3 questions for 'Biggie & Tupac' director Nick Broomfield: 'A lot of information has been withheld. At some point, it will come out.'

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The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, Nick Broomfield (Photo illustration: Yahoo News / Photos: Lionsgate, Getty Images)

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Twenty-one years ago, British documentarian Nick Broomfield made Biggie & Tupac, in which he suggested that the unsolved murders of feuding rap legends Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. had both been planned by Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight in cahoots with the Los Angeles Police Department. In 2021, Broomfield returned to the scene of the crimes, so to speak, with Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie and Tupac; that film alleged that critical information had been deliberately suppressed by the LAPD during the Biggie Smalls investigation, and featured testimony from witnesses who claimed to have seen LAPD officers at the site of Smalls's drive-by murder, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

Of course, since Last Man Standing's release, there’s a been stranger-than-fiction plot twist in this great hip-hop mystery: 60-year-old former South Side Compton Crips gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis (alternatively spelled as "Keefe D"), the last living suspect in the 27-year-old Shakur murder case and the uncle of early Tupac murder suspect Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, has finally been charged with Tupac’s 1996 shooting death. Davis, who appeared in court on Nov. 2 and pleaded not guilty, will stand trial starting on June 3, 2024.

One might assume that Broomfield in planning a third Biggie-Tupac film in light of this bombshell revelation, but he tells Yahoo Entertainment with an emphatic shake of his head, "Oh, no, I couldn't stand it! Life's too short; I've already done two on that. But somebody else should definitely follow that one up." And, as Broomfield points out, this story is far from over, because the "much bigger," "more politically revealing," and still-unanswered $500 million question is: "What happened with Biggie?"

We sat down with Broomfield as he processed his thoughts about Davis's indictment... and about what might happen next in the Smalls case.

1. So, the obvious first question is: How do you feel about Duane Davis being charged with Tupac's murder, after all these years?

I think it's really interesting. I mean, everybody knew about Keffe D, because Keffe D was coming out and saying he'd done it. He gave that interview to that LAPD officer [Greg Kading], because he was a drug dealer, and they said, "Give us some information about that murder and will lessen your drug sentence." He told them this at least 10 years ago. The question I've always wondered was, why did it take them 10 years to charge Keffe D, when he'd already admitted to it before that he was in the Cadillac, that he'd supplied the murder weapon, and so on?

And I've always felt the reason they didn't was because the big question — the much bigger question — is, who was behind the murder of Biggie Smalls, the retaliatory murder? And once they've kind of solved the Tupac one and charged somebody, the next questions will be: So, what happened with Biggie? Who was behind Biggie? Is it true that there were LAPD police officers moonlighting for Death Row Records? Who coordinated the hit? Was it [Rafael] Perez and David Mack [two corrupt Los Angeles cops] and the other guy who were behind it? Were their police radios used? … That's the next question, the more politically revealing one. And that's always been the thing I've been most interested in.

2. Do you think Keffe D's arrest and upcoming trial will lead to finally getting answers about the Notorious B.I.G.'s murder as well?

Well, I think it would be good if it did. I mean, it depends an awful lot on the LAPD, the police chief, and whether it's easier just to let it show that now they're open and accountable, and yes, let's close the book on this and let's get it over and done with. Or maybe when the people who are no longer alive … it's all so political, that whole side of things. And American politics are so crazy at the moment that I don't know which way it will go.

You can see that the hit on Biggie was a very well-orchestrated hit, with a line of bullets going across. It was a proper hitman, whereas the one with Keffe D and his nephew was just a sort of gangbangers: bullets everywhere, 30 bullets in the car. It's a miracle Suge Knight didn't get hit; I think he got nicked. I spoke to people who identified David Mack and Rafael Perez at the Petersen Automotive Museum, somebody who actually trained David Mack. He was an athlete before, and she was one of the trainers. And she said, "I know I saw David Mack at the Petersen Automotive Museum that night." And of course, they all denied being there. Yeah, there were some photographs — and the photographs suddenly mysteriously disappeared. It was a very weird case.

And then, do you remember Bernard Parks [the Los Angeles Police Department chief from 1997 to 2002]? His daughter was then found to be [allegedly] involved with David Mack. It was all a big, big mess. … The LAPD was already fined a million dollars for withholding information knowingly when [the Notorious B.I.G.'s mother] Voletta Wallace brought that [$500 million] case against the LAPD — which is significant. It is significant, and I think there was a real cover-up of that murder. A lot of information has been withheld. At some point, it will come out.

3. After all of the time and energy you've spent investigating Biggie and Tupac's deaths, what sort of mixed feelings do you have, knowing that closure might finally be possible?

Well, really, it was just a big, big, horrible, sad mess. … The two of them were such amazing artists. Like, Tupac got a scholarship to the Baltimore of School of the Arts, which is a hard place to get into. He was unbelievably talented. Biggie, too, was a student at top of his class. Neither of them were in any way "gangsters." They were the opposite, really. Voletta Wallace was super-strict. She's referred to as "Ms. Wallace," and she was a very respected, wonderful woman, really something. Tupac was anything but a gangster, and he became intoxicated with this fantasy that Suge Knight was living. Suge wasn't a gangster either, but he had grown up in Compton with tough people, and he had a fantasy about being a gang member. And he surrounded himself with all these Bloods who… well, nobody really benefited from any of it.

I mean, the guys who running around with Suge, they all lost family members, like [former Sugar Knight capo] Mob James. All these people I talked to lost family members. No one made any money; half of them are just living in same old house in Compton. Tupac, who had this sort of fantasy of being a gangster — who was never really accepted by them, of course, anyway — lost his life by not knowing that Orlando Anderson was a hitman for the rival gang. If you take on a hitman, he's going to kill you, otherwise he's not going to be respected by his own gang. So, that was going to happen. It's a particularly bleak story of extraordinary talent being wasted on nothing, on Suge Knight's fantasy of this gangster life he wished he'd had growing up.

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