All language subtitles for BBC.Last.Man.Standing.1080p.HDTV.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

Developing news now,
former rap mogul Suge Knight

is headed to prison for
voluntary manslaughter.

He ran down a man in the parking
lot of a Compton burger stand

about three years ago.

And today, he found out what
his punishment will be.

For the crimes which the defendant
has been convicted in count one,

the defendant's levied a term
in state prison of 22 years.

The prior conviction
the defendant has admitted,

he's levied an additional
five years in state prison

for a total unstayed term
of 28 years.

Quite a fall for Knight since the
height of his career in the '90s.

He's best known as the co-founder
of Death Row Records and worked

with Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg,
and Tupac Shakur.

And back here live, Sharon,
he did look briefly at...

Suge Knight's sentencing
for 28 years signalled the end

of his power, the end of his empire.

People now no longer as intimidated
since Suge's incarceration

started talking more freely
about Suge being the shadow

behind Biggie Smalls and
Tupac Shakur's murders.

Tell Frankie to call me.
LAUGHTER

Frankie, you call me when she
tells you to call me, Frankie.

Why, what's...?
Frankie Goes to Hollywood!

Ay, yo, Frankie.

Frankie! Yo, Frankie!

CHEERING

It caused me to review an
earlier film I'd made

about Biggie and Tupac.

People were now opening up to things
I couldn't get answered before.

Biggie and Tupac started off
as the best of friends.

Tupac was the one who discovered
Biggie and brought him out on stage.

And if you look very closely,
you'll see the rarest of footage

of Biggie and Tupac hugging
on the edge of stage.

But, partly because
of Suge's influence,

they ended up as deadly enemies,

the victims of a gang war
that Suge had initiated.

It was LAPD Detective
Russell Poole...

Hey. Hello, hello!

..who originally alleged the
connection between Suge Knight and

the murders of Biggie and Tupac.

Well, like I say, based on the
witnesses that I've interviewed

and the evidence,

I believe that, you know,

Suge Knight ultimately
called for the hit.

And you said Police Chief
Bernard Parks stopped you

from investigating further,

because LAPD police officers were
involved with Suge Knight?

Oh, that's correct.
Yes, he was...

You know, it's several factors...
on why he didn't want this pursued

to the fullest extent.

And one being the fact that
his own officers were involved.

At the time, Police Chief Bernard
Parks dismissed these allegations.

He is totally wrong.

He only worked the task force
for about four months.

Russell Poole resigned, asserting
massive corruption in the LAPD.

Tonight, shocking allegations
against the city's top cop.

Former detective Russell Poole has
filed suit against the department.

Poole says he uncovered dirty cops
while investigating the murders

of rappers and Biggie Smalls
and Tupac Shakur.

I provided the chief with enough...

Russell died tragically
a few years later,

his career in tatters,
the murders still unsolved.

His work is asserting dirty cops
and corruption in the LAPD is

as relevant today as it was then.

I am telling you right now!
Book him up.

Book him up, you're under arrest.

You're under arrest for interfering.

BICYCLE BELL RINGS

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

GUNSHOTS

Back in the 1990s, Death Row was
the most successful rap label ever,

worth hundreds of
millions of dollars.

Yet by 2002, with allegations
of racketeering,

it is closed down by a SWAT team
and goes into bankruptcy.

Death Row Records was in a
very elegant part of Westwood,

in Los Angeles.

It was a really big office,

and it was located across the hall
from Interscope Records.

When you first walked into
Death Row Records,

..you got a vibe that it was a
family kind of thing going on.

That everybody cared
about everybody.

So, you kind of got food
right off the bat.

Now, what I did notice
the very first time was that

there was always a lot of guys -

when I say "a lot of guys",
I mean, they would be lined up

sitting in the hallway, chillin'.

You didn't know why they were there.

I don't even think they knew
why they were there, you know?

But Suge did give a lot
of jobs to the guys and his

gang member affiliation people.

It was funny,
they always had on red.

Everybody that was everybody
had on red.

And Snoop and them
always wore their blue.

They never got off their Crip.

Used to come to the office, right?

And there'd be a gang of dudes
up there, Bloods -

I can always tell they Bloods,
right?

Smoking...Newports.

Where they'd pop the thing off.

Or the Camels, right?

They popped the head off
the Newport, right?

And you could tell that they'd
just been in the penitentiary for

a long time, cos they was just so
used to sitting down, smoking weed

or cigarettes, right, talking shit.

And then, it'd be like
new crews of cats you could tell

fresh out the pen,

come up there to get a job.

First, they're going to ask you,
"Where you from"?

And you did not say you were
from an enemy gang territory.

Or they're going to say...
you'll have to run it.

You see what I'm saying?
You know what I mean "run it"?

They'll want to fight.

RADIO CHATTER

They come from a good, tight-knit
family. Really, really close.

Everyone loves each other,
everyone thinks with one brain.

Parents were still together,
and just, you know,

just like a regular family.

Uncle Suge was the baby, so he
got he got away with everything.

So, he's spoiled, he's the baby.

He...
SHE LAUGHS

He would call my mum and ask
for certain, you know,

his potato salad a certain way.

He wants chicken his certain way.

It was, you know...

And if anybody touches his chicken,
his potato salad, he's angry.

You know, he wants his food
a certain way, he wants it...

I mean, he's the baby.

So...and everybody loves him and
they spoil him, especially my mum.

So, whatever he says, it's,
"OK, Suge. OK, Li'l Suge. OK."

So, he's, you know...
he's the baby,

so he gets whatever he wants.

The happy Mother's Day from OFTB,

and all the other mothers out there.

Stay strong.

Stay up.

There is also another side to Suge.

He initially gave hope to
the Compton community,

which had the highest
unemployment in LA.

He also gave back to the community.

HE VOCALISES

CHEERING

Suge gave encouragement to
artists like Danny Boy,

whom he adopted as legal guardian,

aged 15, and acted as a father.

Yes, he was, for sure.

For sure. Definitely like a father,
like a big brother.

A lot of things that people
seen in Suge, or a lot of things

that people said about Suge,
you know, some of those things, I...

You know, I didn't see him as that,
you know what I mean?

Because, you know, I had a
real relationship with him where

I was able - I felt like I was able
to talk to him and say things

that I would say to a father.

Yeah, so...

Suge lived in Compton, near
Pam Brooks, an old friend of mine,

and who am I asked to
work on the film.

Hi there!

Pam knows everyone.

Hi. Tell me what you know
about Suge Knight.

All right.
What else you need to know?

Suge Knight was on that side.

This is the Crip neighbourhood.

Suge Knight is over here...
all the way down.

Do you know some of his homies?

Yeah, I'm going to get you and
let you talk to 'em.

Yeah. I mean - and if they don't
want to talk or be on camera,

can they just...I need to -
they don't have to be on camera

if they don't want to be on camera.

Just, I need it - would they mind
if they record their voice?

Just...

All right. Call me and let me...

Just call me and let me know,
and then, erm...let me know.

And I don't know,
these are England -

they white people,
they white, but they Black.

But, I mean, they from England.

I mean... All right.

No...you know, we straight up.

They're from England.
Remember, they're crazy.

This is the first time
Lipp Dogg speaks about

working for Suge Knight.

And so, before you worked
at Death Row, you were...?

I was in prison.

For attempted murder.

And so, Suge offered you a job.
Right.

INAUDIBLE

How did that happen?

Well, when I came home,
one of my associates took me

to where Suge was at,
Suge was about to go out of town.

And before he boarded a plane,
me and him, you know, hooked up.

Cos I know Suge prior from then.

I know Suge ever since
the early '70s, cos we grew up

five houses from each other.

So, you know, he knew me.

Suge couldn't even play with us.

His mother wouldn't let him
play with us.

Cos we were...

..the thugs in the neighbourhood.

And she had a goal for Suge.

And that was for him to play sports.

WHISTLE BLOWS

# I'm Marion Knight

# With the wavy hair

# I'm quick and fast,
and always there

# I'll take on any O-lineman

# Without no scares

ALL: # That's why they call him

# The Sugar Bear!

Marion Knight, number 54...

Suge went to college, and,
you know, he had good parents.

He had both his mother and father

that kept him away from
the whole gang violence shit

that we was doing.

Sometimes they'd think,
and he'd think that that's hard.

"You took away from me" -
no, she gave you a better life.

Being in office was just like...
conducting business on the street.

Motherfucker got in the way,
motherfucker got dealt with.

If you thought you was going
to create a problem,

you had a problem.

You'd find yourself
tossed upside down.

One thing people knew about Death
Row is they weren't bullshitting,

and they would whoop your ass.

With no questions asked.

If you stepped on the red rug,
if you answered the phone,

if you parked in somebody's spot,
you gon' get your ass whooped.

Some people died.

Some people just got
beat up, you know?

A few people got rat-packed.

You know, like I say, people
got disciplined, you know,

if they got in the way, or...

Cos Death Row was on a mission.

You couldn't stand on the logo.

The Death Row logo.

Stood on that logo, and you
probably gon' get knocked down.

Ain't no telling
who would knock you out,

but you probably got knocked out.

You had a dog, Damu,
Suge's German Shepherd.

His name was Damu.

It meant "blood". Yeah.

The dog would attack you.

Yeah, he was trained.

Cos he'd think...
the dog's thinking you trying

to get next to him, next to Suge.

And if you're trying
to get next to Shug,

that dog was going to attack you.

Yeah.

And is it true he had,
like, piranha fish?

Yeah. Yeah, he had...

He had a black tank built into
the wall in his office,

and it was dark.

It was black piranhas.

We used to feed 'em blood worms,

used to buy a big pack
of blood worms,

and put them in there...
and they'd just go crazy.

Yeah.

You know, and he...

He'd look at...tank,
and look at you...

Then, you know, people was calm.

They were gang-bangers.

They were gang-bangers,
and they worked for Suge Knight,

So, they was like Suge Knight's boy.

So, I believe -

my belief of it is they did
what Suge told them to do,

because they was broke, and...

They couldn't get a job because they
was already marked as gang-bangers,

so they took that ride
with Suge Knight.

And they accepted that thousand -
for a person who never had...

For a person they don't have
nothing, $1,000 is good, a day.

$1,000 a day? To do some dirty
shit to the next motherfucker?

"Go over here and drop this car off,
or go here and drop this bag off"?

And you don't know
what's in the bag?

But nine out of ten,
you know what's in the bag,

because you're not going
to fuck with nobody.

You know, you're not going to
put yourself in a situation where

you don't know if it's a dead body
in a trunk or not.

Some people do.

Some motherfuckers don't give
a fuck, you know what I'm saying?

Cos they'd be so desperate
for this money.

Inflicting pain on people was
like my medicine.

It was...I felt good.

I truly feel good about it.

I took pleasure...into it.

OK, I mean, just seeing the blood,

how it came out your nose,
how it came out your ears.

You...you don't want to die.

You don't want to die.

These cats don't give
a fuck if they do die.

And I mean that like that.

I'm not putting them on nothing,
but these cats don't care,

you know what I'm saying?

We lose homies in prison,

we lose homies on the street
on the daily.

We done seen death.

We done seen it - I held it,
you know what I'm saying?

I watched my homeboy, Kenny,
take his last breath.

Like, wow.

Mob James recruited gang
members for Suge,

including Bountry,
his younger brother.

Tupac would rap about Bountry,
who would later be murdered.

Suge utilised each and every guy
that I brung to him.

Instead of him being the
businessman he should've been,

he turned into one of the homies.

Shit. Suge put on red suit,
the big rings, the cigars,

and he just changed.

He went from Miriam...
to this gangster.

And I say...

..some men can't take power
like that, and just know that

they have all that power,
and be good.

Suge took that power.

He felt the energy.

He felt like...

Let's say you're goin' to a concert,

and you got 20 Bloods behind you.

I'm the smallest one.

Everybody else is...
I'm talking about, like, big.

And everybody's mentality is,

"If anybody say something to Suge,
knock their fucking head off".

And all of these famous
people was looking and

seeing Suge's entourage,

and it was like he was Jesus.

Everybody just start partying away.

And we would walk through
that crowd. And Suge...

HE CHUCKLES

He felt it,.

But it was just too much for him.

At the end of the day,
it was too much.

Put your hands together and say,
"Oh, yeah!"

CROWD: Oh, yeah!

Let me see somebody get Dre, Suge,
the D.O.C. A round of applause.

Death Row Records is going to be the
record company of the 2000s.

Death Row had the money to throw
the most lavish celebrity parties

in Beverly Hills.

The Label started with Dr Dre
was going to do his own thing,

and with a lot of help from
Suge Knight...

David Kenner - seen here - and
Suge Knight ran Death Row.

According to employees,
they did whatever they wanted.

Beverley Brolis, front centre.

CHEERING

He had huge houses, he had lots of
cars, he could come to work every

day in a different car for a month
and never drive the same car.

Really.

To be honest, Suge was just
two-faced, he was two-faced

and he really wasn't a man
of his word.

And I'm telling you, that day that
he set me up to be beat up,

I never thought... I had no inkling
that that was going

to happen that day.

He had planned that whole
thing all weekend.

He was ready.

He had one of his girlfriends bring
the girl up to the office,

they snuck her through the back
door. The girl that jumped on me,

she was dropped off by a girl
that was one of his girlfriends.

This girl came out of nowhere
and she sucker punched me,

stomping me in my face, and Suge had
me by my feet.

And David Kenner just stood
and watched.

And what did Suge say?

He was holding my feet.

So then when I kicked him
in his nuts, that's when I got

familiar with the back door.

So when I ran out the back door
and I ran over to Interscope,

they must've knew something
was happening because they locked

the door so you couldn't go in.

You know, they treated women...

I mean, they would have fights
in there, girl fights

in the offices where they would put
the assistants against other women

and, like, literal girl
fights where they went...

Like, in the middle
of the floor where they...

Like, it was like...boxing matches
where women would fight.

And I just... I never saw the
fights.

They would just tell me
about them, Dre told me about them.

And I was like, "Who does
that in the offices of the whatever.

And so that's how little
they thought of women.

And so I... I never... I just never
understood it.

I just... They just thought women
were second class citizens.

They were just literally
there for their amusement,

entertainment and enjoyment,
nothing else.

And if you...

..dated one of them, you understood
that was your place.

What about DJ Quik?

No.

It was an insult to me. Hm?.

No. So they're stealing a life.

This car Jacuzzi that he got
going on.

Pam showed me some useful tips I
hadn't learned at film school.

Pam is friends with
Joe Cool, Snoop's cousin,

who had been hard to get.

Oh, yeah. I got a good plot going on
in my head.

A good plan? Plot. You gotta plot.

You gotta plot with motherfuckers
like this.

You want to play hardball, let's
play.

So what's your plot for tomorrow?

Well, I'll go get... Get rid of her.

Go get... Go get my friend.

And then go out there,

get some weed and smoke it, go out
there and, you know,

rub my tittles against him because
he likes me.

I just got to play the game.

Pam and Joe Cool go way back.

He's a Crip and worked with Snoop,
his cousin.

At Death Row there's an uneasy
alliance between Blood and Crip

gang members.

Suge is a Blood, Snoop and Joe
Cool are Crips.

These dudes that Suge had were known
Crip killers,

real rough
motherfuckers, ex-smokers,

you know what I'm saying?

Ex-cons, fresh out the
penitentiary motherfuckers.

They did not play.
They overdid they job.

And they robbed and they stole,
they pillaged and they plundered.

And I've seen them do it.

One of they favourite things was
this,

as far as them being security,
for Suge, they favourite thing

would be to do this .

Suge's boys, they were thieves,

robbers, murderers, rapists.

Let me tell you, it was
Compton's worst.

And so what he would do
is...

What they would do is, "He got a
gun!"

Might be a guy with a big chain,
right, big old chain

or gang jewellery on, and they'll
point him out like,

"Oh, he got a gun!"

Next thing I know, everybody jumps
on this dude.

When the dude come up,

he ain't got no jewellery, no
wallet,

might not...might be missing a few
teeth,

you know what I'm saying?
Disorientated.

And just left there in a bloody
mess, and they would do

that all the time.

It was drugs up there.

It was, you know, drug dealing.

It was, like, multiple suitcases
with powdered cocaine

or re-rocked cocaine up in there,
there's a lot I've seen.

I've seen things
and I've been handed things,

you know?

Russell Poole had said this years
before.

He alleged that dirty cops
were an essential part of Death Row.

It was no secret that
Death Row Records was involved

in drug trafficking.

The big piece of this is the fact
that we had police officers working

in the organisation and police
officers

on different levels, you know?

there was actual security
guards that were actually doing

security for various artists.

And then you had, like, these
confidants, which I believe Gaines

and Mack and Perez were part
of that crew.

They were willing to do anything
for Suge Knight.

COMMENTATOR: 102 is Dave Mack of
America.

David Mack, in blue, before he
became a police officer,

was a world-class
athlete.

By complete
chance Tupac's manager

helped train him.

Leila has avoided talking
about David Mack

for the past 24 years.

I was working with Olympic track and
field athletes in the early '80s.

So David Mack, who ended
up being the cop that was entangled

with Suge and everything,
he was one of the athletes

on the team. I worked on David Mack
in 82, 83, 84,

the Olympics were in 1984.

But I knew David very well
because we worked together for years

before he was an officer, so...

..I can't speak to all the things
that went on and what they did,

all I can tell you is you cannot run
a criminal enterprise

at that magnitude without...

..a certain level of compliance
with the police department.

It was David Mack who introduced
fellow LAPD officer

Rafael Perez to Suge Knight.

Perez actively dealt in narcotics.

The police did this by controlling
the street gangs.

And he ran from us and discarded the
narcotics in the gutter.

It was no big deal to us.

We'll just put the dope on you, we
know you had it.

Here, Perez confesses to stealing
over $1 million of cocaine

from the LAPD evidence locker.

Having violated several vows and
oaths...

He implicates a further 70 other
police officers in crimes ranging

from murder, beatings, trafficking,
narcotics,

filing false police reports and
lying on the witness stand.

This is Police Chief Bernard Parks.

the city of LA ended up paying

an estimated 125 million
in settlement claims.

Do you think Chief Parks tried
to influence the investigation

into David Mack and Perez?

Well, the evidence
that was presented to us...

..clearly showed that there
were attempts at the highest levels

of the department to make
things disappear.

I will say that he did way
beyond what anybody

would have expected of a chief
of police,

way beyond.

There's strong evidence that Rafael
Perez, Nino Durden

and David Mack, seen here in Blood
colours,

as well as being police
officers,

were members of the Mob Piru
Blood gang, as was Suge Knight.

They and other members of the police
department controlled

the streets with a reign of terror.

Behind your back!

Lie down!

The streets are controlled by the
biggest gang

that we have, and that's the police.

And those gang members, many of whom

didn't end up serving on the
streets, they became officers.

What are the requirements
to become a police officer?

Not a whole lot. The corrupt
police are facilitating

the distribution of drugs.

There's no way in the world you can
have the mass amount of drugs

if not for police allowing
stuff to come in.

And into this messy and volatile
situation of gangs, violence

and corrupt police came Tupac
Shakur, who had himself just come

out of prison on assault charges
and would fuel the fire

of Death Row even more.

Tupac would be dead within 11
months.

This is Tupac with his producer,
Tracy Robinson, who says that none

of it needed to go the way
it did.

When I went to visit him in
Dannemora,

I think he would not have gone
to Death Row if Interscope

had just stepped up.

Anyone from...

..probably, Interscope could
have got him out of jail.

You know? Tom Whalley could
have got him out of jail

Jimmy Iovine could have got him out
of jail.

He was on their label, Interscope.

So Death Row's a subsidiary....

..as you know, of Interscope,

and if Interscope people had got him
out of jail,

it would be a whole
different scenario, but instead

he's stuck in a situation with some
people who are gang people.

What did you think of Suge?

I don't Suge, so I can't speak
on his behalf at all.

You know, I don't know him.

And I just know the energy
that I've got from him from the time

that I had to deal with him.
It's not pleasant. It's just not.

And, you know, it's not pleasant
for me to have to even talk about,

because he's alive.
His downline is alive.

You know, his people are alive.

You know, these people
are revengeful.

This is kind of stuff I'm just
saying to you right now, like,

I wouldn't even want this on tape
because,

like, I live here, I'm alive.
Like I said, I'm alive, I'm walking.

People still get shot for no fucking
reason, you know what I mean?

Like, it's...

The gang shit, it's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous.

What's up, Hammer?

He took it very hard.

He felt more of an impending doom,

having signed with Death Row,

because even while he was in jail,

people were telling him

not to sign with Death Row.

Yaasmyn Fula raised Tupac,
but rarely speaks.

She knew Tupac better than anyone.

Here she is,
visiting Tupac in prison.

Having just been released
from prison,

and now he's signed with
Death Row records,

he had to continue to bask
in this being part

of that gangster element,
when he really wasn't.

Tupac was not a gangster.

That had a very negative
effect on the positive things

he was trying to accomplish.
You know, here you are,

you're a gangster or you're
relishing in this persona

of being a gangster.

You're associating with people
throwing up gang signs, making music

that glorifies the gangster ethic,

you know, and debases women,
you know.

So, there were so many
contradictions that

he had to overcome
before he could even achieve

the things that he really
wanted to achieve.

He wanted to address the issues

of poverty, despair, drug addiction.

It's hard to equate the image
that Tupac presented at Death Row

with the young, idealistic,
politically motivated Tupac,

the son of a Black Panther.

We're not being taught to deal
with the world as it is.

We're being taught to deal
with this fairy land,

which we're not even living
in any more.

It's sad.

Because I'm telling you,
and it should not be me telling you,

it should be common knowledge.

Aren't they wondering why death
rates are going up and suicide

is going up and drug abuse?

Aren't they wondering? Don't
they understand that more people,

I mean, more kids are
being handed crack

than they're being handed diplomas.

I mean, shouldn't...?

I mean like, OK, in school
we're learning to analyse

and then... Well, I learned it
now they should relearn it.

I think adults should
go through school again.

You know, I think that...

I think that rich people should live
like poor people and poor people

should live like rich people
and they should change every week.

It's prison that changed Tupac.

Going to jail over all that stuff
made him bitter

and they changed him.

Even hateful.

He wasn't hateful before,
but that made him

very hateful and paranoid.

Tupac blamed Biggie for
not coming forward

to help him at this time.

Biggie knew the gangsters
that had shot him

at the Quad Studios and were
behind the sexual abuse charges

that landed Tupac in prison.

I would say Big had love for Pac.

And it's not that he wanted to

snake him, but self-preservation.

You know, you don't want to get
entangled with people who can hurt

you, you know, but at the same
time, you know, something's

going to happen to your friend.

You tried to warn him in in a way
that was covert,

but you didn't want to just
blatantly say, you know,

these guys, they're stick-up kids,
they're extortionists.

You know, they're going
to come for you.

The whole time he was in jail,
he was trying to figure out

how he was going to get revenge.

He started to plot on how he was

going to get back at everybody
who wronged him.

I bet you that music
hurt him a little bit inside.

I don't have a fact, I don't
have anything to back that up,

but that ain't who he was.

All Eyez On Me
and The Killuminati Theory,

or whatever it was called - I forgot
the name of the last album.

I loved it, but...

Those albums weren't him.

That 17-year-old would have never
said any of that stuff, you know?

I mean, back when he started,
I mean, he would never be like that.

But we all change. He got his edge,
he knew what he had to sell records.

He was like,
this is what I got to do.

I'll shoot three albums or four
albums or whatever many albums

I got to do this,
and these albums got to sell.

When he first started, he was

talking about Panther power,
black issues, black rights.

When Tupac was around us,
he was really nice.

He was he was another one
that was a genius.

Tupac was a reader,
but when he got around Suge,

it was a whole different person.

He kind of got gangsta, you know?

Like, his personality changed,

I guess, just saw Suge, you know,
"I'm all that," you know.

I remember he came up with the plot
that he was going to sleep

with Faith Evans in jail.

You know, at first when you told me
it, I'm like...

Then I was just like, you can't tell
Pac nothing.

Whatever he said he's going to do,
he's going to do it.

So, it's like, get on board with
it or get out the way.

Yeah, he called me up and he's like,
guess what, he was like,

"I did it," and I'm like,
"What? What did you do?"

And he was like,
"Oh, I fucked Faith."

He was like,
"Not only did I fuck her,

"but I got her to come in the studio
and do a song with me."

And I was like, "Really?"

Today, however, through the lyrics
of rappers

who display no respect for women...

It is obscene. It is obscene.

It is obscene.

So, now we've got the East Coast,
West Coast shit,

we got a bad motherfucker
on the East Coast,

Puffy, bad boy.

We got Suge.

And here we about to come into this
East Coast/West Coast nonsense

with two motherfucking cast of
characters that the press loves.

You remember that shit.

It just took a life all of its own.

Any artists out there want to
be an artist,

they want to stay a star,

they don't want to have to worry
about the producers trying

to be all in the videos

all on the records, dancing,

come to Death Row.

CHEERING AND BOOING

If he'd have stood the course on
saying, you know,

you don't want the person being all
in your videos

and if he'd have stood on that and
not tried to get in videos

and put his ass on magazines?

He tried to become the star.

Going towards the end, he was in all
the magazines

with cigars in his mouth.

He forgot what he said.

And that's what brought him down.

You got to take care of the artist.

Biggie Smalls took Puffy's side
on the East Coast.

So, we got Brooklyn in the house
representing!

Snoop, Tupac and Dr Dre supported
Suge Knight on the West Coast

at Death Row Records.

BOOING

The East Coast ain't got no love for
Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg and Death Row?

Y'all don't love us?

Y'all don't love us?

Suge definitely couldn't back down,
Suge had more to lose

if he showed a sign of weakness
because of these guys he had.

If you a gorilla and you turn
into a monkey, you've got a problem,

you don't belong in this crowd.

If you a motherfucking pit bull
and turn into a poodle,

you don't belong to this crowd.

They gon' eat your ass up.

So he had to keep it up there,

he had to keep his chest up.

He had to be Suge Knight.

And he did that well.

Tupac and Biggie's shit just
threw a motherfucking atomic bomb

on the gasoline and it
just exploded.

Boom. And people was taking sides.

And you have now magazines like ol'
messy-ass Vibe

and a lot of them magazines,
you know,

East Coast, West Coast,
this, that, whoo.

East Coast, West Coast,
that, what, wow.

Wham, bam.

All that nonsense.

Tupac got swallowed up by Death Row.

He got swallowed up
by his surroundings.

Tupac was already crazy.

It just turned him up
another notch, you know,

cos it was already going down.

He came to a company where it
was already going down.

So, when he came over here,
he looked like,

"Oh, yeah, I'm finna turn
the fuck up."

He said, "I got these fools with me?

"They feel right. Oh, yeah.

"We gon'... Everything that get
in my way, I'ma knock it down.

"I'm going crazy."

Cos he was already amped up.

You know what I'm saying?

So, he landed right
where he wanted to land.

And he already had an attitude
because they didn't go get him,

the other people didn't go
get him out,

you know, when he caught the case.

Suge Knight went and got him out.

So, when he came out, he
was going to be fully loyal.

All right, still hanging out at the
afterparty,

and with me, from Death Row,
introduce yourself, my man?

Hey, yo, I'm Suge Knight.

Tupac Shakur. All right.

Do you believe in God? Certainly.

Believe in Death Row East.

Believe in that, for real.

I'ma ride with you! If you believe
in God, believe in Death Row East.

I think Pac really appreciated
that Suge was looking out for him

the way that he was,
cos nobody else did.

Eating, travelling, girls -

whatever they did,
they did it together.

To me, it was just
an incredible life.

I mean, you know, It was Death Row.

We were the Motown of the '90s.

The Motown of the '90s,

we had the hottest rappers.

Suge was like the mayor of LA.

I mean, you know, if he said it,
it went.

I mean, we shopped in the malls,
three o'clock in the morning.

3am in the morning,
four o'clock in the morning,

you know, four or five stores
are staying open because Suge Knight

called them early in the day
and made an appointment

for them to be open at 3am.

And we just go into this Foot Locker

and get as many shoes and clothes
that we want or, you know,

going to some of the boutiques and
shop at three in the morning.

Those fringe benefits
were incredible.

To be 15 years old, coming
from where I come from and,

you know, eating in the finest
places, always flying on airplanes

and private jets and on his yachts
and things like that,

that was incredible.

That's what Death Row was about.

We caught things on records
that nobody else...

You hear them footsteps on records
and those doors slamming,

boom, welcome to Death Row.

That was organic.

That's why he's the daddy of
rappers,

because those things
were organic.

He's living the life,
the money's there.

They've got the girls around.

They're living the video life.

Whatever it is, it's some cool
location, they've got the cars,

they've got the big houses.

Pam had introduced
me to some of the girls

who dated Suge and Tupac,
and I wondered if she recognises

any of them from these pictures.

Let me see.

I've seen her somewhere before.

I don't know where I seen her at.

But she looks SO familiar.

They look like they're very, erm...

Looking for love.

When you're looking for love and
looking for somebody

to care about you,
this is what happens.

Looking for love? Looking for love.

Looking for love.

You only do demoralising shit...

You only let a motherfucker
treat you like this

if you don't have nothing,
you know what I'm saying?

And they bait you in.

And Tupac, he just was a follower.

Suge Knight had his head blew up,

had his head so blew up to where
he lost his life.

He had the prime of his life.

But he's being directed
by a fucking asshole and a deal,

he don't even see it coming,
but he's so loyal.

And he's looking for love, too.

This is the one I seen before.

SMALL GIRL: Hi, Mom!

Goddamn.

Hey. Hey, Mom.

Hi, Nick. Hi, Symphony.

Hey!

I got to go get the computer.

Go say hi to my Auntie Anne.

Say hi to Nick in there.

Remember Nick and Barney? Hi.

My Auntie Anne.

Tupac was so influenced by Suge
that he joined the Mob Pirus,

Suge's Compton gang,
also known as the Bloods.

that he would ultimately
lose his life to it.

I remember the first night
when he turned MOB.

We was on one side of the studio

and one of my little homeboys,

rest in peace, he went around
there and looked in the studio

where Dre and Pac and all them was
at and he ran back around to us

and he say, "Cuz."
I say, "What's happening?"

He said,
"Man, Pac over there in all red."

We went over there and looked.

I said, "Well, they got him," and we
went back over there to our side.

That night, we went over and went in
there and seen him in all that red.

That night, he turned MOB.

Before that, he was hanging with us
all the time, on the Crips side.

He was a very kind-hearted person

who got lost in the image
of being tough.

He just wasn't a fighter.

He was definitely a lover,
not a fighter,

and we used to laugh about it.

GUNSHOTS

He had suffered some brutal
beatdowns out here.

He wanted to be tougher.

After he did Juice, he started
acting like

he was the character in Juice.

His persona changed.

And he, you know, a lot of my
childhood friends from then,

cos I introduced him to most
of my friends and family,

they said he started acting
like he was Bishop.

I ain't got to do nothing.

You the past, bro.

My time is now.

You ready to die, nigga?

When they expected him
to be this thug, this gangster,

which he wasn't, it got him killed.

It's a hard thing to be
a gun-toting person

with all that malice in your heart.

It's a burden.

You know, when I first met Tupac -
Suge brought him to the hood

when he came home -
Tupac was real cool.

He was real cool.

And the next time you see him...

..he on the thug shit, like Suge.
He...

He know he can't be touched
at this time.

"I got ten, 11 motherfuckers
who gon' be around me all day,

"every day, and they ready to kill
a motherfucker for me.

"So, right here, telling me,
I can do what I want to do,

"I can cuss out any motherfucker
I want to cuss out,

"I can spit on whoever
I want to spit on.

"And ain't nothing gon' happen.

"There's no such word of
repercussion here."

You know, when he put the Mob on
him, I definitely didn't like that,

because me and my brother used

to have the biggest
arguments in the world.

Bountry, Mob James' brother,

seen here in hat and red,

became Suge and Tupac's
number-one man, which caused

problems between the brothers.

My brother and them can say,

nigga, you could claim tomorrow
if you want to.

Nah, you can't.

You ain't did no drive-by
shootings, you ain't did no...

You ain't beat no-motherfucking-body
up.

You ain't did shit.

What it takes to be what we are.

So, that's just like me, just, phew.

Tupac the homie
because Tupac got money.

No, fuck that, this means
a lot more to me than Tupac.

You go on over there and be
a Death Row Mob,

but not this, not from here.

You ain't from Compton.

Me and my sister used to
sing that song,

but she couldn't sing that good,
so...

Anyway, I want everybody to give
a big welcome for...

..Tupac.

CHEERING

They were like brothers.

Tupac was like a little
brother to him.

They had keys to each other's house,
they think with one brain.

Tupac never had a foundation.

Never had a foundation, he never
had, like, that family...

You know, that stability.

Uncle Suge did.

So, I think that's why they kind
of fed off each other.

Uncle Suge was thinking more so of
just getting money

and making money and,

you know, supporting, you know,
I guess black people as a whole.

And Tupac was more,
"Nah, think bigger. Think bigger.

"We can go international,
we can do this, we can do that."

Hence the Death Row East
and etc, etc.

I mean, he was like,
"I want our faces printed on money,

"I want something bigger, let's
think bigger, let's think bigger."

And Tupac more was on the bigger
side, "Let's think bigger,"

and Uncle Suge was like, "Huh? OK."

That's Tupac and Uncle Suge,
and they shared everything.

Yes, they shared everything.

Things were totally out of control.

And it's very sad.

I always had that dark sense

that I was always seen to
be the one to kill the joy.

Everybody wanted to be happy

and high and drinking, and I felt

like they smoked too much weed.

You know, the whole atmosphere was

one of total disconnect to reality.

But it was way beyond what he needed

to deal with the realities

of his life at that time.

He had too much going on that

required a lot of logical,

level-headed thinking,

and he wasn't getting that.

I was trying to give it to him,

but he wasn't listening to me.

I didn't know who to trust

and I didn't trust Death Row.

They have a get-rich-or-die
ethos on the West Coast,

doesn't matter what you do as long
as you're making money.

Death Row made millions, yeah,

but Tupac didn't see that money.

First thing I noticed was that
David Kenner,

who was the lawyer
for Death Row Records,

was also Tupac's lawyer.

And I said to him,
"Tupac, that's a contradiction,

"you need your own lawyer."

Tupac did not fire David Kenner
until, I believe, August.

So he went all those months
with his business up in the air,

no accountability about his money,
no accountability

about what was being spent,
what was being recouped.

So that's why we were always asking,

"Well, how much money
does he actually have?"

Well, every time we would ask
for the audit,

there'd be a new gift.

There'd be a new car.

There'd be a gift to the family.

And these cars weren't even
in his name.

When Tupac passed away, that's
the first thing Death Row did,

was come and take the cars back.

He didn't want to hear me
telling him that,

"Tupac, they're sending over roses,

"they're sending over cars,

"they're sending over gifts."

I said, "Don't you think there's
something wrong with that?

And he would go all the way,
live off on me and basically say,

"I know it's a problem, OK?

"But I know what I'm doing." Yes.

And it caused conflict.

It caused conflict between
me and him.

It was a living nightmare.

Everybody just got too comfortable
and it went the way it went

because nobody was in Tupac's ear,

"Nah, homie, we got to protect you,

"we got to be like this."

Let's say he just put the icing
on the cake

because now there's more fun,

now there's more Tupac trying
to be like, you know,

like the security,
opposed to being a rapper.

And he's not on the Snoop Dogg tip,
he's on the homies' tip.

Now there's drinking and getting
high all day

and wanting to beat up somebody,

you know, just the whole mentality,
they just changed.

I stopped Tupac from fighting
many times.

Tupac was a disturbed soul
when it came to gangbanging

and fighting and stuff like that.

He loved to fight.

He loved to fight?
Oh, he loved to fight, yeah.

He loved getting into altercations.

Did he? Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely.

The night of the fatal shooting,
Tupac, to prove his gang loyalty,

took on a Crip gunman called
Orlando Anderson.

SCREAMING

Orlando, a Crip gang member,
was a long-term enemy of the Bloods,

but it would turn out to be a
fatal mistake for Tupac.

Suge himself took part in the fight,

for which he would be
sent to prison.

Orlando boasted that
he had shot Tupac.

Frank, Tupac's bodyguard,
was in the car behind.

The gun just starts firing.

He's obviously aware that bullets
are coming through the car

and he's being shot at.

And as he fires,
he hits Tupac a couple of times.

And bullets are bouncing,
going all through the car.

As I'm running up to the car,
I'm thinking,

"Oh, my God, they're dead."

Suge's laying down on the ground.

Tupac is still in
the passenger side.

At that point, we pulled Tupac out

and we laid him down on the ground,

and that's when the paramedics
were taking over,

at that point right there. Did Tupac
say anything at that point?

He just... He moved his arms
from his side and he crossed 'em

over his body, as such, and said,
"I can't breathe."

And that was the last thing
I ever heard him say.

So, we were there the six days,
the six, seven days that Pac was

living, we would go in the room and,
you know, pray.

You know, praying for
him to get better.

And, yeah, I sang for him.
I always sang for him, though.

I always sang for him,
but being able to sing for him

in the hospital, while he was
laying how he was, was something.

I sang Change Is Gonna Come,
it was one of his favourite songs

that he liked me to do.

Remind me of that song.

So, that's by Sam Cooke.

You want to hear it?

# I was born by the river

# In a little tent

# Oh, just like that river

# I've been running ever since

# It's been a long

# Long time coming

# And I know a change gon' come

# Oh, yes, it will. #

Greg Kading, in his book Murder Rap,
alleges the shooting of Tupac

coincided with Keefe D,
Orlando Anderson's uncle,

and the Crips being offered
$1 million by Puffy for protection.

He claims that Puffy was saying,
"Listen, I need you to do something

"about this conflict I'm having with
Suge Knight and Tupac."

And, you know, just,

"I'm tired of having to look
over my shoulders," essentially.

"Can you handle it?"

And, of course, Keffe D said,

"That's no problem,
you know, that's what we do."

And Keffe D said he wanted
$1 million and Puffy, essentially,

was like, "Just, whatever,
just handle it."

It was this war that Suge Knight
had with Puffy Combs

that cost so many lives.

After Orlando shot Tupac, he went
back to Compton, bragging about it.

You know what I'm saying?

So, we know who killed Tupac,
fo' sho', fo' sho'.

And it was just a sad thing,
you know what I'm saying?

That these two guys brought gangs
into,

you know, the Hollywood world,

the music industry,
you know what I'm saying?

So, it destroyed everything.

After Tupac's death, a major gang
war breaks out

between the Bloods and the Crips.

Orlando Anderson is arrested
in the police raids,

but he's never charged because of
insufficient evidence.

Tupac didn't know
what he was getting into.

He didn't know that the Crips
and Bloods been killing each other

since the '70s.
And he was a shooter, too.

That's the thing.

When you out here, you don't know
who you messing with.

If you messing with a shooter,

you gon' get shot.

If you messing with some fighters,
y'all might be down.

But it's going to happen.

That's the thing about it,
is he's going to come back

and that's how Orlando was.
He wasn't going for that.

Yeah, we had to wear bulletproof
vests, especially going towards

the end, I had to have security
sleep in my room.

In my hotel, I had to stay in a
hotel for a while

and security slept in my room.

And I couldn't move without them.
Why was that?

I mean, all the death threats
that was coming.

A lot of people lost their lives
when Pac died.

Pac died, but there was a lot of
people that lost their lives.

And it appears to be possibly
a shooting.

18 months later, Orlando Anderson
himself is gunned down

and killed at this car wash in
Compton.

According to sheriff's deputies,

one person was struck by gunfire
in Compton.

Right now, we have one down outside
the car, one down inside the car.

Not surprisingly, nobody in the
community trusts the police,

who are feared and despised.

Not snitching to the police is so
basic that even though he knew

the identity of Tupac's gunman,
Suge refused to cooperate.

If you knew who killed Tupac,
would you tell the police?

Absolutely not.

I mean, cos, you know, I...
Why not?

Because it's not my job.

I don't get paid to solve homicides.

I don't get paid to tell on people.

Pam, our producer, had to defend us
from being mistaken

for LAPD police officer Greg Kading.

Without Pam, we could never
have made the film.

No, he's not.

No, where did you hear that from?

No!

I'm 100% sure.

Where did you get that shit from?

I mean, I wouldn't,
if he was an ex-police officer,

you think I would help him
and fuck with him?

He wasn't... Listen. Uh-uh.

Didn't he send you the link
to everything you can google

and find out about who he is?

All right, I'ma send it to you.

I want you to check it out.

They lying.

I don't fuck with the police.

I mean, let me just say this to you.

It don't even fucking matter
to me because I don't fuck

with the police and whoever said
that shit is lying and...

How the fuck is Nick an ex-police
and he's from fucking England?

He's from the fucking UK.

..and he started saying stuff like,

"What do you do when you
ain't got real friends?

"What do you do when the people
you love do you wrong?"

Like, these are some of the words
that I remember

and he would talk about it a little
more and...

..he would turn around in the chair,
and when he turned back around,

like about the third time,
he's crying.

And I knew what that place
was coming from.

I seen it in his face,
you can almost look in his eyes

and see just, like, he had this...
just a stare.

Like he was so surprised
that this happened to Death Row.

So surprised that this could happen
to somebody that he was like

the chief of watch, he was
the overseer, and that happened

on his watch, and he already thought
that he was untouchable.

And at that time,
we've been touched.

What happened in the end
when he got locked up,

Suge got a little selfish
side of him as well.

Mean side, mean streak.

So that attitude, I'm sure, kicked
in, meaning that if I can survive

off of $5 a week, if I could
survive in jail off of cookies

and milk, if I could survive
off of not going anywhere,

if I could live in this
shithole jail,

you should be able to make it
on the streets.

That's his attitude,
so he didn't even have to tell me.

I knew that's the kind
of person that he is.

They out there in the streets,

he's not going to pay
for you to live in Beverly Hills

and he's in damned
Los Angeles County Jail.

So it felt like when he got
locked up, we were locked up.

For sure we was. When Suge Knight
was sentenced to jail,

that's when everybody went to jail.

It was a fucking shame, man,
and excuse my language,

but, you know, at
the end of this thing,

you know, Snoop is kind of like,

he's like a duck, he's real cool,

but underneath pedalling like,
"Oh, shit, I hope I don't drown,"

you know what I mean?

Same thing with, you know,
Dogg Pound,

same thing with Nate Dogg, same
thing with all the, you know,

with all the acts, they all get
up there and it's like,

"Wait a minute - you mean there's
nothing to actually hold on to?"

That's kind of sad.

That's, that's like...
what was you doing?

While in jail, he's just...

..he's just stewing and
he's so pissed off.

You know, he just lost his friend,
his number-one artist

and his record company is kind of
beginning to circle the drain.

And so he takes it upon himself
to retaliate.

He puts things into order
to have Biggie killed.

Somebody had to go at it after
Tupac.

I truly believe that, so...

Somebody had to go?

Yeah, somebody had to die.

It's way serious now.

It's way serious now, y'all done
cut the head off the chicken,

so we got to do the same thing
to y'all

and that's all it is,
is repercussion, revenge.

Somebody got to do something.

Something got to happen because if
don't nothing happen,

then you have everybody and they
momma from everywhere

trying to get at you

because y'all just sit back and let
Tupac get killed.

So it had to be something.

Biggie shouldn't have came
to California after Tupac died.

That was a bad choice for them
to make.

But the East Coast, West Coast
thing, like I told you before,

it's just a situation where
it was just me and Pac

had our little differences
or whatever,

but I'm here to take over,
saying it's all over with.

I'm in the West right now.

If you need me, if you want
to see me, talk to me,

whatever you want to do,
now the time. Call on up.

And they all on Power 106 and they
just all over the radio stations

and, you know, and Pac is dead now.

I'm like, "What the fuck
is these dudes thinking about?"

And there's already an undercurrent
grumbling happening in LA.

Like, these niggas got a lot
of nerve.

They going to just come out here.

I'm serious. These is now all the
gang dudes in LA

and I'm talking about
Mexican gangs, too.

This had nothing... This wasn't
just black gangs saying it.

"I'm going to get them
motherfuckers."

Both theories about the
shooting of Biggie Smalls

agree that Suge Knight ordered
the hit from prison.

Kading argues that the police were
not involved and the hit

was carried out by Blood gangsters.

Russell Poole has always argued
that dirty cops did it.

You know, had it been just
your ordinary drive-by shooting

by some unexperienced gangbangers,
we would have solved it

a long time ago,
no question about it.

But you've got to think to yourself,
well, who could do this

and get away with it?

You've got to get into their mind.

GUNFIRE

911 emergency. Yeah, we need an
ambulance on 5th after Wiltshire.

Please, we have a man shot.
We have a shot.

OK, hold on, I'll get that to you.

Right on the corner of Wiltshire
and 5th.

We have a man shot in our car
right now!

We're rolling to a hospital
right now...

Listen, is the body that was shot
in your car? No.

You're going to the hospital?

Thing is, that was a pro.

That wasn't no bunch of scattered
fucking bullet holes,

them bullet holes went straight
across like that.

Wasn't no scattered bullets,
like in the BMW, the Tupac car.

It was a straight line.

Russell Poole gave up his career to
solve this murder

and was vilified by his superiors.

I was told not to talk about
the Biggie Smalls killing.

During the course of the
investigation of David Mack

possibly being involved in the
Biggie Smalls case,

I was told, hey,

Mack had already gone down
for the bank robbery.

Let's not get into any more
controversy.

And that was that.

And there was no urgency
to investigate David Mack

for the killing of Biggie Smalls.

Four years later, in the year 2000,
when still nobody had been charged

for the murders, we take Russell
to New York and introduce him

to Voletta Wallace, Biggie's mum,
who is equally frustrated.

Hi.

So this is... Hi, Mrs Wallace,
how you doing?

I'm Russ Poole.

Nice to meet you. Oh, hey there.

How are you? Nice to see you again.

Hi there.

You know, there are some private
investigators working on

some good leads, and if they come up
with some good stuff,

we'll be sure to come back out here.

OK. Voletta went on to file
a $500 million lawsuit,

an estimate of her son's
lifetime earnings,

against the City of Los Angeles.

All it was is a Puffy
and Suge Knight war,

so if that's the case, Puffy, Suge
Knight, solve your damn problem.

They should have done that.

So that's where the East Coast,
West Coast thing came.

Everybody wants to be famous,

so they went to the newspaper
and gave their own little stories.

And everybody start East Coast,
West Coast.

East Coast was Puffy,
West Coast was Suge Knight.

East Coast was Biggie,
West Coast was Tupac.

Come on now.
You're messing with lives here.

And that's exactly what happened.

Two lives were lost as a result
of what?

Stupidity?

Years later, I discovered that this
earlier film I did with Voletta

did prompt an FBI investigation into
possible LAPD involvement

with her son's murder.

I really was watching TV one night
and I came across this documentary,

it was on the whole Biggie murder.

So I wrote up a long report to my
bosses, they all signed off on it.

They said, "Yeah, you know what?

"You've got something here,
let's run with it."

So that's how the whole
case got started.

The LAPD did not welcome this FBI
investigation and set up

their own, looking for evidence
to counterattack

the Biggie Smalls lawsuit.

Greg Kading was the head
of Operation Transparency.

Yeah, so as that lawsuit kind of
weaved in and out of the courts,

it came to a point where the LAPD
realised, you know, in civil court,

just about anything could happen
and they thought

it would be in their best interest
to re-look at the case.

The City of LA prevented the lead
FBI investigator, Phil Carson,

from testifying at the trial.

They said, "Yeah, you're not
looking into solving a murder,

"you're looking into solving
a murder that involved

"the LAPD orchestrating it."

They said, "You guys got to squash
this subpoena

"because if Phil testifies, we got
at least a 50/50 chance of losing

"a $500 million lawsuit."

And to be honest with you,
they're right.

I think it's better
than a 50/50 chance.

Greg Kading, who headed up the LAPD
task force, disputes that LAPD cops

were involved in the hit
on Biggie Smalls.

He not only wrote a book,
but was involved in a major series

on Netflix and on BET

and his views are widely
accepted today.

He says the officers Mack and Perez
never worked at Death Row,

but we came up with new evidence
showing Greg Kading is incorrect.

David Mack, the LAPD officer,
never, ever worked or was affiliated

and associated
with Death Row Records at all.

Neither was Rafael Perez,
and those were the two individuals

that jailhouse informants
had claimed

were part of Death Row's security.

They weren't, ever.

And that was looked into not only
by the original investigators

back in the mid '90s, but also by
our task force.

Officer David Mack was apparently
a charismatic and social guy,

so many people at Death Row
remember him.

I knew David very well.

I was actually quite shocked
when I saw David

and he was in LAPD, very surprised.

And he came with me to the video
shoot when we were doing Mac Mall

and Ray Luv's video shoot, and Tupac
was directing and he wanted

to be connected because he wanted
to do off-duty work for rap artists.

And I brought him
to that video shoot

and a little later, I found out
he was working with all the rappers

I knew off-duty and a lot
of other cops that I knew.

Leila isn't the only one
who remembers Mack and Perez.

Yeah, I seen him. I've seen David
Mack plenty of time.

They had to come to the party
because you never knew

when it was going to jump off.

Hung out with them,

been in the room with them,

been around them. You know,

ever since they'd been around,
I was around.

That's all I've got.

And who was the other one?

Rafael Perez. Rafael Perez,
seen him too.

Like I said, it wasn't
no different from us.

Only thing, they had badges
and we didn't.

So, you know, we might be somewhere,
you know, it'd go like this.

We'd get into it with whoever
we get into it with,

and when the police rushed us,
our police rushed them.

That's how it went.

That's how the get down went.

Yes, Officer Perez.

He was friends with Suge.

I seen him up there
several, several times.

Several times, and he was friends
with Suge.

I seen him in uniform
and out of uniform,

and out of uniform, he'd try to be,
try to look like he cool and shit.

He would wear little accents of
red, you know.

You know, like try to fit in.

I'm like, "Oh, that's what
the police do."

But I never knew that he was
a part of that Rampart Division shit

until I seen him. And out of all the
police in the world

that I remember, I remember him
for being up on Death Row.

And then there's another one,

the one that they said killed
Biggie, right?

Black too.

He used to be up there too.

I don't know if he did this,
but the one

that they had on the nose,
he was there a lot.

Hi. Good morning.

Very good of you to see us.

What makes Kading's comments

about Mack and Perez look
especially weak is that even

Police Chief Bernard Parks himself
said they worked for Death Row.

We know that David Mack and Rafael
Perez both worked security

in this rap culture as it relates
to some of these artists.

But we've had... Death Row.

Death Row Records, but
we have no information,

nor has any information come forward
that would cause us to believe

that either one of them
are suspects.

If, in our continuing investigation,
we uncover facts that we can prove,

then we will continue moving forward
to clear that case.

But until then, what we've seen so
far is merely undocumented

speculation that has not led to any
significant leads.

It would appear that Police Chief
Bernard Parks should have been well

acquainted with Mack and Perez,
according to Xavier Hermosillo.

One of the most shocking things on
that Board of Rights,

or any that I've ever done
in over 30 years,

was there was a photograph
of Rafael Perez and David Mack

who are the two police officers
that were bad, bad, bad news,

and a woman standing in the middle,
and they were all dressed in red

from head to toe, the hat,
whatever, which is the colour of

the Blood gangs. There's the Crips
and their colours are blue.

And so these guys were dressed
in red and they were standing

behind the table where there was
a cake that said something

about "Bloods rule" or, you know,
something like that.

And I was startled
because I recognised the woman.

And it was the daughter
of police chief Bernard Parks,

who it appeared
was a Blood gang member.

That's... That's incredible.

Yeah, tell me about it.

I looked at this thing, I turned
to my two partners and I said,

"Is this what I think it is?"
And they said, "Yeah."

The Biggie Smalls estate lawyers
were never able to get a copy

of this photograph, which
mysteriously disappeared.

It is also alleged that Michelle
Parks and Officer Rafael Perez

were in a dating relationship.

Officer David Mack was later
convicted for this bank robbery.

It's alleged that on the night
of the robbery, Michelle Parks, Mack

and Perez celebrated at the
Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.

When, on a subsequent occasion,

Michelle Parks was arrested
in Las Vegas for narcotics,

it is Rafael Perez who posts bail.

Xavier also mentions the account
of this man, Boagni, and another

cellmate of Officer Perez,
who allege Perez took part

in Biggie's murder and were
threatened with death

if they testified against him.

I have a great admiration and
respect for

the Los Angeles Police Department,
but this is the one time,

and I've been around
the department 40 years

as a civilian,

and one of the things that I think
bothered me the most

was how this, this one case,
being the murder of Biggie Smalls,

and everything that emanated
from it was really problematic.

And in this particular case,
with these two prisoners,

they were visited at their prisons
1,000 miles apart and told

not to come and testify in the
Board of Rights hearing

that I was involved with.

And they were told that if they did
testify, that friends of Perez

who were in prison would have them
killed for testifying,

for "snitching". That I found to be
just abhorrent, just illegal.

And it was LAPD police officers
who told them. It was two detectives

and we heard it for the first time
when Boagni, Kenny Boagni,

sort of blurted it out. I asked him
a question and he started,

you know, kind of shaking
a little bit.

And then the advocate
for the department,

who was like the prosecutor,

he jumps up and he gets in his
face and he says,

"Keep your mouth shut. You were told
not to talk about that."

That was so unreal.

I'd never seen that
in all the years

of being involved
with the department.

Shortly afterwards, I received
a phone call from Boagni,

who is currently serving
a 40-year sentence in state prison.

This call is from an inmate
at a federal prison.

So are you saying that Suge Knight
was behind the hit, though?

So which, which... Which officers
are you saying were implicated

in the murder of Biggie Smalls?

This call and/or telephone number
will be monitored and recorded.

It is this testimony from Boagni
that is concealed by the LAPD

and kept from the Biggie Smalls
lawyers.

The LAPD will be fined $1.1 million
by a US district judge

for concealing evidence.

However, it's Kading's unfounded
theory that over time, with podcasts

and TV shows, is accepted
as valid today.

Whereas Russell Poole,
an outstanding police officer

for 20 years, is discredited
and ostracised.

I mean, I almost took my life,
but it was my kids

that actually saved me, OK?

And it hurt. I was betrayed
by my own department

because of the core values that the
Los Angeles Police Department

preached from day one.

Honesty, integrity.

OK, tell the truth.

Swear to tell the truth, nothing
but the truth, so help you God.

Do a good job, do a thorough
investigation,

work for the community.
I believed in the oath of office.

I believed in protecting
and serving the people.

I really did.

But on the inside, behind closed
doors, that it wasn't the case.

When it came to cops
being investigated,

we weren't serving the public the
way we should have

served the public.
And when I'm assigned...

Solving these murders would dominate
Russell's life.

He died tragically of a heart attack
at LA sheriff's headquarters

during a meeting
about the Biggie Smalls murder.

..not be suppressed and kept away
from the public.

A lot of what Russ Poole did,
telling you right now,

that guy was legit. For people to
say that he was

a disgraced detective,
it's not fair.

The guy knew what he was doing.

He was, he was actually a good cop
and they did what they could

to shut him down. And I know a lot
of people like to say,

"Oh, he keeps going down this
theory..."

No, his theory is correct.

The only time I met Suge Knight was
in 2002, when he was serving nine

years for the Orlando Anderson
fight. Both Kading and Russell

agree Suge Knight commissioned
the Biggie Smalls murder,

yet he's never been charged.

When I went to visit him at Mule
Creek State Prison,

Death Row was already collapsing.

Both Dre and Snoop had left
and Suge Knight was trying to manage

Death Row from prison.

Oh, OK.

By now, Suge had mentally moved on
to his new enemy, Snoop,

who had just left Death Row.

If you hear about a lot
of the artists, used to be someone

used to be on Death Row, someone on
other labels, you might hear them

getting caught with drugs,

getting caught with a gun, stab
somebody, do those type of crimes,

they're not going to come to prison.

One reason... You mean like Snoop.
Snoop would never come.

I mean, Snoop was... We'd be at the
murder trial for him

but then he was on probation,

then he got caught with
2oz of marijuana.

Then he get caught with guns.

And each time it's nothing, they're
not going to violate him,

because for the street guys, street
guys know what I'm talking about.

There's no puzzle.

I mean, if you get a guy
that's constantly getting in trouble

and never going to prison, that's
because he's an informer,

he's a rat, a snitch, you know.

And they more important to the
police on the streets than in here

because they let them know
what's going on.

They might save their soul by
telling on three or four

or five other guys.
You know, I'm from Compton.

A rat is the lowest you can go,
a rat will do anything.

This was Suge's message to Snoop.

BARKING

GUNFIRE

WHIMPERS

When Suge got back out in 2001,
you know, he changed the name

to Tha Row.

It never rose,
it never prospered at all.

Suge was just living off of Death
Row reputation. He was living

off of the reputation of people
that wasn't even alive no more.

So I left Death Row in, like, 2002.

It was really over with,
it was just like...

To me, it was just like a little
gang hang-out.

Once Suge lost everything, he lost
everything, he lost his accountants,

he lost everything, he didn't have
nobody really on his side.

And Jimmy Iovine, them, they
businessmen.

They was consistently
getting the money.

Where did all the money end up?

I don't know, I know a fool
and his money shall soon part.

I know that the fool lost his money.

From doing foolish things.
That's Suge.

We know the big boys got
the bag, they took the bag.

David Kading ain't... I guarantee
you David ain't broke.

Ted Field, come on, that's
Marshall Field's brother.

The Seagrams family
is intertwined in that.

They not broke.

But, you know, Suge was standing
up in the wrong way

to the wrong people.

You know, you can't, you can't scare
Jimmy Iovine. Don't even make sense.

That's coming from the east
to the west.

This is my homeboy right here, you
know what I'm saying?

My PO let me out here but fuck with
me, my niggas went to war,

but this my nigga. This like my
brother.

I'ma fuck niggas up behind the
homeboy, nigga.

Suge money wasn't the way it was
no more.

You know, he wasn't making
no more money.

So when he wasn't making no more
money, the people that he wanted

to get from the neighbourhood,

he wouldn't have.

So they started dropping off.

And that's why a lot of times
you just see Suge, he's by himself.

And once the people on the street
seen that,

they start attacking Suge.

GUNFIRE

He got shot at Chris Brown's party.

He got knocked out.

Some people was like, you know
what I'm saying, you ain't nothing.

I mean, things start to happen
to him

that would never
would have happened.

It's just like Moses.

Moses had a veil, he didn't want
nobody to see that the light

was gone on his face.

So Suge veil start to...
appear that these people

wasn't behind him no more,

so the people weren't scared
no more.

All I know is none of the guys
that was working for Death Row

got a house, didn't get
a car out of it.

Don't have a big bank account,
everybody it's just back...

It's like the Cinderella story,

12 o'clock everything changed back
into the same thing,

changed back into what it is.

That's how it is in Compton.

Everybody just changed back
into what they were.

You know what I'm saying?
It was good, Tupac...

Death Row, they had Tupac for
11 months, I think, and...

..everybody was good, but soon
as he passed,

everybody turned back into...

..just a regular old cat
in the neighbourhood.

It was all gone, from rags
to riches to worse.

Or to the dirt.

This is Rosecrans and Atlantic,
I believe this is still Compton.

Looks like more than likely
they were shot while trying

to fill up their car with gas.

Suge Knight, struggling to maintain
control, created a rivalry

between his own Blood gang members,
who started killing each other.

A lot of them died for him,
including my brother.

Some guys got out a van
and AK'd him down.

I think he got shot nine times,
ten times and he was laying there.

I seen the scene so many times,

I've seen what happened to him so
many times, you know...

..I can say I can't even imagine
that somebody would do him

like that, but that's how
we was living.

That's the shit we was doing
when we was doing drive-bys.

That's the shit that I lived for,

that I had to go out
and live like that.

So, seeing my brother,

it was, it was so different.

It was like, I had to step
outside of myself and to see him

laying there with his eyes open
and just...

I had, I had so much anger in me.

This is...

It's rough talking about him.

Every time they mention his name,
I get choked up.

The pain is, is, is this
cold feeling.

But I guess in a way, his death
gave you something. Huh?

His death gave you something too.
It taught me a lot.

It gave me a better understanding
of my self-destruction,

what I was doing to other people.

I know there's somebody right now,
that they feeling the same way

about their brother, you know
what I'm saying?

And, you know, I can't do nothing
but apologise for the way I lived.

And I'm trying to make it better.
I'm trying to help people.

Karma's a motherfucker.

And he's paying for it. If you ever
been in prison, you ain't got

nothing time to think, especially
when you sitting in that damn cell.

You're going to think about every
one of those guys that's dead.

Your Biggies, your Herons, your Hen
Dogs, your Chins, your Buntrys.

You're going to think about all
of these guys that lost their lives.

People felt freer to talk once
Suge commenced his sentence.

Many of the people who witnessed
Biggie's killing that night

have kept a secret for 24 years.

I didn't want to do interviews
for years.

It was dangerous.

It's dangerous to know anything.

I was there that night Biggie
got killed

and so were some of the LAPD
officers we talked about.

I would put money
on LAPD's involvement, you know.

They're all not
on the force any more

so I guess it doesn't matter.

Did you see David Mack
and Perez at the event

at the... They were all there.

Yes, they were there. Because the
LAPD now have sort of come up

with a whole other theory.
Mm. Outside of the police.

Yeah. I'm sure they did.
What's their theory?

That a gang member called
Poochie shot and killed Biggie.

You know, really, it doesn't matter
who pulled the trigger,

although I wouldn't agree with that,

but what I would say is any gang
member that was to shoot

or kill Biggie could have
only done so

with police involvement
and support.

It would have been impossible.

They were everywhere.

It was... You don't have an event
that's a party

after the Soul Train Awards
and especially in LA

and there's that many black people

and you think the police
aren't everywhere,

they're everywhere.
Doesn't work that way.

So there has to be compliance.

They were, they were complicit
in everything that happened

that had to do with Death Row.

I hold the police department
responsible for so much.

What up? Ready, nigga?

Ready for that raw dog shit, nigga?

OK. All right.

And this is how the heads should
meet. You want to set it off?

I'm scared to do some freestyle.

I'm scared to do some
freestyle flow,

I'm too high and I might
go off tempo,

but now I'm back to let these
niggas know just how deep

my game run, Tupacalypse
don't sleep.

I keep a motherfucking Glock in my
car if I'm all in the club,

I got to be the fucking star...

Biggie didn't give a fuck,
Tupac didn't give a fuck.

It's fucked up that the cause
of their deaths

is behind the pettiest shit
on the planet.

Money holds the clothes, blood smoke
coming out the nose

is all a nigga knows,
flipping off foes,

putting tags on toes,
watching the stash grow,

clocking the cash flow.

They were buddy buddies.

They were, they were street buddies.

At the time of Tupac's death,

I think they were still buddies,
because when I told my son

that Tupac died, I could see
the pain in his eyes.

..drive a fat-ass truck, grab the
nine, two clips and run amok.

It sometimes brings me to tears

just thinking about what could
have been.

Where would we be right now

if they both were alive. The world
lost someone that could have made

quite a difference.

Peace and love.