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Tupac Murder Trial, Biggie Estate Ruling, Ellie Goulding Lawsuit & More Top Music Law News

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THE BIG STORY: Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur was killed in 1996, a jury trial is finally underway to hold someone responsible for one of the music’s most infamous crimes.

The Las Vegas drive-by shooting that killed Tupac has long been one of the country’s great unsolved mysteries. But Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested in September 2023 and charged with first-degree murder over allegations that he orchestrated the attack.

When the trial got started on Monday, it didn’t disappoint. Notorious B.I.G. and Sean “Diddy” Combs were quickly name-dropped. Prosecutors played secret recordings of Davis discussing the shooting. And they repeatedly cited a tell-all memoir in which he bragged about his role in the attack — telling jurors they would hear damning evidence “from Duane Davis himself.”

Keffe’s defense attorney, as expected, argued back that the book had been nothing more than “fiction” designed to sell books and couldn’t be corroborated with real evidence. At one point during, lawyer Michael W. Sanft loaded a PowerPoint screen that read simply “Bulls-t.”

“Keffe D was known to do this,” the attorney told the jurors, pointing to the card. “What you’re going to find is that the state cannot prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt the claim that Keffe had anything to do with a first-degree murder.”

For a full recap of Monday’s opening statements, go read our entire story here. To get up to speed on the backstory of the case, go read our in-depth explainer here. And stick with Billboard for more updates on the Tupac murder trial as it plays out over the next few weeks.