Following the arrest of Duane "Keffe D" Davis for the 1996 murder of 2Pac, the late rapper's brother Mopreme Shakur said Diddy once called him to address rumours he was involved in the fatal drive-by shooting.

In an interview with The Art of Dialogue, Shakur said Diddy reached out to him sometime in the 2000s. “The boy Puffy called me though,” Shakur said.

“Puffy called me back in the day. ... He was like, ‘I just want you to know I ain’t have nothing to do with your brother’s [murder]. I know who you are, but we never met and I just want to call you man to man and let you know that I ain’t have nothing to do with your brother’s death.'”

Around the time of the call, The Los Angeles Times published an article that implicated Diddy in Pac's murder, Shakur added. "I told him I appreciate the call, but the truth has yet to come out, so we gon' see," he said.

"Back then I wanted all the information I could get. I heard what he said, but this shit been so chaotic. Ain't know which way to go until you found out more information. ... He could have been trying to cover his ass, or he could have been sincere."

The article that Shakur mentioned was written by Chuck Phillips in 2008. It was later retracted because it "relied heavily on information that The Times no longer believes to be credible." The article specifically relied on information from purported FBI reports that indicated Diddy orchestrated or ordered the attack on Pac in Las Vegas.

James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, Jacques “Haitian Jack” Agnant, and apparent Diddy associate James Sabatino were named in the alleged documents as the men behind the attack. However, The Times wrote that the FBI reports were later believed to have been fabricated and that Sabatino "concocted his role in the assault as well as his supposed relationship with [Sean] Combs."

The article made no mention of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who last month was charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon in the killing of Pac. Police body camera footage of his arrest showed that he was asked by the arresting officers what he was being taken in for and he replied, "The biggest case in Las Vegas history ... Sept. 7, 1996."

In his 2019 memoir, Davis confessed he was in the vehicle from which the bullets that struck 2Pac were fired.

In an interview with The Art of Dialogue earlier this year, Davis claimed that he would've never "been involved" in Pac's death if he hadn't met Diddy. "It really crashed two people's empire in one night," he said, implying that it brought down Suge Knight's "empire" too. "He pitted us against each other, which was kinda smart. We’re Crips and Suge was Bloods."

The Bad Boy Records mogul has been tied to 2Pac's death ever since investigations launched in 1996, when his record label was involved in a bitter rivalry with Suge Knight's Death Row Records in the '90s. Notably, Pac's friend-turned-rival The Notorious B.I.G. was signed to Diddy's label.

In 2011, LA Weekly reported that Davis told investigators that Diddy once offered him $1 million to kill 2Pac and Suge. Diddy shared a statement with the outlet that read, "This story is pure fiction and completely ridiculous."

Earlier this month, former detective Greg Kading told Rolling Stone that it is highly unlikely Diddy is charged with the murder of Pac.

Recently, 50 Cent also suggested Diddy was connected to the shooting. "Damn so pac got lined by brother love," 50 wrote in a tweet, referring to Diddy's Brother Love moniker. "LOL Time to Lawyer up, shit might get sticky."

However, he was likely just reacting to the rumours circulating once again following Davis' arrest." I've always given a caveat to the whole 'Puffy' Combs connection… Puffy's not built like Suge Knight, and I don't think Puffy was truly intentionally trying to get either 2Pac or Suge killed," he said. "I don't like Puffy. I don't think he's a murderer."

Following Davis' arrest, 2Pac's siblings released statements. Mopreme Shakur said the murder charges are "bittersweet for a number of reasons," especially because it's taken 27 years for any arrests to be made. It didn’t have to be this way, it didn’t have to happen at all,” he said.

“I hate even have to live in the reality that my brother’s not here. ... Justice is accountability, that’s the sweet part in the bittersweet. And I’m bracing, ’cause it ain’t over.”