The release this week of Murder Rap, a cleverly titled book by former LAPD detective Greg Kading, has stoked a whole new round of explosive media coverage about the unsolved killings of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Beginning with the LA Weekly, which blasted out a sensational headline tying Sean Combs and Suge Knight to, respectively, the killings of Shakur and Smalls.

Kading, after giving the Weekly an exclusive first look and interview, has talked with website HipHopDX.com. Although Knight has yet to be heard from, Combs told local reporters Chris Vogel and Simone Wilson via email that the Kading allegations are “pure fiction and completely ridiculous.” Per the pair’s article:

Perhaps luckily for the rappers’ families and fans still seeking closure, Kading made copies of nearly every investigative report and taped confession before he left LAPD. His explosive book details the behind-the-scenes failure by LAPD to bring Shakur’s and Smalls’ killers to justice.

In a taped confession fully reviewed by LA Weekly, Keffe D says, “[Combs] took me downstairs and he’s like, ‘Man, I want to get rid of them dudes.’ … I was like, ‘We’ll wipe their ass out, quick. It’s nothing.’ … We wanted a million.”

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We know it’s not hard these days to find discouraging signs of erosion in the journalism profession. But a new contest being sponsored by Comcast and CIROC Vodka has put us in a foul holiday season mood.

Five lucky winners will get to be E! on-air correspondents this New Year’s Eve, co-hosting the festivities from Las Vegas (with Sean Combs), Miami (Kourtney Kardashian), Vail (Taryn Manning), Chicago (Pete Wentz) and New York (TBA). TBA stands for To Be Announced, not some rad new rapper.

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