Marlon Wayans Reflects On His Final Encounter With Tupac Shakur 20 Minutes Before His 1996 Death

Marlon Wayans opened up about his final encounter with Tupac Shakur on the night he was shot four times on the Las Vegas Strip in 1996.

During an interview on 'Club Shay Shay' published Wednesday, the 'White Chicks' actor described how he saw the rapper 20 minutes before the fatal shooting.

"I saw Tupac in Vegas at The Luxor 20 minutes before he got shot," the 52-year-old recalled. "I seen Suge [Knight] and all these cars and thugs and reds. I turned white, I was like... 'M-m-m-maybe we shouldn't go over there. Let's just wave from here.' "

His friend, fellow actor Omar Epps, encouraged him to speak to the "California Love" emcee.

"Are you sure? It sure looks like a lot of trouble over there," he asked Epps, 51, who starred in 'Juice' with Tupac in 1992.

After walking over to Tupac and his group, Wayans remembered how "He was looking at us like, 'Man, I miss that freedom, I miss that fun.' He was just in this chaos. There was a part of him that wished that... It was like the innocence. [He wished that] he could just go with the innocence."

"I go over there and give him a hug," the 'Good Grief' comedian stated. "We all talk, kick it for five minutes, and the BMW pulls up. Me, Omar, and Mitchell [Marchand], we get in a cab and we pull off. I'll never forget the look on Tupac's face as we pulled off."

Nearly 30 minutes later, Tupac Shakur had been shot while sitting in a passenger seat of a car on September 7, 1996. The music artist was in town for the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight at the MGM Grand. He died on September 13 from internal bleeding, respiratory failure, and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with multiple gunshot wounds.

He was 25.

"We used to hang out and then we laughed a lot together," Wayans said. "We used to walk around the streets of New York. We laughed a lot because Pac was silly."

"I remember I saw Pac was performing, he invited me down to Glam Slam and he's performing with Biggie. There's a picture with Tupac and Biggie, the only picture I think of them two together. And if you look in the corner, I'm sitting in the background twisting my hair," Wayans noted.

The father of two also spoke about seeing The Notorious B.I.G. outside of a party in Los Angeles in 1997 moments before he was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Wayans remembered how he saw the Bad Boy Records artist while "leaving the party. I see him again, dap him up. My brother Keenen's in the party with me, he gets in his car." A shooter opened fire on the "Juicy" rapper's car shortly after.

'Hip Hop DX' reported at the time that only the final shot was fatal, which entered through Biggie's right hip. The bullet struck his colon, liver, heart, and left lung before stopping in his left shoulder. He was 24.

Tags

Marlon Wayans, Tupac, Tupac shakur, Club Shay Shay, Notorious B.I.G.