Tupac Shot at Quad Studios in New York City - Today in Hip-Hop

On this day, Nov. 30, in hip-hop history...

1994: In 1994, West Coast legend Tupac Shakur was at the height of his stardom and infamy. With two albums, 2Pacalypse Now and Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z, under his belt, rap's most outspoken political pundit had started to rise to fame and venture into the world of acting, but made enemies along the way.

One of those enemies came for ’Pac's neck on the night of Nov. 30, 1994. While ’Pac was leaving Quad Recording Studios in midtown New York City, the "Keep Ya Head Up" MC was attacked and robbed by three men. Shakur was shot five times and robbed of $40,000 worth of jewelry but left with his diamond encrusted Rolex watch. He was rushed to Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital and had emergency surgery. The next morning, three hours post-op, ’Pac checked out of the hospital against doctor's orders to answer to sexual abuse charges stemming from a separate incident.

Suspecting the robbery was a setup from the inside, Tupac was immediately furious at the people around him, most notably The Notorious B.I.G, Jimmy Henchman and Sean "Puffy" Combs. Henchman was the one who invited ’Pac to Quad Studios that night with a promise of $7,000 to rap on a song with upcoming rapper Lil Shawn. In a 1995 Vibe interview, ’Pac called out Big, Henchman and Combs by name as either having set up the attack of having knowledge it was going to go down and not warning him.

This event effectively lit the fuse of Tupac Shakur and Biggie's West Coast vs. East Coast beef that pitted the two rappers against one another until their deaths in 1996 and 1997, respectively. More than 15 years later in 2011, an associate of Jimmy Henchman, Dexter Isaacs, admitted to carrying out the attack on the deceased Shakur. Henchman, who just recently received two life sentences for his role in the murder of an associate of 50 Cent, confessed to setting up the hit a year later in 2012.

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