From some publicity about the anniversary of the death of Tupac Shakur, I was inspired to buy the book that you guys published. It's certainly one of your better cover designs. But I'm curious about the photo. I understand it was the last one taken of Tupac when he was alive, but who took it, where was it taken, and how did you get it for the cover?
Yes, the photo on the cover of our book, The Killing of Tupac Shakur (click the link to see it) was the last photo taken of Tupac alive.
It was shot by an amateur photographer by the name of Leonard Jefferson on the Las Vegas Strip during stop-and-go traffic, just before the car carrying Shakur slowly turned right onto Flamingo Road. The cover photo shows Suge Knight with a red towel, the color of choice for the Piru Bloods gang, on the car console.
The photo was taken on the Strip. Suge turned onto Flamingo shortly thereafter and Tupac was shot a couple of blocks east, at Flamingo and Koval, while stopped at that intersection in front of what was then the Maxim hotel, now the Westin.
The author of The Killing of Tupac Shakur, Cathy Scott, asked Jefferson about the photo.
"I was making my way through traffic," he explained. "At a light, cars were stopping and I looked over at a BMW. I saw 'Pac and Suge and I hollered, 'Yo, what up, Pac!' He paused for a second, then he recognized me and said, “Yeah, what up, man.” I said, 'Where you guys headed?'"
Jefferson and Tupac were acquainted from time they both spent at the UCLA film school.
"'We're going to a club. Follow us!'" Tupac yelled.
"'Let me get a picture real quick,' I called back. "I grabbed my camera from the front seat and snapped the photo."
Jefferson made the turn onto Flamingo and was a few cars behind the BMW when he heard the shots. But he was at the right place and time to take the iconic photograph of Suge and Tupac as they sat in the BMW, stuck in traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard, moments before the bullets were fired.
That photo earned Jefferson a fair amount of money. We don't know how much, but it appeared everywhere in the days and months following the murder.
We also can't disclose how much we paid for it, but we can say it was in the four figures, a lot more than we've paid for most of our cover images. But we had to have that one. It was the only photo for the cover of a book about the last days of the superstar rapper's life. And our freelance cover designer, long-time local Maile Austraw, did a fantastic job putting the image in context. It's one of our best covers ever, worth every penny we spent on the photo and design.
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