Next year will mark the 25th anniversary of infamous Death Row Records rap legend Tupac Shakur’s death, and people are still questioning many events from the night, including if Tupac staged the shooting to fake his own death. Former Bodyguard “MOB” James McDonalds has spoken out on the incident on a couple different occasions; his most recent was with the Breakfast Club and the Gangster Chronicled Podcast. About 11 minutes into the podcast, MOB was asked by Dj. Envy if he was there the night that Tupac was shot. He was not on the scene, but he was very present in the overall situation as he worked security at Suge’s nightclub 662.
September 8, 1996 was a memorable day for many adults age 35 years and older, as it was the day that began months of news coverage surrounding Tupac ‘s murder which occurred at 11:15pm the evening prior. Tupac, Suge Knight and his entourage attended the Heavy Weight Boxing Championship match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon which ended in the first round. After the fight while walking through the casino, Tupac was alerted by someone in his camp that a member of the Crip gang was present who had previously assaulted someone in his camp. Tupac immediately took action, attacking the individual. He was followed by his entourage who helped him stomps the guy out. Afterward, they left and head toward Suge’s club 662 for the after party. Suge drove a black BMW as Tupac rode shotgun. They got caught at a red light and as they looked over to talk to some women in the car next to them, a white Cadillac pulled up on the other side and let let off a bunch of shots. Shortly after Tupac died.
MOB is adamant in his belief that had Suge managed Tupac more effectively, he would not have gone out the way that he did. Tupac was a gangster rapper, but according to MOB, that was all that he was, not a gangster or a gang banger. His take on the night of the events from Tupac’s vantage point is that, “It went from haning a good time, to Tupac trying to fir in.” He went on to sat that “Suge allowed him to act a certain kind of way, instead of being an artist, he let him be a gangsta,” is how he described the events to the podcast. “He let him hang around the muscle, and he never should have did that.” MOB continues to state that Tupac got into something that he had no business in, and should have just focused on rapping and making money, especially because Suge paid people to beat people up.
