The murder cases of legendary rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG will be examined in a live show that will tour Australia.

Shakur, 24, was shot dead in his car on a Las Vegas street in 1996 by an unknown gunman during a drive-by shooting.

Six months later, 25-year-old Christopher Wallace (known as Notorious BIG and Biggie Smalls) died a similar death after being gunned down in Los Angeles.

Rapper Tupac Shakur was murdered in 1996.

The show that comes to Australia in July and August features Greg Kading, the head detective of the US police task force into the unsolved killings in the mid 1990s.

He told the Today Show how despite various conspiracy theories the case of the rappers’ killings was “relatively simple” to crack.

“Tupac was shot and killed by a guy named Orlando Anderson. He was a Crip (gang) member out of California,” Kading claims.

The bullet-riddled BMW saloon Tupac Shakur was killed in. (Getty)

The former Los Angeles mansion of rapper Tupac Shakur. (Supplied)

“He was a guy who got into a fight with Tupac earlier that evening and he came back and retaliated along with the rest of his crew.”

Kading says Biggie Smalls’ killing in March 1997 during a drive-by shooting was retaliation by Tupac’s then record producer Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, who is currently serving a 28-year prison term.

“That night he hired a hitman of his own and shot and killed Biggie as he was leaving a party.”

Christopher Wallace (known as Notorious BIG and Biggie Smalls) was fatally shot in March 1997. (Getty)

Both Shakur and Smalls were cultural icons and fierce rivals at the time of their deaths – a period when rap was at its height.

Kadar says it’s made the mystery around their unsolved killings enduring.

“Back in the 1990s, rap music, especially gangsta rap music was all the thing. It was very popular at the time. It had a huge fan base.

A file photo of former record producer Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, centre. (Getty)

“Then these tragic murders happened, and then out of that, these two individuals, as big as they were, become larger than life.”

“They have been memoralised not only in the music but in the mysteries that shroud around their murders.”

Kadar wrote the book Murder Rap about his experiences investigating the murders, eventually leading to the Netflix true crime drama series Unsolved .