That not so earth-shattering revelation comes courtesy of Friday's Los Angeles Times, which spent two years investigating the slaying. The family of the Notorious B.I.G., aka Christopher Wallace, adamantly denies the report.
Of course, the theory that Biggie might have had something to do with Tupac's murder is far from novel. Within moments of the Las Vegas drive-by that ultimately claimed Shakur's life in September 1996, the prevalent hypothesis was that the West Coast rapper's arch-rivals from the East Coast played a role.
The idea went something like this: Tupac represented the major California rap faction, Death Row Records, and Biggie was the biggest star in Sean "Puffy" Combs' Bad Boy empire, the key New York hip-hop house. Tupac and Biggie frequently dissed each other lyrically and in interviews, but most wrote it off as typical rap posturing. Somewhere along the line, their boastful machismo crossed the line into bloodshed.
Such speculation seemed even more valid when Biggie himself was gunned down in Los Angeles in March 1997. But investigators ultimately dismissed the notion and both the Tupac and Biggie murders remain unsolved.
Still, the Times rounded up the usual suspects for its two-part story running Friday and Saturday. Orlando Anderson, a card-carrying member of the Crips, is once again said to be the trigger man. (Police investigated the Anderson angle but never declared him a formal suspect; he was later slain in an unrelated shooting.)
Anderson had been roughed up by Shakur's posse in Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel following a Mike Tyson fight there. The beat-down was reportedly in retaliation for an earlier incident, in which one of Tupac's bodyguards (a group made up primarily of Crips-hating Bloods gangbangers) was mugged by Anderson and his cohorts.
To be fair, the newspaper adds some new wrinkles to the hoary story, claiming it was Biggie who provided the murder weapon--a .40-caliber Glock pistol--and a $1 million bounty on Shakur. Biggie was in Vegas at the time of the murder, met with Anderson and agreed to underwrite the hit, according to the Times.
Hours later, a Cadillac reportedly carrying Anderson and his fellow Crips, pulled up alongside the BMW driven by Death Row rap mogul Suge Knight. Tupac was in the passenger seat. The assailants opened up on the BMW and sped away.
Six days later, on September 13, Shakur was dead, and, according to the Times, Wallace paid his first $50,000 installment to Anderson's Crips crew.
Of course, with the trio of principals dead, there's no way to corroborate the Times story. Biggie was killed on March 9, 1997, as he sat in his car following a post-party for the Soul Train Music Awards. (At the time, it was reported that L.A. police were trying to link Knight to the crime, suggesting he might have ordered the hit on Biggie to avenge Tupac's death.) Anderson, meanwhile, was shot dead in May 1998 in a gang clash.
However, in a lengthy statement, Biggie's family says the Times story is "patently false" and "the most extreme example of irresponsible journalism we've ever seen. The L.A. Times article takes facts on record and juxtaposes them with hazy, unattributed remarks which are not the result of any legitimate investigation, but rather are simply an effort to generate further confusion and publicity.
"Christopher Wallace had nothing to do with the death of Tupac Shakur. He wasn't in Las Vegas at the time of the crime, he did not arrange the murder, he didn't pay $50,000 of bounty money to anyone and he did not hand a gun to Orlando Anderson to be used in the hit on Tupac. It is all lies.
"This false story is a disrespect to not only our family but the family of Tupac Shakur. Both men will have no peace as long as stories such as these continue to be written."
The family, which says the rapper was at his New Jersey home at the time of Tupac's murder, says it's considering a lawsuit against the newspaper--"since he is unable to defend himself."
Others familiar with the rappers are also questioning the story.
Def Jam rap mogul Russell Simmons, who also chairs the peace-seeking Hip-Hop Summit Action Network calls the Times story "inaccurate."
"People should not rush to judgment concerning this tragedy based on inaccuracies as reported by the L.A. Times. We need healing in our community. Only facts and the real truth will bring ultimate justice and peace.
And documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who directed Biggie & Tupac examining the rappers, their feuds and their deaths, says he thinks the article "is both narrow and biased."
"This is not a story of one man's murder at an isolated moment in time," says Broomfield. "This is a story of long-standing rivalries, numerous players and multiple murders. The facts, as I have researched them, are not presented in their entirety here."
Meanwhile, the Times asserts that three other, unidentified Crips who allegedly accompanied Anderson in the Tupac drive-by still live in the L.A. area and have never been questioned by authorities.
(Updated at 5 p.m. PT.)