1997-09494 words · 2 min
A Year Without Tupac (Part 2): Lawsuits, Investigations, Biggie
Lawsuits over the estate, informants in Compton, and the shadow of Biggie's death: how MTV took stock of the first year without Tupac in September 1997.
Original: “Tupac Review, Pt. II” · MTV, The Week in Rock · Kurt Loder, Chris Connelly · September 1997
One year after the Las Vegas shooting, lawyers dominated the picture. In September 1997, MTV took stock of the first twelve months without Tupac on The Week in Rock—between stalled investigations, bills, and grief.
Jewelry, Royalties, and Ten Million
Chris Connelly ran through the battle lines: Afeni Shakur demanded accountability from Death Row and filed two lawsuits-over unauthorized merchandise and withheld royalties. Death Row demanded the return of alleged advances for cars and jewelry. Tupac’s biological father claimed half of the estate, while his fiercest critic, C. Delores Tucker, demanded $10 million in damages for a single line in a song.
Informants in Compton, Cluelessness in Las Vegas
The investigation was at a standstill: Las Vegas had only “two to four black men” in the vehicle, said Sergeant Kevin Manning. Compton informants named Orlando Anderson as the shooter, who tersely stated in a CNN interview: “I didn’t do it.” Police officially stated that while they believed they knew who it was, they did not expect to make an arrest.
A Swift Farewell to Biggie, a Year of Silence for Tupac
The murder of The Notorious B.I.G. in March 1997 was immediately compared to Tupac’s death. MTV observed a difference: Biggie’s friends honored him immediately and publicly, such as Puff Daddy at the Video Music Awards. For Tupac, it took a year until the first major tribute-Treach’s song Mourn You Til I Join You. In closing: Afeni Shakur settled with Death Row and founded her own label.
What Became of the Cases
Most of the proceedings are concluded today. Through the 1997 settlement, Afeni Shakur obtained the rights to the unreleased recordings and released them through Amaru. Billy Garland lost in court in December 1997: a Los Angeles judge found his contribution to his son’s upbringing “minuscule.” Tucker’s lawsuit over the lines in How Do U Want It was unsuccessful.
Orlando Anderson was never charged; he died in May 1998 in another shooting in Compton. In 2026, his uncle Duane “Keffe D” Davis was found guilty of Tupac’s murder in Las Vegas (not final as of October 2026).
The Name Error and the Autopsy Photo
One detail reported by MTV is incorrect: Afeni did not name her son after the Peruvian guerrilla group MRTA, but after Túpac Amaru II, a descendant of the Inca rulers who was executed in 1781 following an uprising against Spanish colonial rule. The guerrilla group had named itself after him.
Two other reports check out: in 1997, a student-led course on Tupac’s poetry ran at the University of California, Berkeley. And Kathy Scott’s book The Killing of Tupac Shakur stirred controversy with an autopsy photo.