Tupac’s Shakur’s brother has said he believes his murder has gone unsolved for so long because of the late rapper’s race.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis was charged last week over the 1996 fatal shooting of the hip hop star in Las Vegas.
Speaking to Sky News, Shakur’s brother, Mopreme, said the killing would not have gone unsolved for so long if Tupac had been white.
“Pac was a young black male and we have challenges in this country when it comes to equal justice,” he told the broadcaster.
“That’s just the nature of the beast, it’s just the nature of the beast in America. I’m realistic about that.”
Shakur was 25 when he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on the night of September 7, 1996.
The rapper was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight in a convoy of about 10 cars.
They were waiting at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted.
Davis has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he was in the Cadillac where the gunfire erupted during the September 1996 drive-by shooting.
However, he previously implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the back seat where the shots were fired. Anderson, who died two years later, denied any involvement.
Speaking to Sky News, the late rapper’s brother told of his shock that charges had been brought against Davis 27 years on.
“I was shocked, surprised, and taken aback because it’s been so long,” he said.
“We haven’t heard anything in 27 years. My daughter is 27 years old, so any accountability is good at this point."
He also called for others to be held criminally accountable for the murder, although police have said they are not looking for anyone else.
“It would be a shame after all this time for them not to do this properly, meaning that they look at all the connections to it and get the total justice that we want,” he said.
Shakur’s death came as his fourth solo album, All Eyez on Me, remained on the charts, with some five million copies sold.
Nominated six times for a Grammy Award, he is widely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.
