Just hours after an incendiary L.A. Times piece was published yesterday (March 17) associating Sean "Diddy" Combs and Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond with the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur at a NYC studio, both men issued statements denying their involvement.

As SOHH previously reported, Diddy called the article "beyond ridiculous," and "completely false," while Czar Entertainment CEO Henchman threatened a lawsuit saying he's already consulting with his attorneys about his "legal rights regarding this libelous piece of garbage."

But the music business heads haven't had the last word. The reporter, Chuck Phillips --who broke the story, citing first-hand interviews of witnesses to the crime as the basis for his four-page article - isn't backing down. He says he put six-months into that piece and he did his due diligence.

"I try to go and find people who are directly involved or know people who are involved in the actual crime," Philips told BET.com. "I work the same as police do except I'm not a cop so people are not afraid to talk to me because I'm not going to arrest them."

In addition to the witnesses, Phillips also claims to have twice given Diddy the opportunity to respond and he said he reached out to Henchman as well.

"[Diddy] knew what the story was going to say. He decided not to comment," Phillips said.

Rosemond didn't want to talk to the reporter either.

"He refused to talk to me, so we printed what his lawyer said," Phillips said of Henchman.

And according to Phillips, the Czar honcho has his info wrong anyway.

"Read his statement and go look at when Biggie got in the car accident," Henchman said. "He's putting false information out there. Biggie didn't get into the accident, until after Tupac was killed in Las Vegas."

The backlash he's gotten from yesterday's story hasn't deterred Phillips. Currently, the writer is working on another story about the murder of East Coast rap icon The Notorious B.I.G.

"I deal with a lot of criminals in my work and I treat them with respect and I'm very secret about the information I gather from individuals and anybody that I work with," Phillips said. "There are some dangerous people who I work with, but their information is safe with me."

Federal prosecutors have continued to investigate the attack on Tupac as well as the still-unsolved murders of Pac and Biggie.