Tupac’s shooting at the quad studios in 1994 is a turning point in Hip Hop history and one of hip-hop’s unsolved mysteries. The shooting would fuel the east coast west coast war of the mid nineties and turn Tupac from a rapper into an urban legend.
Tupac was on his way to record a song for Uptown artist, Lil Sean. He was ambushed in the elevator by three men, who attempted to rob him and then shot him.
Tupac would blame the shooting on Sean Combs, AKA Puffy, Diddy etc, Biggie Smalls and Andre Harrell all of whom denied any involvement.
On his album “Makavelli,” Tupac would directly name the people who were involved in the shooting. The three names that would keep coming up were, Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, Jacques “Haitian Jack” Agnant and Walter “King Tut” Johnson.
Tupac would meet Haitian Jack in New York while filming the movie “Above The Rim.” Tupac would base his character “Birdie” a gangster and villain on Haitian Jack.
Tupac would go to clubs with Haitian Jack, who would show him the New York nightlife and get him into places he couldn’t get into.
Haitian Jack was arrested with Tupac for allegedly raping Ayanna Jackson, who they had previously met at Nel’s nightclub. Jack would get a separate case than Tupac and plead out to misdemeanors with no jail time while Tupac would be sentenced to 4 and half years in jail.
Tupac would tell New York Daily News reporter, A.J. Benza that he believed that Haitian Jack set him up in the rape case and referred to him as a “hanger-on.” This would lead to the streets buzzing about a beef between Tupac and Haitian Jack.
Tupac would run into Agnant a while later at a nightclub with Biggie and Puffy. Biggie would tell Pac to stay away from Haitian Jack.
Even though I no longer liked him, I used to pretend. But now, I can’t pretend no more because I knew he was a snake. When I saw him with Biggie, I knew they were snakes. I was like, ‘Damn, they just bounce from one ni**a to the next ni**a. They weren’t sending me any money. They weren’t trying to help me through my charges, even though it was them that set me up.
On the night of November 30th, Tupac was scheduled to record a verse for rap artist, Lil Sean. Lil Sean was an up and coming artist signed to Andre Harrell’s Uptown Records. Tupac was running late for the session and Lil Sean’s manager, James Rosemond also known has Jimmy Henchman, was calling him.
When Tupac arrived at the shooting he was ambushed by a group of men who confronted him in the elevator. By the time he got off the elevator he had been shot 5 times. No one has ever been convicted of the crime yet there have been several suspects.
Tupac has on record made several references to Haitian Jack Agnant calling him an informant. Haitian Jack Agnant was close with Jimmy Rosemond. Both are of Haitian decent and used to be criminal cohorts in Brooklyn. Now the New York Daily News is reporting that Jimmy Rosemond is listed in court documents as being a federal and state informant.
Tupac would accuse Jimmy Henchmen of “setting him up.” It was Rosemond who arraigned for him to come to Quad studios to record a verse for his protege Little Shawn. In his book, Queens Reigns Supreme, Ethan Brown wrote that in 2005, Rosemond was the subject of a massive federal investigation into the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Jam Master Jay. At the same time his ex-cohorts and suspects in the shooting, Walter “King Tut” Johnson and Jacques “Haitian Jack” Agnant were moved from state prisons were they were being held on unrelated charges, leading some to believe they were preparing to testify against him. Rosemond would say of his cohorts:
It saddens me to know that that Tut and those guys are gonna trade in somebody for their freedom i hope that’s not what he’s doing I love Tut, he grew up with me. But guys like that only remember me one way.
James Rosemond told Vibe Magazine that he confronted Tupac about the shooting before Tupac was killed and said:
“For real nicca, I don’t give a **** , it could go down right now!, why you blaming Puffy and Biggie? Them niccas ain’t got nothing to do with this…Nobody came to rob you, they came to discipline you, that’s what happened!”
Rosemond has denied any involvement in the Tupac shooting and no one has ever been convicted of the crime. It seems that the person with the strongest motive to want to shoot Tupac would be Jacques “Haitian Hack” Agnant. Jack had a tough reputation on the street and the two had a strong falling out over the rape case. Jimmy Henchman would not seem to have any other motive other than helping out his associate, Haitian Jack. Still Rosemond had several high ranking executives coming to the quad studios so setting up Tupac would not have been a good businessman for the crook turned executive. Perhaps someone in Rosemond’s camp tipped Agnant off to the fact that Tupac was coming to quad.
The fact that Rosemond is now being accused of being an informant and Tupac accused Agnant of being an informant will fuel the rumors that Tupac was set up by the government. Due to the codes of the streets in hip-hop, no one has spoken about the matter and no one has admitted to being involved. It my belief that Tupac’s accusations that Notorious B.I.G. and Sean “P Diddy” Combs were involved were based on anger and guilt by association. Tupac himself blamed Haitian Jack and Jimmy Rosemond in his own records and 50 Cent implicated Walter “King Tut” Johnson as Tupac’s shooter in the song “Many Men” but all that is left is rumor conjecture and talk.
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