Murder Rap: Inside the Biggie and Tupac Murders examines the infamous unsolved killings of hip hop legend Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace on March 9, 1997 in Los Angeles and actor, activist and artist Tupac Shakur just six months earlier on September 7, 1996 in Las Vegas. Both men were at the height of the rap game and had waged a war on each other, eventually growing beyond themselves and their record labels to their entire geographical areas. The “East Coast/West Coast” War was so famous that it graced the cover of magazines and generated a laundry list of songs. The documentary is an on-screen expansion of retired LAPD Detective Greg Kading’s 2011 book of the same name. In short, it lays out his investigation step-by-step, naming all the different players in the crimes and, through Duane “Keefe D” Davis’s recorded interrogation interviews, implements Bad Boy Records CEO Sean “Puffy” Combs as having a hand in the Tupac murder. Given the historic arrest of Keefe D in Las Vegas on September 29, 2023, it’s a great time to go back watch this fascinating documentary.
The film is thorough in it’s details, feels right in it’s pacing and presents credible evidence through legit investigators, archival video footage and recorded informant testimony. On the other hand, it’s an average length at a tick under two hours but feels long at times.
As with many documentaries, you have to care about the subject at hand. As a lifelong hip hop fan (and as someone who grew up in the 90’s and remembers the entire East Coast/West Coast era), I hung on every word. If my parents watched it, who have no love for rap music and probably don’t know who Biggie Smalls and Tupac are, they’d be bored within 5 minutes. Either way, it’s a historical look into two of the most famous murders in the history of music.
JKG SCORE: 7.5
Untitled Film Project 