COMPTON STREET LEGEND: Notorious Keffe D’s Street-Level Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Death Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs, and Crooked Cops

by Duane 'Keefe D' Davis, Yusuf Jah

Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, a former shot caller for the Southside Compton Crips and kingpin of a Compton based drug operation, rose to national prominence as one of the only living witnesses to the 1996 slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur after being featured in several TV specials on A&E (2017), USA Network (2017), Fox (2017) and BET (2018). More than twenty years after the killings of Tupac and Biggie, Keffe D has released his gritty memoir, “Compton Street Notorious Keffe D’s Street-Level Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Death Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs, and Crooked Cops.” Unlike other accounts of the murders of global rap icons Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. by private investigators, retired police officers, informants, or academics, Compton Street Legend is an authentic narrative from a major street player who was inextricably involved. Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis’ memoir underscores the universal corruption of crime and punishment in the United States in an environment where plea deals, grand jury indictments, and cooperation with the FBI has become commonplace. Compton Street Legend is the story of the explosive consequences when the powerful worlds of the streets, entertainment, and corrupt law enforcement collide.

Genres: Crime, True Crime, Biography, Music, Nonfiction, Conspiracy Theories

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 2, 2019

Reviews

[Kiera ☠]

Update: Sept 1st, 2026 - Keffe D has been found Guilty of Tupac’s Murder

If you are interested in the story of what happened to Biggie and Tupac, this is definately worth a read. I would not say that this is well written and that's where it loses marks for me. It's more written from Keffe D's voice, re-telling the story of his life in the game and specifically during the time period of the murder of Tupac. I found it to be insightful, adding more details to what went down. If you watched 50 Cent's documentary on Sean Combs, I would say it's quite clear that he read this book. As of today (Jan 5th, 2026) Keffe D is in prison awaiting trial which was recently postponed to August of this year. His current story is that he was coerced by police into his confession, however the confession in question, mirrors his re-telling in this book that he wrote.

My interest in reading this book was less to find out the real story of what happened to Pac but more to know how deep Diddy's involvement really was. I'm very interested to see how his trial pans out being as if Keffe D is convicted in connection with the murder of Tupac Shakur, then Diddy will certainly be facing 'conspiracy to commit murder' charges after all.

If you're a hip-hop head, specifically a fan of the genre from the 90's, I feel like this is a must read to get a little more of the plot. Overall, I found Keffe D's perspective to be very interesting. Getting more of the story about gang involvement and affiliation when it come to Bad Boy and Death Row Records paints a better picture of the story we've heard for years. I should also note, I read this book with a grain of salt. Less so about the details, I do believe he is telling the truth. However, the way in which he write himself I found to be off putting. This whole "greatest gangster" while simultaneously spinning this "woe is me" narrative is annoying at best. I think Keffe D is exactly where he should be right now and I hope he does have to answer for his involvement in Tupacs death once and for all. I also hope it snowballs back in Diddy's face.

Underneath the music that influence the genre to this day was a lot of bad guys doing a lot of bad shit in the name of money, power and fame. A lot of artist we're hurt, victimized and killed so a handful of guys could play these games and ultimately, they're all in jail anyways. It's a damn shame.

[Krystal Barnes]

So why did PAC and Suge Knight jump on your nephew Baby Lane?

Who was south side and Suge’s boss since they had the same boss?

Why would his cousin Darlene say kill the brother of one of the guys he was looking for? She didn’t know nothing about him being jumped unless he left this out.

How would they know his car and book him did the police spot the car based of information at the beating of the brother or responding to crime scene of house he shot up.

Descendant from Nat Turner.... Ok

Why did his grandmother come over and fight him in front of everybody?

It’s like he is leaving stuff out of stories what the hell?

So he basically joined the gang because it was a fad and he didn’t want to be an outsider. Seems ignorant and foolish to me.

I swear he brags on himself way too much and is any of it legitimate?

Really driving a new Seville at 12?

I don’t know 21% in and don’t see the reason for the back stories as of yet other than him bragging about himself.

How do you stay out of jail and you get $350k delivered and the fbi intercepts the package and all that happens is you lose the money? Really?

Confused on why Puffy is a bad dream.

Did you write about Sage because he is in jail now and nowhere near getting out? I mean this beef happened in 1996 why now talk about it?

What was the point of telling us that Puffy came out in packed hotel room with no clothes?

So the only beef I can see he has with Tupac is lyrics and who has beef with someone just because of what they say in lyrics not even directly stated to you?

Makes you wonder how did everyone get locked up but him?

He is repeating himself a lot.

Who knows what to believe about murder of Tupac because it differs from Suge. Who shot Tupac?

Cops raided your house and found all these guns and you were on parole and nothing happened? Hum.

You killed PAC but when asked by Puffy who hired the hit you didn’t say nothing but it was for a million.

How did he keep from being locked up when the fbi did raids?

How stupid so you killed Tupac and never got paid what an idiot?

How do you get pulled over and they take an illegal gun from you but release you after holding you Illegally?

Seems as the federal prison is where they send all snitches because I feel like that is what this guy is and not telling really anything we didn’t know already in this book.

Just feel like I don’t t want to hear about who set you up.

Why did you ignore the red flags. Yes, you may have found it hard to believe that family and friends would turn on you but I also think it was greed.

So he says he sung because he was not able to get so many free. What exactly did he sing about? He doesn’t tell what he told them.

Said you didn’t do a day in jail but you told what you took part in regarding Tupac’s murder and you didn’t do a day in jail how is that possible? I smell a rat!!!

[Eric]

I read Murder Rap and LAbyrinth prior to this book. I wanted a different perspective than those two books. A lot of what Keffe D said raises some eyebrows and those questions are very well laid out on other reviews here so I defer to them. Some of this stuff took place decades ago so part of it could be that our memories on things get muddled over time even if we believe we remember them clearly.

The book was full of spelling and grammar errors. The quotes the author would take from the book often times did not match! My assumption is that this book was thrown together fast due to Keffe D, Greg Kading, et. al appearing on podcasts and shows like VladTV so they tried to strike while the iron was hot.

I’ve had a lot of interest recently in this case due to Keffe D being raided again by the feds. So I found some insight in this book that I did not get on Murder Rap or LAbyrinth. Anyone who isn’t really interested in the murders of 2pac and The Notorious B.I.G. will probably find this to be a two star book at best. For me, I’ll round it up to three stars.

[Mr. Mccane]

I picked up both the audiobook and the physical copy because I was ready for answers about what happened to my favorite rapper, Tupac.

It started off strong, revisiting the night of the shooting, but that quickly shifted into bragging about himself. I’m talking full-blown arrogance.

He goes into more detail about the murder, then circles right back to comparing himself to the Barack Obama of the streets. Basically, he paints himself as the only real gangster while everyone else is fake.

Oh, and I don’t want to forget, he claims to hate snitches, but admits to doing exactly that for two decades.

And the worst part is that I can’t even tell if he’s lying or not.

Ultimately, his overwhelming ego made this a frustrating read. I did not enjoy this book.

[Hannah Peterson]

The last chapter is next level petty 😂

[Scott Holstad]

Tells a mean tale but seems full of crap because he's little more than a brash, arrogant self-promoter and little else. It's always all about him so while some of this may be factual to whatever extent, it's impossible to know or say what, which sinks the whole fucking thing for me. It's almost like reading a stereotypical gangsta who is writing their rap tune to both shock (little does anymore) and impress with their own massive self-importance, which is rarely accurate or believable and virtually always way over the top. Meaning little integrity for the author and hence the author's words and assertions.

I'm willing to be wrong about this because it's been awhile, but it struck me as ironic at how much the author accuses himself of all horrors and crimes while I guess trying to say he's also FOS cause he'd never been prosecuted as an accomplice -- trying to straddle a fence that's almost diametrically opposed -- yet I think when I first started reading this, I saw reports that the LVPD had just arrested him for exactly what he basically admits to guilt while still trying to deny guilt -- cause otherwise the law would have gotten him. Dunce! May have taken awhile, but the law DID catch up with him. And spoiler alert -- I recall they said it was largely because of all of the confessions to crimes he relentlessly asserts in this very book!

The writing is wretched, the author is massively unreliable, the book reads like a "C"-grade hip hop flop, and most readers will probably not like the author or much else. The ONLY reason I'm giving this 2 stars instead of 1 is because of what I just described in the preceding paragraph. It's worse that watching a slow train wreck and I don't recommend it to anybody except those like me who apparently saw the equivalent of a smutty grocery store line rag and impulsively buys it -- something I'm not particularly proud of and have rarely done -- but if you experience such a weakness and can stomach a braggert with major communication problems, you might find this book interesting. Otherwise not recommended.

[Maritza]

I watched the P. Diddy docuseries on Netflix and started looking for books to read. I found this book that lacked serious editing. It was fascinating that a lot of the same subjects keep coming up. I hope at some point someone will come out with the whole truth of who killed Tupac and Biggie.

[Maurice David Randle]

GREAT BOOK!!!

I had to dock the book one star for the formatting and spacing issues. A lot of words, even entire phrases are jumbled together. Also, I HAD to turn my phone sideways to read it because the pages were too small to see otherwise.

Once you get past those issues, this was a really compelling story. I still remember Biggie and Pac's murders like it was yesterday. I remember delving into the crazy conspiracies and rumors surrounding their demise. It's great to finally gain some closure about the whole situation, especially because it's from an extremely reliable source.

This was a very easy read (outside of the formatting as aforementioned), and I HIGHLY recommend this book to any hip-hop head!

[Jason Weber]

3.5 stars

I’ve read other books and watched docs about the Biggie/Tupac murders, so I figured I would check this out…
Somewhere between Murder Rap- Labyrinth- and this book is the truth… who know if we will ever know for sure….

[Tyiana]

This book was a mess. I was a interested in the read from the man who claims he had a hand in Tupac's death but this book is shameful. He needed an editor badly and it's just written like an amateur book. I was not interested in his story after reading the first chapter because I could tell he was embellishing a lot of details. This book was a quick money grab but thank goodness I got this off Kindle Unlimited. Not recommended.

[Dréya]

All I can say is wow and the epilogue...geeze!

[Miss]

The verdict is in and I don't think this book will get an epilogue or update post trial, given how Keffe wants to get his stuff back and appeal. It is probably time to grab a copy, though, if you can't check it out from a library because it's likely to go up in price even on the secondhand market with all the free publicity the trial has gotten in 2026.

What trial, do you ask? Well, Duane "Let's argue in court over how Keffe/Keithy is actually spelled by the defendant's FATHER in 1964" Davis, decides in 2019, while he is still alive and unprosecuted, to publish this book and educate the world about a few things on self-snitching and double jeopardy. Stripped of all it's puffery and Mean Girl Burn Book energy toward Suge Knight or Puffy Combs, this book is a confession to the participation in the murder of Tupac Shakur. It is a braggadocious take on "the last living eyewitness to Tupac's murder" that apparently didn't have a lawyer involved to tell Keffe to take that account to the grave. Because as an eyewitness from inside the vehicle from which the shots were fired that ultimately killed Tupac, you're not an innocent bystander who saw the crime happen, you are a participant in the murder. "I pulled out the Glock that Zip had given me and tossed it in the backseat." Regardless of whether Freaky or Baby Lane took up that gun to do the shooting, Keffe admits to giving them access to the weapon that fires the deadly rounds. That is why, eventually, in 2023 Duane Davis is charged with that murder and now in 2026 he has been found guilty of it.

In the introduction Keffe claims to not give af about the celebrity aspect of this story, but his want for the notoriety is apparent from the very existence of the book. I'm not a fan of memoirs like this where there's no real growth or insight in the person featured, but it's not the worst thing I've ever read. The bullet holes and crime scene tape "art" on pages of the physical book are distasteful af. I know it was fight night in Vegas, but titling the chapter covering Tupac's shooting "The Main Event" is just gross. It ended the life of one of rap's most influential and promising artists and set off a series of events that damaged, changed and ended lives in the communities effected by Tupac and, later, Biggie's murders. The self aggrandizement of titling this book "Compton Street Legend," meaning Keefe, and emphasizing that with "Notorious Keffe D" like you're copying The Notorious B.I.G. while claiming no part in the murder of Biggie Smalls is, again, distasteful af.

But it all helps open a path to justice, finally, for what happened to Tupac, while also becoming a shining example of self snitching. Unlike OJ, who waited until after acquittal and the end of the wrongful death case, before publishing "If I Did It," Keefe has no double jeopardy protection by publishing this book when he did. He had no immunity agreements. He did not try hiding behind claims of hypothetical or "if I did it" to safely use a "fiction" shield against the confession in this book or the interviews where he repeats the claims herein. Despite what his lawyer tried to imply, I fully believe that this book was made possible only with the full participation, words and photos of Keffe D.

That is a reason for me to hate having bought a copy of this to read. It was $20 to an ebay seller, but there's still blood on that money with proceeds of at least one sale going to benefit Keffe. Had I heard that jail call first, I never would have sought this read out no matter how curious the trial coverage made me. With the trial done and my read complete, I have to second Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo's review as made in the rebuttal closing statement.

"Go and read his book, if you want. You will not be smarter for it, let me tell you."

It's really not meant to make you smarter, but that was a great line to have immortalized in trial transcripts. Despite the very serious topics discussed in this, there is a vibe similar to a reality star tell all/airing of dirty laundry and salty takes book. It's a quick read. It adds something to the experience of reading the book and watching the trial to compare text to testimony. For better or worse, I can see this becoming the most discussed book on my bookshelves if a visitor in my home sees it and knows anything about these events. I'll always have something to say about all of this. Like, how is it I go from reading Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices books where Will and Tessa often refer to Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities to seeing the opening of that same book quoted in here???? It is very fitting, though, for those in that white Cadillac on Sept 7, 1996, "we were all going direct the other way..."

[anjela t.]

I picked up this book hours after the news broke about the 1st degree murder charge of Tupac. I wasn’t sure what i was getting into or how I would feel abt reading this book but i was not expecting this. Keffe calls tupacs and biggies deaths unfortunate but collateral damage. I can’t say i don’t understand. The last few sentences in the book rocked me to my core *to the people who turned on him* “I saved your life and i think you outta thank me for that, instead of trying to put salt on my name.” he goes on to say “At first i was mad abt this whole situation but im free now. As time goes by, i realize i was offered the deal of a life time. They were going to punish our asses, i would never had said a word if they wouldn’t have given me such a sweet deal. I didn’t have to do a damn time, saved 48 peoples lives and i didn’t tell on any body but myself bc every body else was already dead. Think about it.”

I am shocked he did all this just to end up spending the rest of his life in jail bc we all know how the trail will end.. I can’t say i agree with him, or that what he did was right or he doesn’t deserve jail, but i will say i love hearing all sides of the story. Great great book.

[Clifford Onehundredd]

Everything he says in the book seems to have veritable merit. It was; half memoir & half confession. This book was released in 2019. 12 years prior a book published in 2007 that I later read titled: "The White Book" by Makavelli cites on page 406 a description of the shooter...on a specific page of Keefe's book; this description matches the shooter. Makaveli Lives On. If you know you know. The Feds had their neck on Keefe D and were investigating DeathRow. Due to the massive amount of people involved in the Vegas incident a lot of red tape surrounded the case. This book is the result of Keefe D getting everything he wanted off his chest in book form of actual events because of his proffer agreement. I believe this is in fact the truths behind the Biggie and Tupac shootings but you also get a glimpse into his personal life as a gangster. I hate to have to rate this book 5 stars but after cross examining everything I believe 100% of what he's written in this book is fact. It probably wasn't smart for him to write a book with all the details but the book does shed light on obscured information.

[Anne]

Compton Street Legend has flaws, but overall is a very enjoyable read. While Keffe D.’s story is a big part of Rap history, it would be a disservice to view his story exclusively through the lens of Rap. This book is a very interesting first-hand account of West Coast gang affiliation during its formative years through the early 2000s.

The memoir started really strong but could have used more editing towards the end. The narrative after the chapter “Aftermath” becomes weak, and as a result, the timeline is hard to follow- if it’s being followed at all. The language in this memoir is not for the easily scandalized or the young reader; discretion is advised.

Keffe D.’s voice is strong throughout the book, and not only does that make the book entertaining, it allows the reader to get to “know” him. Is he a reliable narrator? That is hard to say, but I believe that a lot of his accounts are true- in the form of half-truths. If this book has piqued your interest, I’d say give it a go. It’s a short read that kept my attention through the end of the book.

[Benya Workman]

Ramblings of a brain dead moron.

Don't bother to read this snitch's book. At one point this lowlife brags about beating up some woman that cursed at him.. seems like a stand up guy, right?

Cant even call this a book really.. just this idiot's incoherent ramblings..

Not only is he brain dead but he's also dillusional.. at one point he claims that his untrained gangbanger buddies could get the drop on Navy Seals if they wanted to...

The last chapter is him literally rattling off names one by one and then telling them off.. I've never seen that before in a book.. literally just rattling names off and then airing dirty laundry.. wierd.. anyway this guy is dumber than dirt. Dont read this. Oh and the title should be Compton Street Snitch.

[Jamila Glapion]

I picked this up because they just announced this past week they had someone in custody after almost 30 years for Tupac murder....well damn the suspect has a book, let me get it! Actually quite interesting, gives a different perspective and so many things I barely even remember, like the Altercation at MGM before the shooting. Definitely seems as though more people should be going down for this murder and the Biggie Smalls murder is still unknown, but I am glad I took the time. Quick read if wondering.

[Alex Graham]

It was good to learn more about somebody who is notorious when it comes to the Tupac murder and their background.

However, much of it was a desperate attempt to upkeep his “gangster” image there was a perception of over-inflating/exaggerating/fabricating stories, wealth and relationships.

The back-end of the book felt like a bitter rant and unsubstantiated accusations towards others for his own wrong-doings, getting caught and ultimately becoming a snitch.

It’s worth a read if you are interested in LA gang scene, Tupac murder and Death Row records era.

[Kikim Btj]

The book is trash written for a low IQ uncivilized street gangster , I read it just for the sake to know how tupac died, since I grew up listening to tupac, but I still find this story sketchy, especially when you know that Yaki kadafi the true friend of tupac was a main witness to the shooting and he was willing to come out and name the killer, then Yaki got shot to the face 2 months after Tupac died.

[Kevin Muir]

Keeping It Real

I read this book after Keefe D was found guilty for the murder of Tupac, the worst kept secret in 30 years. In this book Keefe takes you to the streets with him and his boys. He holds nothing back (except for the part about murdering Pac). If the Tupac case interests you this book is a must to get to know the man behind the murder.

[DeLisa Nicole]

It’s an ignorant book. The best way I can describe it. He implicates himself through out the whole thing and makes it all sounds so juvenile. I read it just be informed since he was just arrested for the murder but I would just watch the interviews and not waste your time with this junk.

[David]

Shit sucks

[Marcus]

The gangster psychology

[Keets]

Loved the book! It is a great small insight into who Keffe D is.

[Terra]

Positive: grammatically well edited.
Negative: just about everything else.

[DD]

A wild ride, but worth the read. Did not see the comparison to DJP coming. My face probably looked like a surprised Suge.

[Lisa]

An interesting read. The writer was in the car with the shooter when Tupac was caught and down the street when Biggie was shot. He has ties to Puffy and Suge Knight.

[Tammy Horvath]

This was a unique read, and time flew by as I listened to this book while cycling. I'm assuming this book is all true, but regardless, I enjoyed it.

[J Madd]

Good story. The audiobook had a great voice on it

[Celina Tebor]

Read this for work lol