1995380 words · 2 min
The reply to "Ready to Live": "Booker" on the robbery
In 1995, the man who according to "Ready to Live" had invited Tupac to the studio answers in Vibe. "Booker" rejects all blame and attacks Tupac.
Original: Statement by “Booker,” titled “Booker on the NY Shooting” in the archive · Vibe · 1995
“Booker” is the man who, according to “Ready to Live,” paged Tupac and asked him to come to Little Shawn’s session at Quad Studios for a fee. After the interview he answered Vibe with a short statement, and it turns the accusation around.
Blood on his head, calling for the police
Booker describes the night like this: lots of people were at the studio because word had spread that Tupac was coming. They waited for hours.
Around midnight, he says, Tupac stepped off the elevator with blood on his head, looking as if he’d been in a fight. He paced hysterically and called for the police, not for an ambulance. Then he looked at Booker and said Booker was the only one who knew he was coming. He must have set him up.
The real coward, he says, was Tupac
At first, Booker says, he took that as Tupac’s strategy for his trial and didn’t hold it against him. After the Vibe interview he saw it differently: Tupac was using the media to paint himself as the target of a grand conspiracy. He believed his own raps and movie roles.
As for the claim that others cried and dropped to the floor, Booker throws it back. The real coward, he says, was Tupac.
Who “Booker” was remains open
Vibe did not say who “Booker” was, and it still can’t be said with certainty. In June 2011 Dexter Isaac claimed to have been one of the robbers and named James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond as the man behind it; Rosemond was never charged in the case. Whether “Booker” and Rosemond are the same person, as fans often assume, is not established.
Booker’s statement shows how poisoned the atmosphere was after the interview. Instead of answers there were accusations in every direction, and Tupac later worked the night into songs such as Against All Odds. The robbery was never resolved in court.
This page paraphrases Booker’s language; the original contains insults that are not quoted here.