Chuck Phillips, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning LA Times journalist who is hated around New York for his controversial stories about Tupac — in 2002, he fingered Notorious B.I.G. for Tupac’s death, and on Monday he alleged in a story that both Diddy and Biggie knew about an infamous 1994 attack on Tupac at NYC’s Quad City Studios before it happened — defended his reporting in a live chat on MTV.com yesterday.

Philips noted that he wasn’t originally pursuing the Quad Studios incident for a story. In the chat, he explained that he was in New York last year reporting and “stumbled” on the story after discovering the names of the three assailants who purportedly attacked and robbed Shakur. Philips never confirmed what story he was chasing, but in a separate interview, he said he was investigating information regarding the 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G.

Phillips said he also has two more stories coming, one of which will probably be about Biggie’s death. For his part, Diddy has vehemently denied having any involvement about the Quad City attack.