Biggie and Tupac | 1. Against the World

Summary

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Slow Burn (Slate Podcasts)

Season 3, Episode 1: Biggie and Tupac | Against the World

Release Date: October 30, 2019
Host: Joel Anderson

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Episode Overview

This premiere episode of Slow Burn’s third season launches an in-depth exploration of the intertwined lives, rise, and violent ends of Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls). Host Joel Anderson recounts the fateful night Tupac was shot in New York, setting the stage for a detailed examination of how friends became mortal enemies, igniting a nationwide feud that changed the course of hip hop—and left two of its brightest talents dead.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Tupac’s Crisis (00:00–04:05)

• Tupac on Trial: In November 1994, Tupac is embroiled in a high-stakes courtroom battle over sexual assault, sodomy, and weapons charges. Facing financial ruin and the possibility of a long sentence, he crams evening studio sessions in a desperate bid for cash.
  • “He would go to court by day and 6pm sharp. Boom. He bust through the door. A bundle of energy.” —Easymo B (01:24)
• The Night at Quad Studios: Tupac hustles to Quad Recording Studios for a $7,000 feature, while inside other hip hop luminaries work—including Biggie and his Junior Mafia crew.
• Junior Mafia Sighting: From the balcony, Chico Del Vec and Lil Cease spot Tupac arriving. They greet him warmly, not knowing the night will erupt in violence.

2. The Shooting and Fallout (04:06–07:35)

• Betrayal and Anger: Tupac is shot five times in the lobby of Quad Studios—a moment captured in the media by an infamous photo of him flipping the middle finger as he’s wheeled out. Chico Del Vec reveals Tupac’s anger wasn’t directed at the press, but at Biggie’s crew:
  • “He looking at us with his middle finger up like, ‘fuck you, niggas.’ … That was to us.” —Chico Del Vec (05:05)
• Friendship Turns Sour: This marks the rupture—when Tupac begins to suspect Biggie’s circle of betrayal, planting the seeds for the East Coast/West Coast feud.

3. Tupac’s Upbringing and Early Fame (07:36–11:55)

• Roots of Conflict: Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, was a Black Panther, acquitted after defending herself in a high-profile case while pregnant with Tupac. His childhood is marked by instability, poverty, and his mother’s struggle with addiction.
  • “My mother had a really bad childhood and my father had a bad childhood and I had a bad childhood. But I love my childhood … nothing can faze me.” —Tupac Shakur (08:27)
• Artistic Ambition: Tupac’s talents in poetry, acting, and music quickly propel him from backup dancer to star. His work navigates pain, injustice, and gritty realism, drawing on his lived experience.

4. Violent Fame and Legal Trouble (11:56–16:02)

• Early Controversies: Incidents in Marin City, where a stray bullet kills a six-year-old, and run-ins with the law amplify Tupac’s reputation and reinforce his narrative as a “survivor” in a hostile world.
• Contrasts in Tupac’s Persona: His music oscillates between righteous anger (“Keep Ya Head Up,” a ballad of respect for Black women) and ruthless bravado, building a complex legacy.
  • “Since we all came from a woman / … I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women?” —Tupac Shakur, “Keep Ya Head Up” (11:55)
• Sexual Assault Case: The Ayanna Jackson case is recounted in detail, highlighting court testimonies and the ensuing public scrutiny.
• Self-Defense and Paranoia: Tupac frequently claims he is the target of conspiracies, hinting at deep distrust fostered by his mother’s radicalism and a life of public suspicion.
  • “All I do is make raps. … My biggest crime is talking loud. Y'all don't have nothing else besides that.” —Tupac Shakur (15:34)

5. Fatal Falling-Outs and the Web of Players (16:03–22:59)

• The Haitian Jack Nexus: Tupac’s friendship with Haitian Jack—thought to have nefarious ties—unravels, intensifying Tupac’s suspicion that inner-circle betrayals set him up.
  • “I didn’t do nothing. I’m charged with being in concert with some guy. Where they at?” —Tupac Shakur (17:21)
• Rising Paranoia: Arguments over money with industry player Jimmy Henchman add to a mounting sense of danger as Tupac enters Quad Studios.
• The Robbery and Shooting: Narration reconstructs the chaos—Tupac is shot, his jewelry snatched, and he later staggers upstairs, bloodied but alive.
  • “By the time we get down there, police is there. … We see Tupac’s bandana on the ground and blood.” —Chico Del Vec (20:23)
• Aftermath and Suspicion: Tupac notices that only he became a target despite the crowd of stars present and suspects a setup.

6. Immediate Reactions (23:00–27:44)

• Confusion and Fracture: Biggie’s crew is stunned by Tupac's anger; they insist on their innocence.
  • “Biggie was like, ‘Yo, why is this dude mad at us about something? About what? We ain’t do nothing wrong.’” —Chico Del Vec (23:10)
• Tupac’s Recovery and Escalating Distrust: Tupac checks himself out of the hospital quickly, fearing for his life, and isolates with trusted friends and Nation of Islam security; his mistrust of Biggie deepens, noting a lack of loyalty and association with his enemies.
  • “I was hurt. I’m going to trial. I’m probably going to get convicted. And this nigga showing up at a party with champagne, hanging with Biggie.” —Reported by Joel Anderson (approx. 25:20)
• Police Powerlessness: Law enforcement encounters a wall of silence, illustrating the code of the street and the larger schism between hip hop and the police.
  • “From the get go, there was zero… zero cooperation, meaning that nobody was talking to us, which was understandable.” —Detective Mordecai Jakansky (27:20)

7. Reflection and the Road Ahead (27:45–End)

• Unsolved Mysteries: The episode closes with acknowledgment that the truth of the Quad Studios shooting may never be fully revealed, with suspected perpetrators in prison for unrelated crimes. The rupture between Biggie and Tupac—seeded in this moment—becomes the foundation for rivalry, violence, and tragedy still unsolved by police.
• Preview: The next episode will examine “Hip Hop vs. the Cops,” tracing the adversarial relationship between rap artists and law enforcement.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• Tupac’s Energy under Trial Pressure:
  “It was 6pm 6 o'clock every day. … A bundle of energy. Yo, yo, we gonna do this.”
  —Easymo B (01:24)

• The Infamous Middle Finger Photo:
  “He looking at us with his middle finger up like, ‘fuck you, niggas.’ … That was to us.”
  —Chico Del Vec (05:05)

• Tupac on His Childhood:
  “My mother had a really bad childhood... But I love my childhood. Even though it was bad, I love it. ... nothing can faze me.”
  —Tupac Shakur (08:27)

• "Keep Ya Head Up" Lyric:
  “Since we all came from a woman … I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women?”
  —Tupac Shakur (11:55)

• On Public Image and Injustice:
  “All I do is make raps. … My biggest crime is talking loud.”
  —Tupac Shakur (15:34)

• Detective’s Take on Law Enforcement’s Inability:
  “From the get go, there was zero… zero cooperation, meaning that nobody was talking to us, which was understandable.”
  —Detective Mordecai Jakansky (27:20)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:00–04:05: Tupac’s legal jeopardy and financial scramble; arrival at Quad Studios
• 04:06–07:35: Tupac’s shooting; friendship dissolves
• 07:36–11:55: Tupac's upbringing and rise to fame
• 11:56–16:02: Legal troubles, “Keep Ya Head Up,” and sexual assault charges
• 16:03–20:43: Relationships with Haitian Jack & Jimmy Henchman; shooting details
• 20:44–23:21: Aftermath at Quad Studios; suspicion and confusion
• 23:22–27:44: Tupac’s recovery, paranoia, growing rift with Biggie, and police investigation
• 27:45–End: Barriers to solving the case, setup for future episodes

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Tone and Style

The episode’s tone is investigative yet empathetic, blending first-person accounts, archival audio, and dramatic retelling. Joel Anderson balances journalistic distance with palpable emotion, turning the episode into both a forensic political analysis and a tragic personal story.

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Transcript

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

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[Easymo B]

It was 6pm 6 o' clock every day. So what he would do is he would go to court by day and 6pm sharp. Boom. He bust through the door. A bundle of energy. Yo, yo, we gonna do this. He's talking real fast. He was a bundle of energy. It was just you had to really, really keep up with him.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

On the night of November 29th, Tupac's first session was with Ron G, a local mixtape DJ. This was for free. Tupac was hoping a hot verse would keep his music coming out of boomboxes, even if he got locked up. The next session was for money. Tupac was cutting a track with Lil Sean, a rapper whose biggest hit to that point was Hickeys on your chest. This collaboration wasn't going to get Tupac back on top of the charts, but it would earn him $7,000. The session was at Quad Recording Studios in Times Square. Quad was a busy spot. Swv, Mobb Deep and Deborah Cox were also recording that night, and so was Junior Mafia, the rap group started by Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious bi G. Biggie was in the studio, along with Sean Puffy Combs, the head of his record label. As Tupac approached the building with three friends, they heard a voice from eight stories above.

[Chico Del Vec]

Ceez was like, yo, hold up. That look like Tupac walking up the street.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

That's Chico del Vec, a member of Junior Mafia and Biggie's childhood friend. He and Lil Ceez, who was also in the group, were taking a break on the balcony, smoking blunts and dumping cups of water on passersby. A few years before, Chico had been the one to convince Biggie to get off the stoop and onto their block in Bedford Stuyvesant. Basically, Chico turned Biggie into a small town crack dealer. He gave Biggie confidence, pocket money, and street credibility. When Biggie became a rich and famous rapper, he returned the favor by making Chico a member of Junior Mafia. That's how Chico found himself at the Quad that night, recording songs for the group's first album.

[Chico Del Vec]

And he was like, tupac, what do you mean? So we all ran to the back. He look over there and be like, whoa, yo, Tupac, yo, Pac. And he was walking up like, yo, who that? Who that? And we like, yo, Pac.

[Detective Mordecai Jakansky]

Wow.

[Chico Del Vec]

So a bunch of n scream, yo, Tupac. He's like, yo, who that? And Ceez was like, yo, it's Lil Ceez, man. We up here in the studio. Tupac like, lil Ceez, yo, what's up, my nigga? We talking to them from the balcony.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Chico considered Tupac a friend. You can hear it in his voice. The same thing was true of the rest of Biggie's circle. They looked up to Tupac. They welcomed him when he visited Brooklyn.

[Chico Del Vec]

So we screaming like, yo, come around the corner. Cee's gonna come downstairs and get you. Like, yo, word, what's up, my nigga? He was all happy. Yo.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Tupac headed into the lobby of Quad Studios to see his friends and record a verse. A few hours later, he'd leave the quad on a gurney, his. His body full of bullet holes. When I started reporting on Tupac and Christopher Biggie Wallace a few months ago, there was a lot I didn't know about their relationship, where it went wrong, and how their murders changed the course of hip hop. But this moment on the gurney, this was one part of the story that I thought I had locked down. There's this iconic photo maybe you've seen was taken that night outside Quad Studios. Tupac is on a stretcher with a big brace on his head and neck, and he's sticking middle finger. He looked angry at everyone and everything. I always assumed he was flipping the bird at the photographer, that he was pissed off at the media for invading his privacy in this incredibly vulnerable moment. But Chico Delveque told me I had it wrong. Tupac was giving the finger to Biggie and his crew.

[Chico Del Vec]

Tupac gets off the elevator on the hospital bed and he whitting them out, and he looking at us with his middle finger up like, fuck you, niggas. To y', all right, he was saying y' all niggas on the camera. But while they rolling him off the elevator, he looking at us against the wall and he's like. He's saying, fuck you, niggas with the middle finger. You ain't see the picture?

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

I seen the picture of him sticking up. I thought that was to the media, though.

[Chico Del Vec]

No, that was to us.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Chico was telling me that this was it. This was the moment when allies became enemies. I'd seen the photo, but I hadn't seen that. What else had I missed? What else did I need to know to understand who Biggie and Tupac were and how they'd both end up dead? This is Slow Burn, season three. Biggie and Tupac. I'm your host, Joel Anderson. Over the next eight episodes, you'll hear about the creative lives and tragic deaths of two of hip hop's foundational talents from voices and angles you've never heard before. You'll hear about how a friendship gone bad turned into a nationwide turf war. How lyrics about violence blurred into the real thing, and how investigators have failed to solve the murders of two of the 20th century's most important artists. This is episode one, against the World. In 1994, Tupac seemed bound to become the brightest star hip hop had ever produced. He was 23 years old, charming and profane and really handsome. He could switch in an instant from poet to revolutionary to wannabe thug. He'd starred in a movie with Janet Jackson and had dated Madonna at the same time. Those close to Tupac thought that he seemed doomed. Easymo B wondered if Tupac was fated to find trouble wherever he went.

[Easymo B]

I don't know, for whatever reason, it seemed like my parents, they from the South. I'm about to speak some of their lingo. But it seemed like the devil was on his trail.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Tupac was born into conflict in 1969. His mother, Afani, and her husband, Lumumba Abdul Shakur, were two of the 21 Black Panthers charged with planning bombings all over New York City. Pregnant and facing a 300 year prison sentence, Afeni Shakur chose to represent herself in court. Although she had never finished high school, Afeni and 12 other Black Panthers were acquitted on May 13, 1971. A month later, she gave birth to Tupac. Tupac's early years were hard. After Effeni divorced Lumumba Shakur, she and Tupac and his sister Setua bounced from New York to Baltimore to Marin City in Northern California. Afaney became addicted to crack cocaine. The family was homeless for a while. No matter where they went, Tupac struggled to fit in. Skinny, broke and unathletic, Tupac was never one of the cool kids. He said he even failed at selling weed. But he was a reader and a thinker, and he saw himself as a survivor. Here he is in 1988 when he was a 17 year old high schooler.

[Tupac Shakur]

My mother had a really bad childhood and my father had a bad childhood and I had a bad childhood. But I love my childhood. Even though it was bad, I love it. I feel like it's taught me so much and I feel like nothing conveys me.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Tupac's artistic talent was obvious in Baltimore. He'd started acting and dancing in Marin City. He wrote poetry and said he wanted to perform Shakespeare. He got his first big break as a backup dancer with the Oakland rap group Digital Underground. Things moved fast after that. In November 1991, he released his first album, 2Pacalypse. Now, a couple months later, he starred in his first movie, juice. He was 20 years old and all of a sudden he was famous. Both the album and the movie focused on the ills of the ghetto. Broken institutions, poverty, police brutality. His character in Juice Bishop was the kind of kid that sociologists and politicians were calling a super predator. Bishop was a black teenager who loses himself in anger at his circumstances and becomes a remorseless killer.

[Chico Del Vec]

I am crazy. But you know what else?

[Tupac Shakur]

I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck about you. I don't give a fuck about Steel and I don't give a fuck about Raheem either. I don't give a fuck about myself.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

The movie was just okay. But critics said Tupac was magnetic and convincingly psychotic. In August 1992, while he was working on his second album, Tupac went back to Marin City for a music festival. After the show, he posed for photos and signed autographs. Then he got into an argument with a bunch of people he'd grown up with. Reports said these old friends were angry that Tupac had insulted Marin City on Yo. MTV Raps. Although that might have just been a rumor. A gun came out, shots were fired, and a six year old boy was killed by a stray bullet. Witnesses said the shooter had come to the festival with Tupac, but nobody was ever charged with the killing. Afeni Shakur later said that the boy's death hurt Tupac deep inside. On his next album, using an oddly distorted voice, Tupac paid respects to the slain six year old and blamed the shooting on people who were envious of his success.

[Tupac Shakur]

Young Queen, remember that name cause all.

[Detective Mordecai Jakansky]

You will go to your graves with that name on your brain. Jealousy and recklessness is not something I'm dying.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

That album was called Strictly For My Niggas. Most of it was an indignant response to Tupac's enemies and critics. Tupac lashed out at the police, the media and Vice President Dan Quayle. You'll hear more about their feud on our next episode. But the track that got the most attention sounded totally different from everything else on the album. Keep youp Head up was an inspirational ode to black women, the kind of song that got played at church youth dances and cookouts. A feinty appeared in the video. It reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Critics of Hip hop accused rappers of glamorizing the mistreatment of women. Keep youp Head up took a hard look at that kind of misogyny and.

[Tupac Shakur]

Since we all came from a woman Got our name from a woman and I came from a woman I wonder why we take from our women while we rape our women do we hate our women?

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

The song was released as a single on October 8, 1993. A month later, Tupac made national news, and it had nothing to do with his music.

[Commercial Announcer]

Tupac Shakur, rap star and movie star, was arrested in New York and charged with suicide, sodomy and sexual assault.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Tupac and two other men were arrested at the Parker Meridian Hotel in Manhattan. Rap singer Tupac Shakur was released on $50,000 bail today, accused of a sexual attack in a New York hotel. The singer was arrested Thursday night after Tupac met Ayanna Jackson at a nightclub in New York where he was preparing to shoot a movie. That first night, they kissed on the dance floor. Tupac would later say that Jackson performed oral sex on him. Right there. Jackson claimed she just kissed his crotch. Later, they went back to his hotel suite where they had consensual sex. Four days after that, she came over again. When Jackson arrived for that second visit, she started giving Tupac a massage. And then some other men entered the room. One of them was Tupac's road manager, Charles Fuller. Another was Jacques Agnot, better known as Haitian Jack. You'll be hearing more about him later in court. Ayanna Jackson testified that Tupac wanted to share her with these other men. She said Tupac Told her, quote, they're not going to hurt you. What you do for me, you do for them. She described the events again in an interview in 2018. She remembered saying to Tupac, no, no, no, no, I don't want this. This is not what I want. She remembered her black pantyhose and her black spandex dress being ripped off of her body. I'm not going to say that I had sex with him, she said about Tupac. I was raped by him that night because it wasn't consensual. For as long as he'd been a public figure, Tupac had been in trouble with the law. In the year and a half before his arrest, he was accused of slapping a fan who'd asked for his autograph, assaulting a limo driver, trying to hit a rapper with a baseball bat, and attacking Alan Hughes, the co director of the movie Menace to Society. Most seriously, Tupac had been arrested in Atlanta after he shot two off duty police officers. But there was evidence he'd fired in self defense and the charges were dropped. These earlier run ins with the law hadn't really hurt Tupac's standing in the music or movie business. If anything, they'd burnished his tough guy image. The sexual abuse case was different. The possibility of prison time and his loss of pain gigs made Tupac feel threatened. He didn't take the stand in New York, but on the first day of jury deliberations, he defended himself in an impromptu press conference outside the courthouse.

[Tupac Shakur]

Why would she make something like that up? Because, hell, have no fury like a woman scorn. You know what I'm saying? I'm guilty of a lot of things. I'm guilty probably of being a male chauvinist pig. I'm guilty of probably not caring as much as I should. I'm guilty of not spending enough time with people like I should. But I'm not guilty of rape just because I don't want to be.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

In video from that day, November 29, you can see a crowd circling Tupac in the scrum of reporters. Tupac remained poised, but you can feel his exasperation building. He hinted at a conspiracy to silence him for his political beliefs. It was the kind of argument his Black Panther mother might have made 25 years earlier. Tupac seemed resigned to the fact that the jurors would see him as nothing more than a thug rapper.

[Tupac Shakur]

It's hard for me to believe that a jury full of older, more middle class women are gonna understand where I'm coming from, because y' all barely understand. Where I'm coming from. And y' all cover murders and shit every day. And y' all treat me like I'm New York's most notorious criminal. And y' all know it's people throwing babies out of windows and putting them in the incinerator. All I do is make raps. All I do is rap and talk loud. My biggest crime is talking loud. You know what I'm saying? Y' all don't have nothing else besides that.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

If Tupac was convicted of all the charges he was facing in New York, he was looking at years of prison time. To make matters worse, he'd also made a dangerous enemy. His co defendant, Haitian Jacques Agnant. Jack and Tupac had become friends while he was doing research for above the Rim, a movie in which he played a violent drug dealer. Jack had been born in Haiti, but came of age in Brooklyn as a baby face, heavyset, stick up kid. He'd made his reputation by robbing drug dealers, but he wanted to get into the music business. Derrick Parker was a New York police detective in the 1990s. Back then, he heard a lot about Haitian Jack.

[Easymo B]

People said that when he went to clubs and went to places, people respected him. You know, like, you got out of his way. He had that kind of rep. Why?

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Like, I mean, he wasn't a big dude, right?

[Easymo B]

Nah, but he was one of them crazy guys. Like, you know, people get reps. So he ran the streets and he ran around, you know, he was one of those dudes that was quick to come at you if you came at him the wrong way.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

When Jack and Tupac hung out, Jack got the women in the weed and Tupac paid the bill. Jack claimed he gave Tupac his first Rolex. He also got Tupac to spruce up his look with Jules. But as their case headed to trial, a rift formed between the two of them. Jack secured his own lawyer, one who often worked with the New York police union. Tupac came to believe Jack had set him up.

[Tupac Shakur]

They were all in the same hotel as me. They were all right in the same room as me. Why am I the only one in court right now? Why is the cameras all on me and in the report in all these charges? I didn't do nothing. I'm charged with being in concert with some guy. Where they at?

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Tupac tried to disassociate from Haitian Jack. In one interview, he called Jack a hanger on when they ran into each other at one of Puffy's parties. Tupac ignored Jack and instead stuck close to Biggie. This was blatant disrespect. Even enemies acknowledged each other's presence, if only with a head nod. And disrespecting someone like Haitian Jack was dangerous. So that's where Tupac was on the night of November 29, 1994. Facing prison time, beefing with a gangster, burning through money on criminal defense lawyers, and heading into Quad Studios to make what he hoped would be an easy 7Gs from Lil Shawn. One possible obstacle was Lil Sean's manager, James Rosemond, who went by the name Jimmy Henchman. Jimmy was from Brooklyn, where he'd earned a rep for robbing and drug dealing. Jimmy had faced charges ranging from weapons possession to second degree murder. He tried to get into the music industry by representing rappers. On the same day that Tupac made that big speech outside the courthouse, he called Jimmy Henchman to ask for directions to Quad Studios. On that call, Jimmy said he didn't have the $7,000 he'd been promising. When Tupac threatened not to show up for the session, Jimmy hung up the phone. Minutes later, Jimmy called back and said he'd make sure Tupac got his $7,000. Arguing about money with Jimmy Henchman was not a good idea. But Tupac was fearless to the point of recklessness. Maybe it was a character of Bishop rubbing off on him, or maybe he was acting out of desperation. But he wasn't about to let himself get ripped off. Tupac and his friends entered the lobby at Quad Studios just after midnight. That's when Chico Delveque and Lil Ceeze saw them from the balcony. While Chico stayed upstairs, Ceeze headed down in an elevator with Nino Brown, another member of Junior Mafia. Down in the lobby, two men wearing boots and army fatigue sprang into action. The men had guns and they ordered everybody in the lobby to get on the floor. Everyone obeyed, except for Tupac acting recklessly again. Tupac was shot five times. He fell to the floor. The armed men kicked him and snatched his $30,000 diamond ring and $10,000 in gold chains. They didn't take Tupac's diamond studded Rolex watch that had been a gift from Haitian Jack up in the penthouse studio. Biggie and Chico do Vec had no idea any of this was happening. And then their friend Ceeze and Nino Brown rushed back into the penthouse and told them what they'd seen in the lobby. Biggie told his crew to stay where they were. He and Chico were going to see what was happening downstairs. The gunman had already fled the scene, but the lobby of Quad Studios was still Bloody chaos.

[Chico Del Vec]

By the time we get down there, police is dead. So we all on the downstairs getting searched by the cops. They be like, oh, shit, we smell gunpowder. Like, damn, Caesar, they wasn't not lying. Somebody was actually really, you know, robbing this dude. And we see Tupac bandana on the ground and blood down. They'd be like, oh, shit.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

But no Tupac. Sometime before the cops arrived, and before Biggie and Chico got down to the lobby, Tupac made it onto an elevator that was going up. He rode up to the eighth floor, then dragged himself to the studio where he was supposed to meet with Little Shawn. Bullets had grazed his head and punctured his hand, thigh and scrotum. He made it into a chair and used paper towels to try to stop the bleeding. The room was filled with New York hip hop luminaries. They'd heard what was happening to Tupac and were there to check on him. Puffy was there. So was Puffy's mentor, Andre Harrell, and various members of Junior Mafia. Biggie and Chico were still downstairs, held there by the cops. Tupac was confused, upset, and suspicious. He later said that no one in the room would even look him in the eye. Maybe Jimmy Henchman had ordered a hit on him. Maybe it had been Haitian Jack. Maybe the men in the studio knew who done it and weren't sane. Chico denies that Biggie and Junior Mafia had any connection to the shooting. Chico says that Biggie came downstairs with a gun because he was ready to defend Tupac.

[Chico Del Vec]

And if you see that footage, you see us coming out Quad Studio and the police out there. And it was so funny. Big had the gun on him, walking out past the police. So how we try to set you up and we came to hold you down.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Detective Mordecai Jakansky was one of the homicide cops who responded to the shooting. When he got up to the 8th floor studio, he started questioning everyone, including Tupac, who was still there tending to his own wounds.

[Detective Mordecai Jakansky]

So who's who of Andrea Harrell and all the other people? I had no idea. I0. You know, to me it was all about Tupac being shot. He was the victim and getting the bad guy. But on the flip side, he wasn't going to cooperate with us. And I understand it now. I mean, in retrospect, okay, you'll take care of it. You're going to do what you're going to do. There was nothing I could have done to coerce him to speak.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

The paramedics arrived and carried Tupac out of Quad Studios on a Stretcher. He was nearly naked and very disoriented. This was the moment when he extended his middle finger towards Chico and Biggie.

[Chico Del Vec]

And they caught him like. And we looking at him putting the middle finger like, fuck you, niggas. And Biggie was like, yo, why does this dude mad at us about something? About what the. We ain't do nothing wrong. You know what I'm saying?

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Chico and Biggie figured Tupac was confused. After all, he'd just been bum rushed and nearly killed. They couldn't believe he'd blamed them for the shooting. And in fairness to Chico and Biggie, there's very little evidence that they were involved. After he got carried out of Quad Studios, Tupac was taken to Bellevue Hospital. A team of 13 doctors worked to repair a damaged blood vessel in his right leg. When he got out of surgery, Tupac said he felt vulnerable around all of the unfamiliar doctors. He also didn't like that his enemies would know where to find him. Tupac understood that men like Haitian Jack and Jimmy Henchman had the power to finish the job, even at a hospital. He also thought the men who attacked him looked like the kind of dudes Biggie hung out with in Brooklyn. And Tupac found it fishy that he was the only one among all the stars at the Quad that night who got robbed and shot. If you were Tupac, it might have seemed like a setup to you too. So Tupac checked himself out of the hospital less than three hours after the surgery on his leg. His surgeon said he'd never seen anybody leave like that. Tupac didn't want to go somewhere he could be found, so he holed up at the apartment of a friend, the actress Jasmine Guy, they'd bet when Tupac guest starred on her sitcom A Different World. First of all, he was shot five times. Somebody wanted him dead. And walking around knowing that really affected Tupac's spirit. Yeah, and there was a lot of what I call spiritual fortification going around him. I mean, we were really just trying to give that life back to him. Tupac returned to court the next day to hear the jury's verdict in the Ayanna Jackson case. He looked as frail as he was. He arrived in a wheelchair, surrounded by the security force of the Nation of Islam. His head was topped with a wool Yankee skull cap that covered his bandages. He had to leave before the verdict was read because his leg had gone numb. Tupac was found guilty of sexual abuse. That meant prison time, though he'd have to wait to hear the length of his sentence. Tupac's co defendant, Charles Fuller, got four months behind bars. Haitian Jack pled guilty to sexual misconduct and got probation. That made Tupac even more suspicious that Jack had cooperated with the police. The judge allowed Tupac to remain free on $25,000 bond while he recovered from his injuries. He spent the next few weeks in Jasmine Guy's apartment being cared for by his mother Effaney and a private doctor. The Fruit of Islam and former members of the Black Panther Party stood guard. He had lots of time to think about who'd shot him and wonder whether his friends were really his friends. Tupac thought about how Biggie hadn't given him a mention in the liner notes of his debut album, Ready to Die. He'd been a mentor to Biggie. That was disrespect. He thought about how Biggie and Puffy allowed Haitian Jack in their entourage. He told one reporter, I was hurt. I'm going to trial. I'm probably going to get convicted. And this nigga showing up at a party with champagne, hanging with Biggie. Most of all, Tupac thought about the ambush at Quad Studios. How Biggie's friend Lil Cease had seen him on the street, how no one else had put up a fight. How when it was all over, no one could even look him in the face. He felt betrayed and he thought maybe Biggie and them were in on it the whole time. Nobody was ever arrested for the shooting at Quad Studios. There are various theories about who did it. Most of them center on a couple of well known New York stick up guys. They're both in prison today serving life sentences for unrelated crimes. One of them says he pulled the trigger and that Jimmy Henchman was behind the operation. Jimmy Hinchman is in prison too. Haitian Jack was deported to Haiti in 2007. Back in 1994, the people who knew what happened weren't talking, definitely not to the police. Detective Mordechai Jakansky says he knew the case would be nearly impossible to solve.

[Detective Mordecai Jakansky]

From the get go. There was zero, let me use the word Zero Corporation, meaning that nobody was talking to us, which was understandable. I'm not complaining about was part of the, part of the cycle because this was a situation where nobody wants to.

[Narrator / Joel Anderson]

Be a rat for one thing. Cooperating with the cops would have been dangerous. Whoever it was that set up Tupac would be just as quick to punish anyone who snitched for another. Hip Hop and law enforcement were locked in a very public war. Next week on Slow Burn. Hip Hop versus the Cops. Slow Burn is a production of sleep Slate Plus Slate's membership program. You can sign up for Slate plus to hear a bonus episode of the show this week and every week for the next two months. In our first bonus episode, we've got an interview with one of Tupac's attorneys, Sean Holly, a public defender and lawyer to the stars. You'll also hear about the making of the season from me and Slow Burn producer Christopher Johnson. To hear it, Sign up for Slate [e-mail] Slow Burn Slow Burn is produced by me and Christopher Johnson, with editorial direction by Josh Levine and Gabriel Roth. Sophie Summergrad is our researcher. Our mix engineer is Jared Paul. Don Will composed our theme song. The artwork for Slow Burn is by Lisa Larson Walker. Special thanks to Slate's Child 2 Lo and Liu, Allison Benedict and Jared Holt. Some of the audio you heard in this episode came from the Historic Films Archives, LLC and the Connie Martenson Talks Books collection from the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University. Thanks to them all, you can find a full list of books, articles and documentaries used to research this episode on our show page. Thanks for listening. Peace.

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[Chico Del Vec]

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