For the past 25-ish years, the murder of Tupac Shakur has remained hip-hop’s great unsolved mystery. But despite being nearly three decades old, the case has apparently never gone completely cold. Las Vegas Police recently sent out a press release notifying journalistic outlets that a warrant was served in nearby Henderson.
The statement reads, “LVMPD can confirm a search warrant was served in Henderson, Nevada on July 17, 2023, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation. We will have no further comment at this time.”
There’s not much to make of, there. After all, while the (possibly paired) murders of Tupac and friend-turned-enemy The Notorious BIG have been biopic inspiration and gossip fodder for the past 20 years, most of what’s out there has been speculation. The killings remain a subject of fascination largely due to the levels of celebrity involved, and the fact that two hip-hop icons were embroiled in a bitter war of words at the time of their deaths.
But much of the mythmaking has taken place after the fact; in 2021, Fat Joe claimed he’d worked with BIG on an album full of Tupac disses — a narrative subtly supported in 2022 by Busta Rhymes. Diddy also compared Jay-Z to the two late rappers. Meanwhile, FX recently aired a documentary about Tupac’s mom that generated a fair amount of buzz.
Ultimately, though, if police really found anything incriminating, they’d likely lead with that.