In a street culture where cooperating with law enforcement can cost you everything, Devonte “Dirt Rock” Lee is talking openly about doing exactly that.
The Southside Compton Crip sat down with VladTV for an uncensored full interview. He covered his federal drug case, his work with investigators, and his subpoena to testify in Duane “Keefe D” Davis’s trial for the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Lee grew up around Bird’s Lane in Compton and was close to several men tied to one of hip-hop’s most scrutinized cases. He talks about Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, DeAndre “Big Dre” Smith, Terrence “Bubble Up” Brown and Keefe D himself. That circle has hovered over the story for almost three decades.
For context, Tupac was shot in a drive-by in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, after watching Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand.
He died six days later. Earlier that night, Tupac and members of the Death Row entourage were caught on hotel security footage attacking Anderson in the lobby.
Lee walks through the build-up too, including the Lakewood Mall fight involving Death Row affiliate Trayvon Lane.
That incident has long been cited as the spark for the lobby confrontation. He also gets into the tension between Death Row and Bad Boy, plus the Diddy rumors that have circulated for years.
Anderson was killed in a separate Compton shooting in 1998 and was never charged in Tupac’s death. Lee reflects on his passing as well as Big Dre’s. Keefe D is the one man from that circle who now faces a courtroom.
That’s where the second angle comes in. Lee points to Keefe D’s own interviews as the thing that may have changed everything, and plenty of people who’ve followed the case would agree.
Keefe D described the night in detail in his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend and in a string of on-camera conversations, years after laying out events to investigators in a proffer session.
Former LAPD detective Greg Kading documented much of that in his book Murder Rap, which Lee also discusses.
Las Vegas police searched a Henderson home tied to Keefe D in July 2023, and a grand jury indictment followed that September. Keefe D has pleaded not guilty to murder with use of a deadly weapon.
Lee doesn’t frame cooperation as simple. He talks through the street codes he grew up with alongside his own federal case and his dealings with investigators. Anyone from that world will recognize the tension, and it will probably shape how his interview lands.
He also touches on Snoop Dogg’s ties to their music label, a detail sure to get fans digging. Keefe D’s trial date has already been pushed more than once. Lee’s subpoena means his account could end up in front of a jury, not just a VladTV camera.
