Is Tupac Still Alive?

Ever since his tragic death, many have speculated that the rapper Tupac is not actually dead, that he simply faked his own death and left the United States. That had always been treated as a fringe conspiracy theory until recently when the son of Suge Knight came out and said that Tupac is alive and living in Malaysia. Previous theories about his immortality suggested that he had been living in Cuba, with some people even releasing pictures of him in that country. 

A new picture surfaced last week that purported to show an older man who looked like Pac and appeared to have similar tattoos. In today's photoshop world it's hard to know what's real, or if this is just a random man who happens to look like Tupac. Do I believe Tupac is still alive? I'm in a similar boat with Bigfoot; probably unlikely, but it would be awesome if it was real. If Tupac Shakur popped out of a private jet at LAX tomorrow, it would break the internet.

The "Tupac is alive theory" started gaining popularity as Tupac released albums after his death, with lyrics that seemed strangely prophetic. It's entirely plausible that after having been shot in the Quad studio lobby in 1994, Tupac was paranoid about being killed and that's why he often rapped about his own death. We know that he had recorded plenty of material that had not been released at the time of his death. But that didn't stop people from believing he had faked his passing. In 2006 the Dave Chappelle Show released a sketch under the premise, "have you ever been out at a club when a new Tupac album was released?" 

Why would Tupac even need to fake his own death? Well we learned in the Netflix series Unsolved that Puff Daddy ordered a million-dollar hit on Tupac and Suge Knight that was nearly successful. After being shot, lying in a Vegas hospital bed, convinced his rivals wanted him dead, that's where Pac would have decided to flee the country. He may have had that escape plan in place prior to the shooting, as we see some clues in his music that he had been planning to flee the United States, possibly faking his own death.

In his song Ballad of a Dead Soulja, we hear the lyrics:

"Tell me homey what you see now? 

A blind man and a dead body, I'm ready to leave town

And get my cash though, hook up with Castro

Homey had to blast on the task force

Stupid coppers tried to play us out, never that

They took my money and my stash, time to get 'em back (heh heh)

Upon my secret arrival

Two glock four-fives, time for survival"

This 100% sounds like he was planning to move to Cuba. Some people might think he was referencing the rapper Kastro, but what if he was actually talking about the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro? This song was released on an album years after Pac was allegedly dead, so it's possible that he recorded it in Cuba after the Vegas shooting. If it was indeed recorded prior to the shooting, then it could be viewed as evidence that Pac had an escape plan in place before the Vegas incident. It may have taken that shooting in Vegas for him to decide to execute that plan. 

We know for sure that Tupac was severely injured in a shooting. That much is fact. We aren't disputing that the shooting took place or that Puffy was behind the hit. What we reject is the theory that Suge Knight was actually the one who ordered the assassination. One of the first documentaries to come out on this subject pointed to Suge as the greatest suspect, and that has always remained a prevalent theory. If Tupac escaped the hospital and paid off a doctor to write a fake death certificate, he would have needed Suge's help and financial resources. The probability that Pac is alive shrinks to almost zero if Suge was the one who ordered the hit.

Those who believe the "Suge killed Pac" theory would say that Suge ordered it while he was in the car to make himself look innocent. We find this hard to believe. The man is a huge target in a small car and never would have had the gunman fire several shots into the vehicle. The probability of severe injury is just too high. Besides, Tupac was on his way to perform at the grand opening of Suge's new club. If he knew it was Pac's last night, surely he would have let him perform first, so tourists would keep flocking to the place years later to see where the icon last performed the night he was killed. Club 662 no longer exists.

The assault on Orlando Anderson at the MGM Grand the night Pac was shot was responsible for getting Suge sent back to prison. Many believed that assault was staged by Suge, which would be really stupid of him to plan something on camera that would get him incarcerated. It does seem like an incredible coincidence that the guys from the chain snatching incident a few weeks earlier just happened to run into each other in the crowded MGM Grand after a Mike Tyson fight. It also feels like a remarkable coincidence that Orlando happened to be the nephew of a guy offered a million dollars by Puffy to kill Pac. The unlikelihood of these two coincidences does make Suge look more suspicious.

If Tupac decided to flee the country six days after being critically injured in a shooting, he would need to find a destination with great health care. Enter Cuba. Recent reports suggest he could be in Malaysia, so which is it? Well the simple answer, is he could have visited both. There is no reason that he needs to stay in one place. Perhaps he originally moved to Cuba, but too many people were taking his picture, so he needed to move to a new country.

Many people say that if Tupac was still alive, he would have made his comeback by now. My rebuttal would be that he did suffer a serious chest wound in the shooting, which may have affected his ability to rap. Maybe he wanted to wait until medical technology advanced to where it could repair the damage, allowing him to record and release an entirely new album on the same day he's resurrected from the grave. The son of Suge claims he's alive and in the recording studio preparing a new album. 

If Tupac is alive and reading this post, it's time to come back.