Matthew Steeples reports on the sale of a £333,333 ‘pimped’ 1996 Hummer H1 that rapper Tupac Shakur bought just a month before he was gunned down and killed in a 1996 BMW 750iL leased by the ironically named Death Row Records just as his alleged killer goes to trial
New York born rapper and actor Tupac Shakur – also known as ‘2Pac’ and ‘Makaveli’; born as Lesane Parish Crooks in 1971 – was well known for his love of flash motors and often featured them in his music videos. Whilst the black 1996 BMW 750iL he was shot in on 7th September 1996 is currently being hawked by Celebrity Cars Las Vegas for an astounding £1.3 million ($1.75 million), another of his vehicles is due to be auctioned later this month at a much lower sum just before a suspect in his slaying is finally due to go on trial also.
Purchased new on 16th August 1996 by the All Eyez on Me star and convicted sex offender just a month before he died in a Las Vegas hospital on 13th September that year, Bonhams will sell what was described in 2016 by Page Six as a “fully loaded” Hummer H1.
The 6.5-litre, turbo diesel V8 engine beast of a motor was customised for Shakur and features such things as an external PA system with three sirens, a twelve disc Clarion sound system, Sony GPS, a central tyre inflation system, air conditioning, rear sliding glass doors, privacy glass, Dick Cepek off-road lights, diamond plated bumpers and a 12,000 pound winch. Rather brazenly, ’Eliminator’ is proclaimed in large white lettering in the space above the rear driver’s side fender.
After the star’s untimely demise, the vehicle was was appraised at £55,500 ($75,000) in his estate’s inventory, kept in storage for several years, offered in a ‘Picture Me Rollin’ sweepstake in 2003 and then sold in 2007 to Havenotz Entertainment owners Sardar ‘Candyman 187’ Khan and Yaasmyn Fula.
Fula’s connection to the vehicle is relevant in that she was the mother of Shakur’s godbrother Yafeu ‘Yaki’ Akiyele Fula; an Outlawz hip-hop group member nicknamed ‘Kadafi’ in honour of the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. ‘Kadafi’ had also been in Las Vegas on the night of Tupac’s murder, was questioned about the crime by investigators and then was himself shot and killed in New Jersey just two months later in November 1996. He also was seen ‘cruising’ in the Hummer with his godbrother in in Los Angeles during the short period that Shakur owned it.
Subsequently owned by a Canadian collector, the H1 “complete with a very aggressive front guard” was put up for auction in April 2016 for £74,300 ($100,000). The very last car purchased and pimped up by Shakur achieved a punchy £250,446 ($337,114), but that sale subsequently collapsed. It was reoffered at the same reserve in August that year and came with a California plate ‘YAKNPAK’ honouring both Tupac Shakur and Yafeu Fula.
Classic.com report that recent prices achieved for 1996 Hummer H1s have ranged from £30,400 to £81,700 ($41,000 to $110,000); Bonhams will sell this mammoth military-esque motor on 23rd January 2026 at their Scottsdale sale at The Westin Kierland Resort and Spa and have set a very ambitious estimate of £277,800 to £333,333 ($375,000 to $450,000).
Meanwhile, on 9th February, an actor Duane Davis – also known as ‘Keefe D’ – is due to finally face jury trial for the murder of Tupac Shakur after having been charged in September 2023. Davis, who has played minor roles in Diggstown, M.A.N.T.I.S., Psych, S.W.A.T. and Team Knight Rider, is an uncle of the alleged shooter Orlando Anderson. He is also the author of Compton Street Legend, a book about the crime which his defence now claims “is based on self-serving statements made for financial gain” rather than an admission of guilt.
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Further pictures of the 1996 Hummer H1 to be offered at auction by Bonhams:
Perfect motor for Nigel Farage. Aggressive on the outside yet a bit more refined indoors.
I doubt anyone would be so stupid to overpay for this car on the basis that a murdered rap star owned it for just one month!!!!!!! Send in the wrecking ball!!!!!!!!!!
Not for the faint hearted. Can you imagine the trouble you’d have parking at Tesco?
I imagine there must have been a lot of cocaine down the back of the seats!
$450k for that. He owned it for not even a month and it was appraised at $75,000 so why such a ludicrously inflated price? Your other top example was $110,000 after all. Utterly nuts.