1997-09488 words · 2 min
MTV Retrospective: A Year Without Tupac (Part 1)
One year after Tupac's death, MTV takes stock with Treach: rumors of a faked death, the fall of Death Row, and the fight over his legacy.
Original: “Tupac Review, Pt. I” · MTV, The Week in Rock · hosted by Kurt Loder · September 1997
On the first anniversary of his death, September 13, 1997, Tupac flickered across television screens non-stop. For an entire year, records and videos had constantly shown him in violent scenes without his actual death ever being addressed. Kurt Loder therefore dedicated his MTV broadcast The Week in Rock to a look back at the year without him.
Between James Dean and Malcolm X
As an interview partner, MTV brought in Treach of Naughty by Nature, a friend from the early days. The first part of the show centers on the question of who Tupac was: a gangsta who kept it “real” all the way to the grave, a rebellious James Dean, or a political voice in the tradition of Malcolm X?
With the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, rumors proliferated in November 1996 that Tupac had merely faked his death following Machiavelli’s example. Treach therefore called him the “black Elvis.” Author Michael Eric Dyson countered that those who live by bullets and weapons die by them as well. The “he’s alive” theories persist stubbornly regardless, even though the autopsy, death certificate, and police investigation are unequivocal. Only in 2026 did a Las Vegas jury find Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of murder (not final, as of October 2026).
Fact Check: Treach and Digital Underground
MTV mixed up a detail from the two rappers’ early days during the conversation. In 1990, Tupac was a roadie and dancer for Digital Underground, while Naughty by Nature belonged to Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit circle. Even so, Treach and Tupac remained close friends: Treach appeared in Tupac’s 1995 video for So Many Tears and released the song Mourn You Til I Join You after his death.
The Fall of Death Row
The second thread of the show examines Death Row. Without Tupac, Snoop Dogg moved back to the forefront, but his second album Tha Doggfather fizzled. It was released in mid-November, just one week after The Don Killuminati, which came out on November 5, 1996, and debuted directly at No. 1.
At the same time, the label fell apart: Suge Knight was incarcerated over the brawl at the MGM Grand, federal authorities were investigating, and artists were fleeing. On February 28, 1997, Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison because the assault on Orlando Anderson violated his probation conditions. Death Row never recovered and filed for bankruptcy in 2006.
Who Gets the Unreleased Songs?
At the end, MTV notes that Tupac left behind over 170 recordings and hundreds of poems-and that a fierce legal battle had erupted over this estate. This ended initially with a settlement: in 1997, Afeni Shakur obtained the rights to the unreleased recordings and founded Amaru Entertainment.
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