Man Accused of Arranging Tupac Attack Arrested on Drug Charges

Tupac Shakur

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

James Rosemond, the music industry mogul accused by a convict of paying to have Tupac Shakur shot and robbed in November of 1994, was arrested at a Manhattan hotel yesterday for charges of trafficking cocaine between Los Angeles and New York City. Rosemond, who runs Czar Entertainment and manages acts such as Sean Kingston and the Game, has been investigated by federal authorities for the alleged drug trafficking since 2009. He appeared in a Brooklyn federal court yesterday, but has not entered a plea.

Photos: All Eyez on Tupac

Rosemond's attorneys have denied a claim made by convicted killer Dexter Isaac that the mogul had paid him $2,500 to attack Shakur at Manhattan's Quad Studios in 1994. Though the rapper survived the shooting, the incident set off a chain reaction of violent reprisals that led to the eventual murder of Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., who was originally blamed for the assault. Rosemond is unlikely to be charged in connection to the attack since the statute of limitations for assault in New York State has expired.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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