Who killed Kurt Cobain?

Helen Herimbi

Of late, there has been a lot of talk about who really killed Tupac Shakur. No, Death Row Records founder, Suge Knight, didn’t confess (yet, anyway), but the circumstances surrounding ’Pac’s death have been brought to the fore once more.

It seems the premature death of this hip hop icon left an indelible mark on the music industry and a deep impression in the hearts of hip hop heads all over the world. More so because, as with the murder of Tupac’s one-time rival, The Notorious BIG, the police were accused of being heavily involved.

After 1996, people began to believe we’d never really know whodunit because it was obvious. So it’s no surprise many folks aren’t paying attention to these new rumours about who killed Tupac.

It was famed director Nick Broomfield who brought us ‘Biggie and Tupac’, the doccie that attempted to uncover the facts behind arguably the most significant deaths in hip hop to date.

His 2002 effort looks at the Los Angeles Police Department’s alleged involvement too. While the doccie helped to open more eyes to the tragedy that these young men’s lives were taken too soon, this isn’t Broomfield’s most well-known work.

That would be ‘Kurt and Courtney’, which airs on TopTV’s S!lver Channel on Wednesday.

This 1998 documentary on Kurt Cobain’s death and Courtney Love’s involvement was not only selected for screening at the Sundance Film Festival, but was banned after Love threatened to sue the festival organisers if they screened it.

It’s no secret Love’s fame grew to epic proportions after husband Cobain died, allegedly by his own hand.

But that suicide story doesn’t wash with many Nirvana fans, or conspiracy theorists. As we’ve seen from Broomfield – who also made a doccie on serial killer Aileen Wuornos – he is obsessed with murder. He delves deeply into the parts the police neglected to investigate and has a keen interest in those closest to the deceased in all of his work.

Here, Love is shown as an advocate for the censorship of free speech because not only did she refuse to speak to Broomfield on camera and attempt to clear her name, but she also refused to license Cobain’s music for use in the documentary.

There are interviews with a private investigator, a stripper who knew Cobain, er, very well, and punk singer El Duce who, of course, claimed Love wanted to offer him money to off Cobain.

As you might know, Duce was hit by a train and died after he revealed his accusations against Love. Sounds like she’d fit in well on Mob Wives, doesn’t it?

Anyway, if you’d like to know more about what might have happened to Kurt Cobain, this is the documentary to see.

‘Kurt and Courtney’ airs on S!lver (TopTV channel 112) on Wednesday at 8pm.