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About the Show
In its first two seasons, Slow Burn looked back at two of the biggest stories of the late 20th century—the Watergate scandal and the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Season three tackles another: the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. The story takes place at a moment when hip-hop was taking over pop culture, and a former theater kid from the Bay Area and a one-time crack dealer from Brooklyn were changing the music forever. They went from friends to enemies. And they ended up victims of a deadly rivalry between two rap scenes.
How is it that two of the most famous performers in the world were murdered within a year of each other—and their killings were never solved?
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Cops on My Tail
In the 1990s, rappers pushed America to confront police brutality—and police claimed rap lyrics were turning black listeners into cop-killers.
Using Rap Lyrics as Criminal Evidence
How law enforcement and prosecutors have used Tupac’s music and other hip-hop songs to convict and incarcerate men of color.