The Killing of Tupac Shakur (16 page)

“He didn’t believe us when we told him it wasn’t available yet,” said the store clerk who had waited on Tyson. “We told him, ‘Come back tomorrow.’”

Tyson, he said, did return the next day and bought the CD.

Tupac’s fourth posthumous collection,
Until the End of Time
, returned him to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart four-and-a-half years after his death.

The double album of previously unreleased material from Tupac’s vaults sold more than 426,000 copies to debut at No. 1, according to figures issued by SoundScan on April 4, 2001. The record became Tupac’s fourth No. 1 album, a feat previously achieved by
Me Against the World
in 1995 and
All Eyez on Me
in 1996 while the rapper was still alive.
Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
also reached No. 1.

Tupac’s two other posthumous collections,
R U Still Down? (Remember Me)
in 1997 and the
Still I Rise
album with the Outlawz in 1999, peaked on the Billboard chart at No. 2 and No. 7, respectively. But
The Rose That Grew From Concrete,
a spoken-word album based on Tupac’s poetry and featuring readings by fellow rappers, failed to break the top 50 during its release in 2000.

A young Tupac, in the days of stogies (blunts), forty-ouncers, bandanas, non-designer underwear, and less- defined abdominal muscles. (Trilobite)

Good times—Tupac partying after the 1995 Soul Train Awards ceremony. (Trilobite)

Bad times—Being led to jail by N.Y.P.D. officers after being arrested for sexual abuse in Manhattan. Tupac later said, “Before I made a record, I never had a record.” (AP/Wide World Photos)

Suge Knight arrives at the hospital after Tupac’s death to pay his respects to Afeni Shakur. (R. Marsh Starks/
Las Vegas Sun
)

Mug shot of Suge taken earlier the same day when he registered in Las Vegas as an ex-felon.

Bad Boy Entertainment’s rapper Biggie Smalls (left) and CEO Puffy Combs on the set of one of the last videos they shot together. (Trilobite)

The scuffle at MGM Grand. From top: a frame from the video surveillance tape of the attack in the casino; minutes later, Tupac storms toward the MGM entrance; Orlando Anderson is later identified as the beating victim.

Aerial photo of the BMW’s course. (1) The shooting occurred at the intersection of Koval Lane and E. Flamingo Rd. Suge made a U-turn and headed west on Flamingo, to (2) the corner of Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd., where he clipped the median making a left turn onto the Strip. At point (3), the intersection of Harmon Avenue and the Strip, the BMW finally came to a stop. (Jason Cox)

Club 662, where Suge and Tupac were headed, is located two miles farther east on Flamingo. (AP/Wide World Photos)

Members of Tupac’s entourage wait to be questioned by homicide detectives at the corner where the BMW came to rest. (Malcolm Payne)

Homicide Sergeant Kevin Manning presides over the only news conference about the investigation conducted by Las Vegas police. (Steve Marcus/
Las
Vegas Sun
)