Fifteen years after he died in 1996, online rumours have been circulating that Tupac Shakur is actually alive and well and living in… New Zealand.
According to the Huffington Post, the story’s source was a PBS web story and seemed legitimate when the story was live, which it is now not. It turns out that PBS (Public Broadcasting Services) was hacked so that the false story would appear, but not before a frenzy of activity had taken place on both Twitter and Facebook.
Hackers ‘The Lulz Boat’ claimed responsibility for the hacking, a bunch who according to the Huffington court ‘entertainment and infamy’ rather than any financial gain through their hacking.
The original PBS story read:
Prominent rapper Tupac has been found alive and well in a small resort in New Zealand, locals report. The small town – unnamed due to security risks – allegedly housed Tupac and Biggie Smalls (another rapper) for several years. One local, David File, recently passed away, leaving evidence and reports of Tupac’s visit in a diary, which he requested be shipped to his family in the United States.
“We were amazed to see what David left behind,” said one of sisters, Jasmine, aged 31. “We thought it best to let the world know as we feel this doesn’t deserve to be kept secret.”
Just to confirm: Tupac is in fact not still walking the earth, with the truth remaining that he was shot four times in Las Vegas on September 7 1996, only to die in hospital six days later on the 13th.