Even before the death of Tupac Shakur, Suge Knight was losing credibility in the rap game. For starters, artists were leaving his Death Row label, left and right. The empire that he had fought so hard to build was falling apart. But, through it all, Tupac was his loyal soldier. Every artist that left Death Row had to deal with the soldier that was Tupac, in the end. He had already targeted Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg was next on the list.
The last person that Shakur was with before he was shot was Suge Knight. There are a lot of people who believe that he had something to do with the rapper being shot. Usually, someone in that situation would be a lot more upset than Knight let on to be. It was rumored that Shakur was preparing to leave Death Row, himself. The reason that his album, The Seven Day Theory, was a double album was to complete his obligation to the label.
Speculation leads to Suge Knight taking Tupac Shakur out that night to convince him to stay on the label. But, when Shakur declined his offer, Knight planned to end his career, permanently. He knew that wherever Tupac Shakur went next, he was going to make someone a lot of money. Suge Knight wanted to keep all of Tupac Shakur's profits to himself. But, Tupac was more than a regular rapper, he was a businessman. Before he signed with Death Row, he was operating his own record label. He was trying to leave Death Row to create another label. Out of fear that the new Tupac label would overtake Death Row, Suge Knight did all that he could to keep everything under one roof.
If the speculation about Suge Knight was indeed true and Tupac had survived those gun shots, he would have gone at Suge Knight directly. Being the type of person that he was, Shakur had no problem going at any one person that he did not like. At one point, his best friend was The Notorious B.I.G., but when Tupac felt that he had something to do with his 1994 shooting, the war began and the friendship ended. That was nothing more than speculation and he went into an all-out war with Biggie, Bad Boy, and Junior M.A.F.I.A. Imagine if he knew for a fact that Knight was trying to have him killed. He would have immediately left Death Row and ruined the credibility of Suge Knight. Knight lost is influence over time, but Tupac would have ended it then.
Right now, there would not be much difference in Suge Knight, but Tupac Shakur would still be here because if anything were to have happened to Tupac after September 7, 1996, all fingers would point towards Suge. So, if Tupac were to have died, it would have been by natural causes. Instead of just being a washed-up celebrity in debt, Suge Knight may be a washed-up celebrity in debt and behind bars.