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Man Confesses To Shooting Tupac, Igniting East Coast/West Coast War
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 15, 2011
Modified Jun 15, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 15, 2011
Modified Jun 15, 2011
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On the eve of what would have been rapper Tupac Shakur's 40th birthday, a man has confessed to shooting the legendary rapper in 1994, inadvertently setting off the feud which would eventually claim both Tupac and Biggie Smalls's lives. Dexter Isaac, who is currently serving a life sentence at MDC Brooklyn for separate charges, confessed that he was paid $2,500 dollars by James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond to rob Tupac inside Manhattan's Quad Studios on November 30, 1994. Check out his full confession, which he gave to AllHipHop.com, here.
Isaac, who shot Tupac that day, said he was motivated to confess for a few reasons: he was angry that Jimmy Henchman had identified him for dealing cocaine, and that Henchman had labelled him a rat. He wanted the world to know that Henchman was involved in the shooting. And Isaac wanted to clear his conscience, and apologize to Tupac and Biggie's families. "I want to apologize to his family [Tupac Shakur] and for the mistake I did for that sucker [Jimmy Henchman]...I am trying to clean it up to give [Tupac and Biggie's] mothers some closure."
After that fateful shooting, Tupac would accuse Sean Combs, Andre Harrell, and Biggie Smalls of setting him up, igniting the East Coast/West Coast hip hop war. Less than two years later, Tupac would be killed in Las Vegas; a year after that, Biggie would be killed in a drive-by in LA. Back in January, the LAPD announced they were reopening the case into Biggie's murder; then two months ago, the FBI released a 359-page file with details from the case.
Police have yet to charge anyone with either murder, and we still haven't figured out which tip jar to contribute to. However, we have taken a long hard look at the sketch of Biggie's suspect, and think we may have ourselves a new lead.
Tagged
biggie
hip hop
Music
mysteries
rap
tupac
tupac shakur
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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