Fact Check: Sean Combs 'Losing It' After Tupac Shakur's Alleged Murderer Threatens To 'Rat Him Out'?
Claim:
A YouTube video posted on Oct. 1, 2023, accurately reported that Sean “Diddy” Combs was "losing it" because Tupac Shakur's alleged murderer threatened to "rat him out."
Rating:
On Oct. 1, 2023, the purported celebrity gossip YouTube channel Spill Today published a video that salaciously claimed rapper and entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs was "losing it" after the accused murderer of fellow rapper Tupac Shakur was arrested and supposedly threatened to "rat [Combs] out."
The video was posted after news broke on Sept. 29, 2023, that Duane "Keffe D" Davis had been arrested and charged with murder, with prosecutors saying that Davis ordered the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Shakur. Davis had reportedly told investigators years prior to his arrest that Combs offered him $1 million to kill Shakur and Suge Knight, who was head of Shakur's music label at the time of his death. In response, Diddy called Davis' claim "pure fiction and completely ridiculous."
The clip's title read, "3 MINUTES AGO: Diddy LOSES IT as 2Pac's Murderer Gets ARRESTED & Threatens to RAT Him Out." The video had been viewed over 235,000 times on Spill Today's YouTube channel at the time of this writing.
The YouTube video also circulated on TikTok, with four posts featuring the video collectively gaining more than 640,000 views at the time of this writing. We also found the video posted to other social media platforms, like Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter).
But the video's claims that Davis threatened Combs and Combs was "losing it" were made without any evidence whatsoever. A disclaimer appeared several times during the YouTube video that said:
Content might be gossip, rumors, or exaggerated
In other words, Spill Today does not claim its content is accurate or true. For this reason, we have chosen a rating of Unfounded, which we define as follows: "This rating applies to a claim that we have investigated but found no demonstrable evidence to support it. Such claims typically originate as hearsay, speculation, or groundless rumor."
The Spill Today video contained a misleading video title with a mix of old and unrelated news and other emotionally charged moments that likely were meant to elicit emotional responses in the comments. Such videos often end up with hundreds or thousands of comments from users who indicate they believe the misleading information presented in the clips.
We've also previously fact-checked other celebrity gossip rumors from Spill Today, like the claim that actor Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith had a "sickening role" in the 2023 Maui wildfires. We found there was no truth to the claim.
Sources:
Adler, Dan. "The Man Arrested in Connection With Tupac Shakur's Murder Has Been in Plain Sight." Vanity Fair, 29 Sept. 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/09/tupac-shakur-las-vegas-murder-arrest.
"Ex-Cop's Book Says LAPD Know Who Killed Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G." Tampa Bay Times, https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2011/10/04/ex-cop-s-book-says-lapd-know-who-killed-tupac-shakur-notorious-b-i-g/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2023.
Liles, Jordan. "Jada Pinkett Smith 'Panics' as Her 'Sickening' Role in Maui Fires Leaks?" Snopes, 15 Sept. 2023, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jada-pinkett-smith-maui/.
Yamat, Rio & Ken Ritter. "Last Living Suspect in 1996 Drive-by Shooting of Tupac Shakur Indicted in Las Vegas on Murder Charge." AP News, 29 Sept. 2023, https://apnews.com/article/tupac-shakur-killing-duane-keefe-davis-vegas-3f7050c2a68813d86a96b96fbb3f1d1a.
