He's dead, just like Andy Kaufman and Elvis, and like Paul McCartney isn't, despite lots of clues in the 1960s... they say Kennedy is kept alive in Parkland Hospital on a life support system. Houdini was supposed to come back something like 75 years after he died (but didn't),, Abe Vigoda was reported dead in the 1980s - but wasn't. We all want our favorite people to still be around, but there's really never been any great hidden conspiracy where someone famous supposedly died but actually was alive. The Beatles still put out songs, and one of them died in 1980 - there are Stu Sutcliff Beatles songs out there and he died before they becmae world famous! There's music being released by Nirvana, The Sex Pistols, Aaliya- honestly, any musician(s) with some popularity has an enormous backlog of takes, unused material, out-takes, interpretations & so on. I'd just heard that the soundtrack song "Goldfinger" was done something like 30 times before they found a version they liked.
There's no reason for his death to be faked, becuase there were more popular hip hop artists at that time who might want to get away from the business. His death would be news, but not as big as someone elses (sorry, I'm forgetting who was popular 7 years ago to use as an example) so if a record comapmny wanted to bring in $$$ woulnd't the "death" of a bigger star from that period bring in more $$? Add to that, if he just wanted to get away from the life for awhile, he could have just dropped out or retired, and come back later - a lot of performers do that. Plus, he liked to live large, so how/why would he hide his exsistance? Why would he do such a terrible scam on his fans? His family? And a coverup this big - somebody would leak something. And if people leave clues in the album, then the cover up failed. If people believe the clues in the album and he is alive, the cover up failed. So why doesn't he come right back out? Think of the anger and scandal if he did? He'd be screwing himself. And think of it - he's alive but can't comeout publically, yet he's still working as hard as before putting out albums, so the work load is there but not the fringe benfits and the recognition (we all like ego stroking, after all)? And then by putting clues in the albums, he's giving himself away anyway? But the clues keep people buying albums, so there's no reason a record comapny would keep putting them out there, just to make $$ of someone who dies 7 years ago.
He was shot, there was a bullet riddled car and body. There were witnesses. He'd been shot twice before. There were morgue photos and a coroner's report. And think of the problems if someone ordered any DNA testing on blod samples taken at the site and it turned out to be someone else's blood - blood of someoene who died in place of 2 Pac? Creative people & young performers have died before, unfortunatly, killed by those around them, from Marvin Gaye Otis Redding to Phil Hartman, Selena & Jam Master Jay. The big issue was who killed 2 Pac, why, and how can they pay their debt to society by callously shooting somene in the street? And for an industry that seems to say how respectful it is to him, why isn't anyone coming forward - even anonymously - with useable info, not rumors or hints, on how to nails these guys? I believe more that Biggie Smalls died in retaliation to 2 Pac's death (and society at large is supposed to accept this as a good thing somehow, from those who did it....) than B.I.G.'s death was real but 2 Pac's was fake.