After the 2017 resurfacing of conspiracies that were reportedly from Suge Knight alleging who the culprit was behind the shooting death of Tupac, claims which have since been debunked, the lingering mystery of the actual killer still looms over hip-hop like a gray cloud.

But in a second revelation of sorts, another source close to the late West Coast legend has broken silence on not only who he believes murdered him, but the real reason people wanted to see him dead: former MOB Piru Gang member and bodyguard to Pac James McDonald. 

In a 27-minute interview, McDonald, also known as Mob James by way of his street gang affiliation, explains his relationship with Death Row Records and the label’s infamous CEO, Suge Knight. Nearly halfway into the interview, McDonald discusses the often-discussed previous events leading up to Pac’s death where he got into a fist fight with Crips gang member Orlando Anderson while walking through the MGM Grand following a Mike Tyson fight. Anderson, McDonald said, was the person who would ultimately orchestrate the 25 year old’s death. Reasoning that, had Pac “minded his business,” adding that the All Eyez on Me rapper “isn’t from the hood” and shouldn’t have engaged in the fight to begin with, he might still be alive today.

“Tupac was the smallest part of this equation,” McDonald continues. “It wasn’t about Tupac at first. Tupac made himself the bigger man. When Tupac had 30 cats behind him, when Tupac knew that can’t nobody hurt him because he’s got all these guys, Tupac changed. Tupac was spitting on people, Tupac was bumping into people, his attitude changed totally. And this is what led to Tupac’s demise. Because if Tupac would’ve minded his business, he had the gangsters that was gonna take care of that anyway. If Tupac would’ve stood on the side and watched, and if Suge would’ve said, ‘No, you’re my money. You ain’t finna get in no fight. Get over there,’ Tupac would be still alive right now and today. And this is the only reason he died. He interfered in the something he had no power in.”

Afterward, McDonald points at Anderson again as the perpetrator of Pac’s death after the Crips flagbearer began bragging about it.

“He started telling people he did that,” McDonald said. "We decided, basically, it’s on. They just killed Tupac. And not just because they killed Tupac — this was my thing — Tupac was hanging with us. So, everybody is looking at this as the mob let Tupac get killed. We couldn’t have that.”

McDonald said that because The Mob couldn't let such notions slide due to the effect it would have on its street cred, Pac’s death fueled the consequential Compton gang wars. The video adds that Anderson, however, was murdered two years later in an unrelated 1998 shooting.

Watch McDonald’s full testimony to the controversial circumstances surrounding Tupac's death below.