Murder Rap

Labyrinthine documentary about the internecine feud between Suge Knight's Death Row Records and Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records in the mid-90s. A feud that resulted in Tupac's ignominious death in 1996 and Notorious B.I.G.'s assassination, commonly thought to be a reprisal, several months later in 1997.

The documentary makes a convincing case as to who and what was responsible for the murders, backed up by interviews with chief investigator Greg Kading, and copious police interview recordings with some of the main players in the murder conspiracies.

Documentary does a good job of keeping things on track considering the voluminous number of names and information flying at you.

In the end I felt rather sorry for Tupac and Biggie. Both, particularly Tupac, were in way over their heads with some very serious gangsters and paid the most serious price for the image their record companies cultivated for them.

Particularly resonating is surveillance footage from the night of Tupac's death where he participates in a gang assault on the man (a Crip) thought to have killed him on chancing upon him while leaving a Mike Tyson fight, pretty much signing his own death warrant in the process.