These are interviews from MTV, Thw Washington Post, and CNN!!!

MTV REPORTS THE DEATH OF TUPAC SHAKUR: SEPTEMBER 13, 1996

Trouble-plagued rapper and actor Tupac Shakur is dead at the age of 25 -- just about a week after sustaining 4 bullet wounds last Saturday night in Las Vegas. Shakur spent the week in the hospital on a respirator in critical condition. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, members of the Nation of Islam, and fellow Death Row Records artist Hammer visited Shakur's bedside on Sunday, when he had one of his lungs removed. Shakur's mother, Afeni -- featured in his "Dear Mama" video -- and other family members kept a vigil at his hospital room in the intensive care unit of University Medical Center in Las Vegas. Early in the week, doctors rated Tupac's chances of survival at one in five, then said his chances had improved on Tuesday, then on Thursday declined to speculate on his prognosis at all. Chris Connelly was on the scene to reconstruct the ultimately fatal events of last Saturday night.

CHRIS CONNELLY: I'm here in Vegas, where the most violent portion of Tupac Shakur's Saturday night was supposed to take place behind me, over there at the MGM Grand Hotel, where Tupac saw Mike Tyson pound Bruce Seldon into submission less than two minutes into their heavyweight bout. The fight ended around 8:55 PM local time, and from there, Tupac headed off to the home of Suge Knight, which is about 5 miles away from here. He's the head of Death Row Records. From there, they were supposed to go to Club 662, that's Knight's club, for a celebration in honor of Tyson, that was going to feature entertainment by people like Run DMC. But the caravan of cars from Knight's house never got to the club.

Tupac and Suge Knight left Knight's home at around 10:30 PM to go to Club 662. By 11:15 that evening, they were heading east on Flamingo, just coming to this intersection here at Koval. They were driving a black BMW 1996 model. Knight was driving, Tupac was in the passenger's seat. Along the passenger's side came a late model white Cadillac. From inside, shots were fired, 14 of them. Tupac was hit four times, twice in the chest, once in the arm, and once in the thigh. Knight was mildly injured by some bullet fragments; but he promptly floored the car, spinning it completely around and took a U-turn so it instantly headed east on Flamingo.

With Tupac bleeding profusely in the passenger seat, Suge Knight was able to get his vehicle just about a mile away from the site of the shooting, something of a miracle given his condition, the condition of the car -- which had a flat tire -- and the fact that the traffic on the strip after a heavyweight fight in Vegas is something to behold. They made it to this corner here, Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue, where they were finally pulled over by the Bike Patrol, who radioed ahead to paramedics, who swept them off to University Medical Center -- their evening out in Las Vegas ending just a few steps away from where it had begun, the MGM Grand.

Shortly before midnight, Tupac was brought here, to UMC's Trauma Center, where he was immediately operated on, and then again about 20 hours later.

DALE PUGH, University Medical Center of Southwest Nevada: He's had a right lung removed, he's back in his room, and again, he remains in critical condition. He's in the intensive care unit.

CONNELLY: Is he conscious? Can he communicate with his doctor?

PUGH: He has been conscious, he is under a lot of medication, so he's pretty sedated at this time. He's severely injured. Suffering multiple gun shot wounds is obviously a terrible insult to the human body, so he's in very critical condition, and he's requiring intensive care, and he is receiving that, right now.

Once again, Tupac Shakur died of those bullet wounds at the age of 25 on Friday, September 13.

Suge Knight, who was released from the hospital Sunday night, finally spoke with police on Wednesday, and told them he "heard something, but saw nothing" last Saturday night, leaving the cops with, as one spokesman put it, "nothing" in the way of leads towards suspects or motives. Police also looked at security camera tapes from the Tyson fight at the MGM Grand, where Tupac and his entourage got into a scuffle with someone, who was ruled out as a suspect, since he was still held by security when Tupac left the building. Because there's a possibility of Tupac's shooting being gang-related, Vegas police got in touch on Thursday with Los Angeles police regarding two shootings that happened in LA this week. The Vegas P.D. has also been in touch with New York City police, for it was there that Tupac Shakur was shot two years ago. Of course, Tupac and trouble have hardly been strangers. Here now is a look back at his turbulent life and career.

MTV: Tupac Shakur's public life began when he joined the seminal Bay Area rap ensemble, Digital Underground, first as a tour dancer, then as a rapper. Tupac demonstrated his range as a performer when his first solo record, "2Pacolypse Now," was on the charts at the same time as his critically-acclaimed feature film debut in the violent, coming of age drama, "Juice." While he maintained a thug image, Tupac was a man of contradictions, recording sentimental raps in support of black women, including "Brenda's Got A Baby," and "Keep Ya Head Up."

(From an interview, March 9, 1994)

TUPAC SHAKUR: Because I was raised by a woman half my life in the... streets, it's like I got the woman's side, then I got real rough, manly values, like, forced on me.

MTV: As Tupac's film credits grew, with John Singleton's "Poetic Justice," he faced the possibility of doing time for assaulting director Alan Hughes, who had dropped him from the cast of "Menace II Society."

TUPAC: If I have to go to jail, I don't even want to be living. I want to just cease to exist for however long they have me there, and then when I come out, I'll be reborn, you know what I'm saying? I'll be taking less problems, and that my mind would be sharper, and the venom would be more potent. So, they shouldn't send me there. They should really try to... It's like, you don't want to throw gasoline on a fire to put it out.

MTV: What followed was a cross-country tour of courtrooms and jail houses: 10 days in a Michigan prison for assaulting a fellow rapper with a baseball bat (April 5, 1993); an arrest for allegedly shooting two off-duty Atlanta police officers, in which charges were eventually dropped (October 31, 1993); and sexual abuse, sodomy -- both, allegedly, against a fan -- and weapons charges in New York City (November 18, 1993). The day before he was convicted of sex abuse in New York, Tupac was shot five times in the lobby of a Times Square recording studio. The crime was officially classified as a robbery; and the police dropped their investigation when Tupac failed to cooperate.

(From an interview with Tabitha Soren, October 27, 1995)

TUPAC: That situation with me is like, what comes around, goes around... karma, I believe in karma. I believe in all of that. I'm not worried about it. They missed. I'm not worried about it unless they come back.

MTV: While serving his sentence for sexual abuse, Tupac's third solo release, "Me Against The World," spent four weeks at number one.

TUPAC: It was a trip. Every time they used to say something bad to me, I'd go, "That's all right. I got the number one record in the country."

MTV: After eight months, Tupac's case was appealed, and Death Row head Suge Knight promptly bailed Tupac out of jail, and took the opportunity to sign him to Death Row Records.

TUPAC (counting a handful of money after being signed to Death Row Records): If you come to Death Row, you will see your art brought to a bigger plateau, and you will be paid one of these days. Death Row...

MTV: Tupac turned his troubles to a career that was bigger than ever. His double album Death Row debut, "All Eyez On Me," sold more than 5 million copies, scored a number one single, and included tracks with new label mate, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Dr. Dre. With three years past since Snoop's last solo release, and the departure of Death Row Co-Founder, Dr. Dre, to start his own label, Tupac became Death Row's artistic centerpiece, as well as its biggest mouthpiece. Death Row and Tupac shared a common enemy: the New York-based Bad Boy Entertainment. Tupac had earlier implicated Bad Boy Producer, Sean "Puffy" Combs, and star artist, the Notorious B.I.G., in his 1994 shooting.

TUPAC: Bad Boy Records. That's for Bad Boy Records (he winks and holds up the handful of money from signing with Death Row). I love you all.

MTV: But despite his taunts, Tupac realized danger could be around the corner. Back in New York City for this year's Video Music Awards, just three nights before he was shot in Las Vegas, Tupac surrounded himself with bodyguards and clutched a walkie talkie throughout the evening as a security precaution.

TUPAC: We are businessmen. We are not animals. It's not like we're going to see them and rush them and jump on them. If they see us and they want drama, we're goin' to definitely bring it like only Death Row can bring it...

We spoke this week with Ernest Dickerson, who directed Tupac in his big screen debut, "Juice," and asked him what about Tupac might surprise people. Here's what Dickerson told us.

ERNEST DICKERSON, Director, "Juice": I think that he's very introspective. I mean, when we were shooting "Juice," in between takes, he would spend a lot of time by himself, writing. You know, he thinks a lot. He thinks about what's going on in the world, he thinks about what's going on in the neighborhoods. He thinks about what's going on in this country and around the world, and he talks about it in his music. And the thing that I really got from Tupac was that he was always thinking, always at work. His mind was always going.

WASHINGTON POST REPORTS:

Controversial Rapper Critically Injured After Tyson Fight

By Sharon Waxman Special to The Washington Post Monday, September 9 1996; Page D01 The Washington Post

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 -- "Gangsta" rap star Tupac Shakur was in critical condition in a Las Vegas hospital today after an assailant pumped four bullets into his head and chest during a drive-by shooting Saturday night.

The 25-year-old rap star was shot as he and Marion "Suge" Knight, chairman of Death Row Records, Shakur's label, were on their way to a nightclub about 11:15 p.m. after watching the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight title fight at the MGM Grand Hotel, police said.

Shakur underwent emergency surgery for multiple gunshot wounds and remained under heavy police and private guard in the trauma-intensive care unit, according to a spokesman for University Medical Center. Knight, 31, was hit in the head by shrapnel and was released from the hospital today.

The shooting was the most serious in a string of violent incidents involving the rap star, who appeared Wednesday at the MTV Video Music Awards, where he and members of his entourage got into an argument with several men in the lobby of New York's Radio City Music Hall. Police were called to break it up.

In November 1994, Shakur was shot five times in the lobby of a New York recording studio when muggers stealing his jewelry opened fire. He has spent much of the past 2 1/2 years in court or in custody on various charges.

A handsome, swaggering man with long eyelashes and a penchant for showy jewelry, Shakur has been a prominent symbol for gangsta rap music, enthusiastically followed by teenage fans and long criticized by adults for its explicitly violent and sexual images. Saturday's incident underscored the link between some rap stars -- despite their celebrity status -- and the dangerous milieu that gave rise to their music.

In the weekend shooting, Knight was driving with Shakur in a convoy of 10 cars about a quarter-mile from the glittering casino strip when a white Cadillac with four people inside pulled up alongside their black BMW and a passenger opened fire. Local media reports said dozens of witnesses looked on in horror.

Police said they had begun an investigation into the shooting but had no suspects yet. "Drive-by shootings are not unknown here, but they usually occur between rival gang members whose reasons are for retaliation for other shootings," said Las Vegas Police Lt. Marc Maston. "I can't tell you the motivation behind this."

But he said police were optimistic they would find the assailants. "This particular incident apparently had several witnesses. If they are credible, with good information, this should be solvable."

Spokesmen for Death Row Records could not be reached for comment as to possible motives for the shooting. Shakur said earlier this year that he believed the 1994 robbery-shooting was a setup, fueling speculation in the hip-hop industry that rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rap labels may have taken a violent turn.

Shakur himself has had many run-ins with the law in recent years. In June, the singer faced a 120-day sentence for probation violations stemming from offenses including assault and battery and a 1994 sexual abuse conviction in New York. He had been allowed to remain free on $1.4 million bail -- paid by Death Row Records -- pending his appeal.

Shakur served 11 months in prison for his involvement in the attack on a 21-year-old woman in a New York hotel room. He had been convicted in Los Angeles of assault and battery on a music video producer and for carrying a loaded, concealed weapon, and was scheduled for sentencing this week on the weapons charge.

But in the world of rap, Shakur's convictions seemed only to enhance his status. His fourth solo album, "All Eyez on Me," a two-volume, 27-track recording featuring guest turns by fellow rappers Snoop Doggy Dogg, Rappin' 4-Tay and Method Man, debuted earlier this year and has sold more than 5 million copies. His previous album, "Me Against the World," had the dubious distinction of being the first album to reach No. 1 while its singer was in prison.

Shakur also starred opposite Janet Jackson in the 1993 movie "Poetic Justice" and has been working on another film, "Gridlock."

In interviews earlier this year, Shakur had said he was tired of living up to his outlaw image, one he had chronicled in a tattoo on his chest that pronounced "Thug Life."

"I lived Thug Life," he said. "It was stupid . . . it's suicidal."

But the rapper also said that he expected he would die violently. In July, Shakur told the British newspaper the Observer: "It's going to happen. All the [black people] who change the world die in violence. They don't get to die like regular ways. [Expletives] come take their lives."

CNN REPORTS DEATH OF TUPAC

Rapper dies after last week's shooting

September 13, 1996 Web posted at: 8:50 p.m. EDT

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Rap star Tupac Shakur died Friday from gunshot wounds suffered last weekend while he was riding in a car near the Las Vegas strip, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

The 25-year-old Shakur died Friday at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nancy Collins said.

Doctors determined Shakur's cause of death as respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest, Collins said. Shakur's mother was at his bedside when he died.

No arrests have been made in the drive-by shooting, which happened as Shakur was on his way to a party after the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight September 7.

Shakur was hit by four bullets as he rode in a car driven by the head of Death Row Records, Marion "Suge" Knight, who was slightly wounded.

It was the second time Shakur had been gunned down in less than two years. In November 1994, he was shot five times during an apparent robbery in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio.

Arrested repeatedly in recent years, he was released last year on bail, pending appeal after serving eight months in a New York prison for sex abuse.

Known as 2Pac, he was one of the most successful -- and scorned -- "gangsta" rappers. Fans bought millions of his records; others denounced him and his lyrics for glorifying violence and drugs and degrading women.

Shakur was up-front about his troubled life in the 1995 release "Me Against The World," a multi-million-selling album that contained the ominously titled tracks, "If I Die 2Nite" and "Death Around The Corner."

"It ain't easy being me -- will I see the penitentiary, or will I stay free?" Shakur rapped on the album, which produced the Grammy-nominated "Dear Mama" and standout singles "So Many Tears" and "Temptations."

The Las Vegas shooting occurred as Shakur's fourth solo album, "All Eyez on Me," remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. The song "How Do You Want It -- California Love" was a top 20 single on Billboard magazine's charts.

A fledgling actor, Shakur recently completed filming a role as a detective for the Orion picture "Gang Related." He appeared in "Above The Rim" in 1994, with Janet Jackson in John Singleton's 1993 release "Poetic Justice" and in the 1992 Earnest Dickerson film "Juice."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.