Slow Burn: The podcast exploring the murders of Biggie and Tupac
(The Guardian Culture News)

A new series of Slow Burn re-examines the deaths of two of music´s biggest stars. `We still haven´t had closure,´ says its hostOn the night of 29 November 1994, Tupac Shakur arrived at a recording studio in New York. Having risen to stardom via his debut album 2Pacalypse Now and 1993 commercial breakthrough Strictly 4 My NIGGAZ, the Californian rapper was now on trial for possession of illegal weapons and sexual assault after a woman accused him and his entourage of raping her in a New York hotel room 12 months earlier. The jury was almost ready to deliver its verdict, and the planned recording session - with Brooklyn MC Little Shawn - promised a brief respite from these legal woes, and to net the rapper a much-needed $7,000.But as Tupac entered the lobby at Quad Studios, three waiting gunmen opened fire. He survived, and accused New York gangsta rap figurehead Christopher `Biggie Smalls` Wallace of setting up the hit. This ignited a conflict between hip-hop´s east and west coast factions that would outlive its key protagonists; Tupac was shot dead in September 1996 and Biggie was killed in a drive-by the following March. Both murders remain unsolved. Continue reading...