to Death Row in public—he stated in a Vibe interview, “Me and Suge will always do business together, forever.” However, he was reportedly interested in signing to a new label since he’d completed his required three albums. Of course, given Tupac’s ongoing success, Knight and Death Row wouldn’t have wanted to lose him.
That August, Tupac fired David Kenner, a lawyer for Death Row who’d taken on Tupac as a client when he first signed to the label. Representing both a company and a signed artist presented a conflict of interest, but some of Tupac’s friends still considered his decision to fire Kenner a mistake. In a 1997 New Yorker article, one friend said of Tupac, “He didn’t realize, or he refused to accept, what anyone from the street would have known—that you can’t fire Kenner, you don’t leave Death Row.”
Tupac was in a serious relationship and wanted to start a family
Not everything in Tupac’s last days was about work. That summer, he was getting serious with his girlfriend Kidada Jones, daughter of Quincy Jones and sister to Rashida Jones. While Tupac was in New York for the MTV Awards, the two had been discussing a trip to Hawaii and talking about having a baby together, according to Vanity Fair.
But when Tupac returned to Los Angeles in September 1996, he and Kidada first went to Las Vegas. Tupac was joining Knight at a Mike Tyson boxing match being held that night at the MGM Grand and he invited Kidada to travel with him. When she asked if he wanted to bring the bulletproof vest he often wore, he answered it would be too hot to wear it.
Tupac attended a boxing match before he was shot
Tupac watched ringside with Knight as Tyson won his match in less than two minutes. In the casino afterward, Tupac fought with Orlando Anderson, a Crips gang member. Anderson was pushed to the ground and kicked before security guards intervened. However, no official complaint was filed and everyone involved in the brawl departed the hotel.
Tupac returned to his hotel room to change clothes and left to head to Knight’s house. He and Knight got into a BMW to travel to Club 662, where Tupac was scheduled to perform to raise money for a gym that wanted to help kids avoid violence. The bodyguards with them weren't armed, as the necessary permits for their weapons hadn't been filed.
On the road, a white Cadillac pulled up alongside Knight’s BMW and a gunman fired about 13 rounds, hitting Tupac four times before the Cadillac sped off. Knight, whose head had been grazed, tried to drive away, but his vehicle had blown two tires, so he didn’t get far before coming to a stop.
He fought for his life for six days
Police and emergency personnel were soon at the scene. Tupac reportedly told a cop, “F**k you” when asked if he knew who shot him. Other reports claim Tupac’s last words included “I can’t breathe” and “I’m dyin’, man.”
Tupac was taken to the hospital, where he would go through several surgeries. His right lung was removed and he was placed on a ventilator and respirator. Jones, family, and friends flocked to the hospital to see him.
An unconscious Tupac was resuscitated before his mother, activist Afeni Shakur, directed hospital personnel not to do so again. He died on September 13, 1996, six days after he’d been shot. While several theories about Tupac’s murder have been floated over the years, prosecutors and law enforcement have established the shooting was a gang retaliation to the fight he had with Anderson earlier that night.
Though no one was charged for decades, the case had a major breakthrough when Anderson’s uncle and former Southside Crips leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested in 2023 for allegedly orchestrating the murder. Davis confessed to his involvement in his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend. Now, the 63-year-old is heading to trial in August 2026, facing one count of murder with a deadly weapon.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
