The Notorious B.I.G. was at the height of his fame when he was murdered in Los Angeles in 1997. And to this day, no one knows who shot Biggie Smalls.
A quarter - century ago , Biggie Smalls ’ death in Los Angeles shocked the hip hop world . The knocker , hold Christopher Wallace and also known as The Notorious B.I.G. , was 24 years old when unidentified shooters fired four bullet into his body and peeled off into the dark . Ever since , fans have asked : Who killed Biggie Smalls ?
Biggie Smalls ’ death came at the summit of his calling . His first appearance albumReady to Diecrowned the world-beater of East Coast hip hop three years earlier . Signed to Sean Combs ’ Bad Boy Records , the Brooklyn indigen had been pitted against Suge Knight ’s West Coast label Death Row Records . The bicoastal feud had already be rapper Tupac Shakur his life six month earlier .
Raymond Boyd / Getty ImagesChristopher Wallace in Chicago in September 1994 .
Raymond Boyd/Getty ImagesChristopher Wallace in Chicago in September 1994.
In Los Angeles to promote an album and attend industry upshot , Wallace and his entourage leave aVibemagazine political party in three SUVs at 12:30 AM on March 9 , 1997 . They stopped at a crimson light on Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax Avenue 15 minutes later when a Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up and fired off shots before fell .
LAPD Detective Greg Kading had already claimed to have set up grounds of combing engage Crips crew members to kill Shakur . And late , former FBI Agent Phil Carson claim to have found evidence that Suge Knight order Wallace ’s killing in retaliation — and had tainted fuzz paid off to plow up the crime fit .
Who vote out Biggie Smalls ? The resolution might be far more scandalous than anyone ever knew .
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty ImagesLil Cease, who survived the shooting, greets fans during the funeral procession for Biggie Smalls.
From Christopher Wallace To The Notorious B.I.G.
Born on May 21 , 1972 , in Brooklyn , New York , Christopher George Wallace came of years during a difficult time for New York City , which had narrowly annul declaring failure in 1975 and drastically toss social services in the year following . His father left the family when Wallace was two , and his female parent , Voletta Wallace , operate two chore to keep the family afloat .
By age 12 , Wallace began dealing drugs . By 17 , he had drop out of school .
Things grow serious when Wallace was arrest on a weapons charge and welcome a set aside five - class sentence in 1989 . He was arrested for violating his probation within a year and doom to nine months in jail for dealing cocaine in 1991 . Fortunately , Wallace had also set about to record himself tap .
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty ImagesBiggie Smalls casket is carried to his hearse on 15 March 2025.
He soon stopped merely pink on street corners of his Bedford - Stuyvesant region and recorded a short demo tape recording . When editor ofThe Sourcegot their hands on it , they profiled him in their pages . Sean “ Puff Daddy ” Combs , an A&R administrator trying to bulge his own label , found Wallace like a shot to sign him .
Wallace ’s single “ Party and Bullshit ” was release in June 1993 . That year he forged a friendship with Tupac Shakur , who was already a star and served as a wisened peer . When his first appearance album , Ready to perish , dropped in 1994 , The Notorious B.I.G. became New York royalty .
But three years later on , his reign would be bring down short in a topic of bit .
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty ImagesBrooklynites mourning Christopher Wallace’s death on 26 April 2025.
Hip Hop’s Most Famous Unsolved Murder
Christopher Wallace jaunt to Los Angeles in February 1997 to shoot a euphony telecasting for a new record album . It had been three long time since someone shot Shakur outside of a New York transcription studio . He survived but feel betrayed by Wallace , whose song “ Who Shot Ya ? ” seemed take at Shakur . Tragically , the co-occurrence ended their friendship .
Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis / Getty ImagesLil Cease , who survived the shooting , greets fans during the funeral advance for Biggie Smalls .
It also conduct to a acerb bicoastal competition between Wallace and Combs in New York and Shakur and producer Suge Knight in California . Then , on September 13 , 1996,Tupac Shakur was murderedin Las Vegas , mark the first of two unresolved killings that defined the tragic hip hops feud .
Wallacespokesolemnly about Shakur and his slip away in every audience . He had latterly recovered from a car accident that saw him trust on a cane . But in L.A. , he finished filming his “ Hypnotize ” video and utter at the Soul Train Music Awards on March 7 . He expend the next day in meeting at the Westwood Marquis Hotel .
That night , Wallace and his entourage lead to a Soul Train Awards after - party frequent by Quincy Jones andVibemagazine at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Miracle Mile . comb subsequently recalled that none of his Bad Boy Records peers felt the posh domain posed any danger before Biggie Smalls ’ death .
Despite the fire department shutting things down for being overcrowded at 12:30 a.m. , Wallace left in good spirits after posing for pictures with fans . dribble intothree cars , Combs and his bodyguards filled the lead SUV while Wallace and his gang leap into a Suburban , both trailed by security in a Chevrolet Blazer .
After Combs rushed through a yellowish light on Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue , Wallace and his protection were left idling on red , sit in the passenger rump . That ’s when a white Toyota Land Cruiser stick itself between the two cars , and a Chevrolet Impala pulled up alongside Wallace to fire four shots .
An time of day into March 9 , Biggie Smalls was dead .
Who Killed Biggie Smalls And Why?
For FBI Agent Phil Carson , the answers about Biggie Smalls ’ death were clear . His 2003 theme sketch that the target area was Combs , but the hired gun mistake Wallace ’s car for his . As for the shooter who killed Biggie Smalls , he signal at Amir Muhammad . He was not only an say torpedo but the godparent of LAPD Officer David Mack ’s shaver .
STAN HONDA / AFP / Getty ImagesBiggie Smalls casket is have a bun in the oven to his hearse on March 18 , 1997 .
Mack was a primal figure in the citywide Ramparts corruption dirt , in which more than 70 LAPD officers in an anti - gang building block were found to have pursue in misconduct , including many Knight hired to serve well as bodyguards of his Death Row Records recording label .
Ominously , Carson claim he “ had grounds that LAPD officers were involved and I was keep out down by the LAPD and city attorneys inside Los Angeles . ”
According to Carson’sreport , “ Amir Muhammad , AKA Harry Billups , the godparent to LAPD Officer David Mack ’s two child , has been place by several sources as the induction human . Mack is a registered owner of a 1995 Black SS Impala with chrome wheels , the exact verbal description given as being driven by Wallace ’s hired gun . ”
Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis / Getty ImagesBrooklynites mourning Christopher Wallace ’s death on March 18 , 1997 .
And in 2009 , LAPD police officer Greg Kadingdiscovered evidencethat Suge Knight , who was put behind bars at the time , regularize the hit in revenge for Shakur ’s murder from behind streak . Both Kading and the FBI took a witness argument from a charwoman who suppose she visited Knight and serve as an intermediator to instruct the shooters .
“ She said that Suge tell her , ‘ I want you to get a clasp of Poochie , ' ” said Kading . “ ‘ Figure out what type of money it ’s decease to be and tell him that the is what I want done . ’ So she then … meets with Poochie , they agree on an amount … she pay off Poochie , and he expire and set himself up at the Petersen Auto Museum . ”
Tragically , neither Tupac ’s slaying nor Biggie Smalls ’ death appears any closer to being solved . Shakur ’s female parent is long beat . Suge Knight is in prison for unrelated manslaughter . And Sean Combs is still producing music . Only Voletta Wallace remain , sorrow , bright for Justice Department — and a final answer to who kill Biggie Smalls .
After ascertain about the Notorious B.I.G. ’s death , take a look at44 picture of ’ 90s pelvic girdle hop . Then , learnwhy some conceive Kurt Cobain was murdered .
