"Diddy" Combs reportedly linked to Tupac shooting

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Times has linked two former associates of rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs to a 1994 attack on singer Tupac Shakur and suggested Combs knew in advance of the assault, but Combs called the story "a lie."

The story published on Monday cited an unnamed source who said he was questioned during a federal probe of the shooting and beating of Shakur at the Quad Recording Studios in New York City.

Combs' associates helped plan the attack, the source told the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Times. The paper said it corroborated the source's comments in several ways.

The Times suggested Combs and another rapper, the Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace), knew Shakur was being set up. For years, Shakur claimed Combs' was involved, it said.

"This story is a lie," Combs said in a statement on Monday. "It is beyond ridiculous and is completely false. Neither Biggie (Wallace) nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened."

Shakur's assault ignited a widely reported feud between U.S. East Coast and West Coast rappers that resulted in insults hurled back and forth in songs and, on occasion, violence against members of both camps.

Shakur, a rising star in the early 1990s with hit CDs such as "2pacalypse Now" and a member of the West Coast group, was killed in 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.

Six months later, Notorious B.I.G., who was signed to Combs' New York-based Bad Boy Records, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.