Hussein Fatal - Murder of Tupac Shakur

Murder of Tupac Shakur

In September 1996, Shakur was severely wounded in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, suffering four gunshot wounds. He was rushed to the Southern Nevada University Medical Center, but succumbed to his wounds nearly a week later, dying at the age of 25. Washington had gone back to New Jersey the day before the shooting to attend a court hearing. After Shakur's death, Yaki Kadafi also went back to New Jersey after Washington; both of them under the impression that business opportunities in Los Angeles were scarce and meaningless without Shakur's presence.

Two months later, in November 1996, Yaki Kadafi was murdered at the age of 19. With two of his colleagues killed within two months, Washington decided to abandon hip hop music and go back to drug dealing. This was a decision that would later have a great impact on his career and life. On December 1997, Washington fathered his first child, Chyna. After her birth, he decided to abandon drug dealing and returned to hip hop music, signing with Relativity Records. He released his solo debut album, In The Line Of Fire, in March 1998. However, the label went bankrupt and the album received little-to-no marketing and promotion, and thus, resulted in poor sales.

Washington then signed with Houston, Texas-based Rap-A-Lot Records, the record label of rappers such as the Geto Boys, Gangsta Boo of the hip hop group Three 6 Mafia, Tear Da Club Up Thugs, and Scarface. After signing with Rap-A-Lot Records, Washington began work on his second solo studio album, Death Before Dishonor. During this period, Washington recorded over forty songs, including some songs featuring rappers such as Fat Joe, Gang Starr, Gotti, Ja Rule, Lil' Mo, New Child, Outlawz, Rowdy Rahz and Scarface. However, Washington was arrested in December 1999 due to an assault charge from three years prior, which put his hip hop career on hold. In 2001, he was released from prison and to a halfway house in New Jersey, and was paroled in early 2002. In November 2002, Rap-A-Lot Records re-released Washington's second solo album, re-titled this time as simply, Fatal.