Thug Life Army

Sylvester Stallone was slated to write, direct and star in a film about the deaths of murdered hip hop rap icons Tupac (2Pac) and Biggie and the Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal that lurks beneath the story.

The film has had many ‘working’ titles including ''Rampart Scandal'', ‘Notorious’, ‘A Detective's Requiem’, and ‘Thugz Lives’.

The film was to center on a massive internal investigation of the LAPD that some say links off-duty officers to the murders of the slain hip hop icons Tupac Shakur (2Pac) and Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G..

Sylvester Stallone has said recently that his plans have stalled and the movie may never make its planned debut on HBO.

Commenting on the film Stallone says "I became involved in the Tupac/Biggie project about 4 years ago. Gathering all the data, these two giant rap stars were murdered in front of numerous witnesses and no arrests have ever been made. This, on the surface, said to me some very important people had to be involved. Police Chiefs?"

Stallone continue to say: "The story was like a modern-day noir written from the point of view of a Detective [Russell] Poole, who basically was railroaded out of the police department because the more he investigated, the dirtier the high rollers in city hall and police commissions and DA offices all appeared to be part of a conspiracy to squash this case. I don’t think it’ll ever be done because of the amount of lawsuits that would be filed."

The movie was to have other hip hop notables in the cast also, as Death Row Records CEO and hip hop entrepreneur Marion ‘Suge’ Knight was reported to being asked to play the role of himself, as was Puffy.

Stallone was to have portrayed Detective Poole in the project. The real-life Poole was a key figure in exposing the corruption in the LAPD's Rampart division, and his interpretation of events is key in the theories that say the two hip hop icons, Biggie and Tupac, were killed as part of a gang-police-rap power triangle.