Highlighted Crime
Story of the Week -
On March 9, 1997, Christopher Wallace, a.k.a Biggie
Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., was shot to death at a stoplight in Los
Angeles. The murder was thought to be the culmination of an ongoing feud
between rap music artists from the East and West coasts. Just six months earlier,
rapper Tupac Shakur was shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Ironically,
Wallace’s death came only weeks before his new album, entitled Life After Death, was scheduled to be
released.
Wallace was the most prominent East Coast practitioner of
“gangster rap,” peppering his song with profane, violent and misogynistic
lyrics. His 1994 record Ready to Die
sold millions. That same year, Shakur, the West Coast’s leading rapper, was
shot several times in a robbery at a recording studio in New York. Shakur
claimed that Wallace was partially responsible and later taunted Wallace on one
of his songs. He claimed to have slept with Wallace’s ex-wife, singer Faith
Evans, and insulted the overweight rapper for his ample girth.
Wallace’s raps about violent street life were not
completely fiction. He grew up in a poor section of Brooklyn and had many
run-ins with the law growing up. Even after he reached stardom in the music
world, his legal woes continued. In the summer of 1996 he was arrested when
police found marijuana and firearms at his New Jersey home. He also gave a new
meaning to fan appreciation when he assaulted a pair of admirers with a
baseball bat. The murder of Wallace has never been solved, though it has been
suggested that either Marion “Suge” Knight, the former head of Death Row
Records, Shakur’s label, or the Crips gang may be have been responsible. Knight
was also shot (but not wounded seriously) in the fatal Las Vegas attack on
Shakur and is rumored to have engineered a retaliatory strike against Wallace,
whom he held responsible for the Las Vegas shooting. Since Wallace’s death,
Knight had been in and out of court and prison on a variety of charges. Wallace’s
murder remains open and unsolved.
Check back every
Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”
Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author
of seven nonfiction books that includes the soon to be released In the Company of Evil Thirty Years of
California Crime 1950-1980 and the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949.
Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com
for more information. His books can be purchased from Amazon through the
following links:
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