The first week of the Tupac Shakur murder trial featured dramatic opening statements, heated testimony from a former Bloods gang member, and infamous recordings in which defendant Duane “Keffe D” Davis candidly discussed the shooting with police detectives.
You’re reading Billboard’s weekly Tupac trial recap, a one-sheet breakdown of everything that happened in the epic murder case over the past week. Stay tuned here each Friday for all the testimony and big events you might have missed.
As the trial kicked off Monday (Aug. 17) with opening statements, prosecutors told jurors that Davis had orchestrated the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Tupac as “an act of revenge” after Shakur beat up his nephew. And, as expected, they leaned heavily on statements from the man himself – both in an interview with police and a 2019 tell-all memoir.
“Let’s be clear: Duane Davis did not pull the trigger,” prosecutor Binu Palal told jurors. “You will learn that when the opportunity presented itself for retribution, Duane Davis made sure that the shooters were armed and ready to execute their revenge. And remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”
In his own opener, defense attorney Michael W. Sanft said his client’s statements about he shooting had been fiction and that there was not hard evidence to corroborate them. At one point, he loaded a presentation screen for jurors that just read “Bulls–t” in white text. “Keffe D was known to do this,” the attorney told the jurors, pointing to the card.
After opening statements, jurors immediately began hearing witness testimony – first from Garry Dale, a Las Vegas police officer who witnessed the aftermath of the shooting and rode in the ambulance with Shakur. Dale told jurors that he tried to convince the rapper to say who did it, but that Shakur merely repeated “We’ll take care of it” several times: “I couldn’t get him to talk to me any further than that.”
Testimony on Tuesday included Reggie Wright Jr., a former head of security at Suge Knight’s Death Row Records, and James McDonald, a former Bloods gang member also linked to Knight. At one point, McDonald sparred with Sanft, suggesting he was hurting Davis’ case. “Talk to your lawyer, man,” McDonald said directly to Davis, before saying to Sanft: “I’m not finna send him to prison. You are!”
On Thursday and Friday, jurors heard a key piece of evidence: audio recordings of meetings in 2008 and 2009 in which Davis discussed the shooting with police detectives. At the time, the investigators told him that “nothing you say today can be used against you,” but the judge overseeing the current case later ruled that Davis waived that immunity by talking about the same events in public.
In the tapes, jurors heard Davis tell detectives that his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson – the man beaten by Tupac earlier in the night – had fired the shots that killed Shakur. Also in the recordings, Davis suggested that Sean “Diddy” Combs, then known as “Puffy,” was involved in conversations about the killing.
There’s been a long-simmering conspiracy theory that Combs ordered a hit on Shakur as part of the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop rivalry between his Bad Boy Records and Death Row. Combs has consistently denied any involvement in Shakur’s death; after a recent Netflix docuseries advanced the theory, attorneys for the now-imprisoned mogul sent a legal threat calling the project a “shameful hit piece.”
Testimony was also heard Friday from Leonard Jefferson, who took the last-ever photo of Shakur riding in a car with Knight before the shooting that night in Las Vegas. “I said, ‘Ay, what up, Pac?’” testified Jefferson of seeing the duo while stopped at a traffic light before grabbing a 35 millimeter camera out of his central console and snapping the famous picture.
Not sure if you peeped, but it looks like Brooklyn rapper Fivio Foreign may be pivoting to Christian rap.
He recently sat down with The Shade Room and was asked why he’s changing the content of his rap music after going viral earlier this week when a clip of his new music surfaced. “Sometimes in life…I feel like…you gotta listen to that voice that’s talking to you,” he explained. “I feel like everybody is spiritual, everybody know who God is, right? And they pray a couple times, but you gotta actually do something for God. I mean, you’ve got to actually put in a little pain for God. I’m not a person that gotta learn the hard way, feel me? I just know when it’s time to get right.”
However, he doesn’t feel like he’s making gospel music exactly. “When people used to asked me if I was a drill artist, it was hard for to answer it,” he said after being asked if he sees himself as a gospel artist now. “So, as far as me being a gospel artist, this is the first time somebody asked me that question, I don’t feel like I’m a gospel artist and I really don’t feel like I’m doing gospel music, I just name it gospel music because I know what that means. But I feel like it’s just music from my heart. I got all types of beats on it. So, I don’t know what’s a real gospel beat, but the album got different styles of music where I’m praising God.”
Adding, “I don’t want to put it in a category. I’m just Fivi and I’m just trying to praise God through my music and not worship the devil through my music, push a positive image and change, you know, hopefully I get a blessing from God.”
He also said that he would like to eventually collaborate with gospel acts Mary Mary and Kirk Franklin in the future.
Fivio flirted with Christian rap on Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) 2021 Donda album on the song “Off the Grid” where he delivered one of the project’s standout verses.
The friends and family of Earth, Wind & Fire drummer John Paris have given an update on the musician’s recovery from what was described as a critical medical emergency earlier this month that resulted in doctors putting the 58-year-old in a medically induced coma.
In a post on the Standing for John Paris Facebook page — maintained by EW&F co-founder bassist Verdine White and several of Paris and his wife Kathy Merrick’s friends — the past week has featured “encouraging moments and new challenges.” They recalled that Paris briefly woke up from his coma and then needed to be sedated again, before recently waking up again.
“This time, there was encouraging progress,” they wrote. “Over the next couple of days, his medical team monitored him closely. Unlike the first time he awakened, John’s blood pressure remained stable and his breathing stayed strong, allowing doctors to continue evaluating his condition. While continuing to evaluate John’s condition, doctors performed additional testing that gave them a much clearer understanding of what his body needs to continue healing.”
The post said it’s been determined that Paris will need two more unspecified “major surgeries” as part of his recovery, which will require him to remain in the ICU longer than anticipated.
The post shared a note from Paris’ wife, Merrick, who said, “This journey is definitely a marathon, but JP is fighting every single day and our hope is strong. Please keep the prayers, love, and light coming for John, Kathy, Kyla, and the entire family. John has already overcome obstacles that once seemed impossible, and while there is still a long road ahead, each step forward gives everyone around him renewed hope.”
At press time a spokesperson for the band could not be reached for additional comment.
Paris’ condition first came to light on Aug. 6 when EW&F was slated to perform as part of their joint Sing a Song All Night Long tour with Lionel Richie at the Chase Center in San Francisco. At the time, the show was postponed just minutes before curtain, with the band announcing a “medical emergency involving a member of our band.”
The band was back on the tour two days after the postponed show, with former member Sonny Emory filling in for Paris, who joined the veteran band founded in 1969 in 2001; the San Francisco show has been rescheduled for Sept. 26. A GoFundMe has been started to help the family with medical expenses and to date it has raised more than $82,000 of its $90,000 goal.
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell has revealed that he is once again fighting cancer. In an interview with El Salvadorian station YSKL, the 63-year-old musician discussed his philosophy for keeping a positive, hopeful attitude after revealing in 2013 that he was battle Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which he said returned in 2015 and yet again recently.
“There’s only been one time that I felt it was gonna kill me,” Campbell said of his diagnosis. “In the winter of 2023, I got really scared about what was happening and the pace at which it was happening. And I realized at that point that I had to do a donor transplant. It was my only hope to survive … I did that in January of ’25 .… Unfortunately, it didn’t stick. So the cancer has returned, and I’m continuing treatments to manage it.”
Campbell said he plans to try another transplant within the next few years with a different donor to see if that will stick, but in the meantime, he is going to keep performing with the “Rock of Ages” band as well as his side project, the Last in Line, and racing rally cars, a lifelong obsession. “I love cars and I love driving,” he said. “And as a child, I thought, ‘If I don’t play guitar for a living, I’m gonna be a race-car driver.’ So I’m very, very, very fortunate and blessed that I get to do both.”
The key, Campbell told the station, is to keep “moving forward” and stay busy. “And I do think that that’s what helped me, even when I was at a really low ebb with cancer treatment. The fact that I could still continue to work, that gives me something to live for, something that you enjoy, that you’re passionate about, that you can wake up in the morning and look forward to,” he explained. “I think that deflects, that takes away from focusing too much on cancer.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system and is highly treatable and often curable by using chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and bone marrow transplant.
Campbell, who logged time in Ronnie James Dio’s band, Dio, as well as Whitesnake and the British new wave metal band Sweet Savage, joined Def Leppard in 1992 following the death of founding guitarist Steve Clark.
He observed that some people who get a diagnosis focus just on the cancer and nothing else, while he has been determined to keep living his life “as much as possible. In fact, even more so. After getting a cancer diagnosis, it amplifies that desire to tick all the boxes, to do the things you wanna do. But I also consider myself very fortunate because I caught my cancer early. So, it’s always been more about managing my cancer.”
Concluding with a message that “life is for the living,” Campbell, who was forced to miss some 2024 and 2025 shows due to health issues, said he just encourages everyone to keep an eye on their health. “And if you are unfortunate enough to get a cancer diagnosis to overcome the fear,” he said. “Fear is inevitable when you’re first told those words. But once you get over that, you gotta realize just how to manage it and how to deal with it as best as possible, and just don’t give in.”
Def Leppard are slated to play the Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Fla. on Oct. 15, followed by dates in Mexico and Central and South America in October and November.
Phoebe Bridgers finds herself at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart with Lost Weekend, her first leader in Australia, while KATSEYE roars to the summit on the national singles chart with “Animal.”
Lost Weekend opens atop the latest chart, published Friday, Aug. 21, besting the No. 12 peak position for the U.S. singer, songwriter and guitarist’s sophomore album from 2020, Punisher, and the No. 3 for 2023’s The Record, her recording with indie rock “supergroup” Boygenius.
Also new to the ARIA Chart is Peking Duk’s Paradise, at No. 6. Paradise is the first studio album from the ARIA Award-winning Canberra EDM duo, formed by childhood mates Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles. That entry beats the No. 12 peak for the Duk’s Reprisal EP from 2018.
British act Jungle shines on the new all-genres chart with Sunshine, new at No. 9, for a new career high. Jungle has now collected three top 20 entries, including 2014’s Jungle (No. 20) and 2021’s Loving In Stereo (No. 10).
Brisbane, Queensland singer and songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke returns to the chart with The Kiss And The Abyss, her sixth studio album. It’s new at No. 11. Miller-Heidke competed for Australia in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with “Zero Gravity” and is currently a coach and judge on The Voice Australia.
Goth-rocker Marilyn Manson sees his new album, One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2, open its account at No. 13. It’s Marilyn Manson’s 13th studio album, 10 of which have reached the top 20, with two going all the way to No. 1 (Mechanical Animals in 1998 and We Are Chaos in 2020).
Grinspoon frontman Phil Jamieson bows on the ARIA Chart with his second solo album, 10Charlie, new at No. 18. As part of the ARIA Award winning rock act band, he has nine top 10 appearances on the tally. Jamieson was recently in the news for having to cancel his PJ Air solo tour of his native Australia after an onstage mishap which resulted in a fracture to his spine.
Meanwhile, Melbourne’s Grace Cummings scores a No. 23 debut with Bloodhorse!, for her first appearance on the ARIA Chart.
Prolific Aussie prog-rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard makes a top 40 splash with Alien Metal. It’s new at No. 26. According to ARIA, King Gizz, as they’ve affectionately known here, has notched more than 25 top 50 entries across studio and live albums and EPs.
In a busy cycle for new album releases, Sydney punk rock band The Hard-Ons’ collaboration with U.S. punk rock singer Jerry A (Hards-Ons/Jerry A at No. 35), Irish pop-rock act The Script (The User’s Guide to Being Human at No. 42) and Australian indie folk and roots duo Sunday Lemonade (The Forest To The Sea at No. 43) make an impression.
Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, KATSEYE snag their first No. 1 as “Animal” leaps 13-1. Co-written by Ed Sheeran, KATSEYE performed the track last week on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, ahead of the release of their third EP Wild. Until now, the girl group’s best performing track was “Pinky Up,” which topped out at No. 19 earlier in 2026, and was performed live to fans in these parts on a whirlwind promo trip to Australia in May.
Finally, Tame Impala bags a second top 10 this year as “Loser” improves 11-7, thanks to its placement in the hit MCU film Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Tame Impala’s “Dracula” peaked at No. 4 and sits at No. 17 this week. Both tracks are lifted from Deadbeat, the fifth studio album from Kevin Parker’s psychedelic pop project, which peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Chart.
For the past decade, DMA’S have lived the dream. The Australian alternative rock band has amassed an enviable fanbase in the United Kingdom, their spiritual home. They’ve landed spots on the biggest stages. Awards have come their way, including an ARIA for best group in 2023.
One thing, however, is strangely missing. A No. 1.
The trio has got ever-so-close, on multiple occasions. Their most recent album, 2023’s How Many Dreams, opened and peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Chart, and No. 3 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. Its predecessor, 2020’s The Glow, also peaked at No. 2 in Australia, and No. 4 in the United Kingdom.
With their self-titled fifth album, a fresh start. DMA’S arrived Friday, Aug. 21, the product of recording sessions at the band’s own studio, and released through Wonderlick and Sony Music, their first through a major label machine.
Bandmates Johnny Took (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Matt Mason (lead guitar) and Tommy O’Dell (lead vocals) recorded the collection in their studio in Sydney’s Glebe, a space that was established by rock’n’roll legend Col Joye, and hosted sessions with David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and the Bee Gees. The DMA’S found the studio on Facebook Marketplace, buying it from Australian Music Prize winners Hermitude.
The LP was largely self-produced, with contributions from Lach Bostock of Mansionair, Norwegian duo Jimi Somewhere and two-times Grammy Award nominee Styalz Fuego.
“We did try with a producer overseas and it didn’t work out,” Mason tells Billboard over a Zoom. “We tried a few things out. It didn’t work. It solidified what were thinking, should we do it ourselves? F— it, let’s just go home. We’ve got our own studio now. We produce music for other bands. It’s album five. We know what we want, you know? Let’s just do it ourselves.”
DMA’S is the sound of a band that knows what they want. It’s an album with big songs, style and swagger, born from Britpop, raised in Australia. The trio boast an impressive following in both countries, but no Britpop frontman had the lungs of O’Dell, who shows off his natural talents on the singles “My Baby’s Place,” “Heatin Park” and “Killing Time,” and across the new album’s 11 tracks.
The sessions were “basically free because it’s our studio,” Mason says. “You’re the one creating the deadlines, you can go on forever. It did take a long time because it’s just up to you. At least we can say that we love it. It’s my favorite album that we’ve done.”
Recording the album took roughly a year to complete. “It did take quite a bit longer than usual. Just because we had the luxury of just spending as long as we can,” Mason admits. “You have this unlimited sort of potential to just experiment as long as you can and to have that luxury was like something that we haven’t done before. Some records I can look back on and say, f—, I wish I could’ve switched in an extra day or two for that. Yeah. But this album was completely happy with every single segment of it.”
Some of the songs geminated at the beginning of their career. “My Baby’s Place” and “One & Only” borrow from recordings which the band members retrieved from a rusty old PC.
Since the release of Hill’s End, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary, DMA’S have amassed over 535 million streams. Breakthroughs, they can come from the least-expected avenues. In Australia, it was the band’s 2016 cover of Cher’s ‘90s dance hit “Believe” that got the ball rolling. Their version came out on top of triple j’s inaugural Hottest 100 “Live A Version” countdown in 2023.
In the U.K., a 2016 appearance on the now-defunct Sky Sports show Soccer AM, where they performed “Delete,” was an early goal. Mason remembers the experience for several reasons. “People liked the song. But the comments on YouTube, people were like, ‘why are their shoes so dirty?’” It was the first of several appearances. The bandmates are soccer tragics, a love affair that has spawned a merch collaboration with Sydney FC, featuring a jersey, jacket, scarf and wall flag.
Conversation shifts to that elusive No. 1. “I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a part of it,” Mason tells Billboard, referring to their new major label route. Each of the band’s previous studio albums were released through I Oh You, part of the Mushroom Group. All crashed the ARIA top 10.
When the band’s contract came up, “we were kind of looking around, you know, what’s going to be our next move? I was thinking, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to find another family or another team that feels like that. Sometimes you just think like that would be impossible to find. A group of people who would be so accommodating and, you know, we’ve found it,” he says. “We’ve just made the right decision.”
The U.K. beckons, where the band has already made five return trips this year. There, DMA’S played 10 Hills End anniversary shows in February, with multiple dates sold out, including two at the O2 Brixton Academy. From September, DMA’S will play regional parts of Australia, performing sets at triple j’s One Night Stand in Griffith, Yours and Owls Festival in Wollongong the following month, and will end the year at Spilt Milk in Canberra, the Gold Coast, Geelong and Perth.
“I feel like this has been a busy year for us,” Mason considers. “There are a few places we really want to go back to. Italy, we have a decent fan base there and we just love it. Japan would be great. The United States, yep. I’d love to. Maybe next year.” Regular, long-haul travel “is f—ed,” he says with a laugh, “but there’s a beauty to be able to travel to the other side of the world and have that appreciation.”
