Duane "Keffe D" Davis, the man accused of orchestrating rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 murder, is on trial in Las Vegas charged with murder using a deadly weapon. Jurors on Thursday heard a 2008 police interview recording in which Davis, then speaking to detectives investigating the death of another rapper, described handing his gun to a passenger who declined it before his nephew took the weapon and opened fire on Shakur's car. The case matters because it reopens one of hip-hop's most enduring cold cases after three decades, with prosecutors arguing Davis, 63, directed the shooting and supplied the gun even though he did not personally fire it; he has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors allege Davis planned the drive-by shooting on 7 September 1996 after his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was involved in a fight with Shakur hours earlier, believing the attack "could not go unanswered". Central to the case are Davis's 2008 police account and a later 2019 memoir in which he claimed he was in the vehicle and had "tossed" the murder weapon into the backseat, though he has since said parts of the book were fictionalised. In the recorded interview, Davis also said he had discussed killing Shakur and Death Row Records founder Suge Knight with Sean "Diddy" Combs during Bad Boy Records tour stops, though Combs's representatives have not commented. Anderson, who always denied involvement, died a decade before the interview was recorded.