Growing up in Bed Sty Brooklyn,
Christopher Wallace, also known as the Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was
surrounded by a lot of un-clean influences at a very young age; drugs, alcohol,
gangs, and rapping, just to name a few. The things that were listed were some
of the most contributing factors of the death of Christopher Wallace, A.K.A.
The Notorious B.I.G./Biggie Smalls. On March 9, 1997, after leaving a “Soul Train Music Awards” after-party, Biggie Smalls was gunned down by an
unknown shooter in a black 1997 Chevy Impala. Until this day, the reason behind
Biggie Small’s death is unknown. However, there are some conspiracy theories
that lead to his death: one of the most well-known rivalries of all time, East
Coast hip-hop versus West Coast hip-hop, the friendship with Tupac Shakur, the
involvement of Sean “Diddy” Combs, also known as P. Diddy, the involvement of
Marion “Suge” (shug) Knight and the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) along
with the involvement of the FBI. Let us carefully read about these conspiracies
and reveal which one solves the case of the death of the Notorious B.I.G.
Who was Christopher Wallace? If you were
to look up city Bed Sty, Brooklyn, New York, you would find what his life was
like growing up as a child. Growing up Christopher Wallace was raised in a
ghetto neighborhood by a single mother Voletta Wallace. Christopher Wallace
knew of his father but didn’t see him as much due to the separation of his
parents. This is enough to change the life of any young African American male
growing up in the ghetto.
Being a single
mother, Ms. Wallace wanted the best for her son, so in order to provide the
best she could for him, she worked two jobs in order to send him to a private
Catholic school, the Roman Catholic Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School. But
because he didn’t want to live the life of one going to a private school and
living in a ghetto neighborhood, he decided to transfer to a public school that
was more local, George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School.
Christopher Wallace was known to be an excellent student when it came to his
school work, but once it got to his behavior, everything was the opposite.
Because of this, he decided to drop out of high school all together at the age
of 17, and because of this, his career actually got started (A&E,
Biography).
Ever since
Christopher was a kid, he was known for his big size, so “on the streets” he
was called Big. This later led to his stage names known as The Notorious B.I.G.
and Biggie Smalls. He was about 12 years old when he was started to be called
Big, and also around this time he started to sell drugs on the streets where he
lived. His mother had no idea of his activities due to her working long hours
just so she can provide the best that she could for him. Around the time when
he dropped out of school was the time where he decided to do a lot of drug
dealing, more than what he was doing before. Because of this, this landed him a
five-year probationary sentence, due to drug dealing and possession of an
illegal firearm. Not even a year after that, he was arrested for violating his
probation and a year after that he was arrested again for dealing cocaine in
North Carolina. Many would say that he was wanting to be known by the law, but
he was just addicted the money (Voletta).
Around the time
he actually got out of prison, was around the time he started to rap, and this
led to him being introduce to many of those who made him successful, but these
people also contributed to a lot of negative things. Once he released his first
demo album, he was introduced Sean Combs, the owner of Bad Boy Records and he
later signed with them. During his time with Combs and Bad Boy Records, he was
introduced to one of the greatest artists of all time. His name was Tupac Shakur
and he and Biggie, grew to be the best of friends. Due to a lot of drama and
confusion, their friendship began to take a toll because of things that
happened to Tupac Shakur.
When the two
actually started to have “beef”, also known as trouble with each other, Tupac
Shakur was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. A couple of
years after that, Christopher Wallace was also murdered in a drive-by shooting
in Los Angeles, California. No one knows what actually took place between the
two but what I can say is that their deaths had similar things in common.
As hip-hop and rap started a
trended or growth in the American culture, there also grew a numerous amount of competition. As
some may know, New York City and some of the surrounding cities and communities
was the birthplace of hip-hop and rap in the United States. As years went on,
artists from L.A. (Los Angeles) felt they weren’t given the same media coverage
and public attention as those on the East Coast, which is what started the feud
of rappers/artists from the East Coast and the West Coast (Baker, Gionnotta).
Whenever artists from the West Coast went to New York they felt like they
weren’t admired or accepted, but when the East Coast artists went to L.A. they
were treated as though they were from L.A. This is one of the things that
caused the beginning of Biggie Smalls’ death.
Whenever Biggie Smalls started his
career he had a lot of street associates, meaning he knew a lot of people that
he wasn’t really associated with. In the growth of his career, he met a guy by
the name of Tupac Shakur, also known as 2Pac or Makaveli. As time went on, he
and Tupac became very close of friends, even more close than the people that he
grew up with as a child. As both artists reached the peak of their careers, the
record labels that they were signed to, Death Row Records made by Dr. Dre and
Suge Knight (Tupac) and Bad Boy Records made by Sean “Diddy” Combs, caused the
feud to start between the two artists. On November 30, 1994, Tupac was shot five
times in a recording studio, “Quad
Recording Studios”, in Times Square New York, and ever since then, he
blamed the shooting on Biggie Smalls saying it was an “inside job” or set-up,
and ever since then, things weren’t the same between the two (Baker).
In response to the blaming of the
shooting of Tupac, Biggie Smalls came out with a single entitled “Who Shot Ya”. In the song, Biggie
apologized to Bad Boy Records for all of the things that were going on, while
also trying to regain the trust of his former friend Tupac Shakur, but Tupac
didn’t want anything to do the Biggie Smalls after the shooting (Giannotta).
Once Tupac actually signed with Death Row Records, he started to target Biggie,
being influenced by his Suge Knight, the owner and who was known to be
affiliated with gang related activities. Because of Tupac following in the
steps of Suge Knight, this led to his death in 1996 due to a drive-by shooting
on the Las Vegas Strip, in Las Vegas, Nevada, while his death sparked more fuel
saying that Biggie Smalls was the one that killed him.
As time continues, the murders of
both artists are still being investigated, and as reports show, Sean “Diddy”
Combs (P. Diddy), is a suspect behind the deaths of Tupac and Biggie—says Greg
Kading, former detective for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He is
one of the main suspects due to some of the work he has put out, one being his
2011 book entitled “Murder Rap: The
Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations by
the Detective Who Solved Both Cases” and the second being a documentary of
the book which debuted in 2015. According to Greg Kading, P. Diddy payed a
member of the Crips, a well-known national gang, $1 million to kill Tupac
Shakur and Suge Knight, the manager and owner of Death Row Records, while Suge
Knight payed a member of the Bloods, another well-known national gang, $13,000
to just kill Biggie Smalls (Hauntman).
As a member of the LAPD, Detective
Russel Poole claimed that owner of Death Row Records, Suge Knight, hired corrupted
LAPD officers to take out Biggie Smalls for the death of Tupac Shakur. A couple
of months after Biggie Smalls was murdered Suge Knight did an interview with
ABC, and during that interview Suge Knight said that he would “absolutely not
snitch if he knew Shakur’s murderer. I don’t get paid to tell on people [. .
.]” Meaning that he had something to do with the death of both of the artists.
Almost 20 years later, Detective Russel Poole died of a heart attack after
meeting with law enforcement of the LAPD. If this doesn’t seem like a
coincidence, then I don’t know what a coincidence is.
This final thought brings up the
involvement of the FBI. Author John Potash wrote a book entitled “The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black
Leaders”, and in that book he writes about how the FBI was involved in both
the shootings and murders of Tupac and Biggie. During countless hours of
research and interviews, the FBI really wanted the 90’s rap drama and violence
to come to an end. So, they took it upon themselves and thought that they could
handle the issue, and if they did, they did a really good job of covering the
things up. (Hautman).
On March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles, California, Christopher Wallace
(The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls) was gunned down by an unknown gunman. his
death led to multiple conspiracy theories, but the five that I chose consisted
of:
1.) The
rivalry of East Coast vs. West Coast Hip-Hop
2.) The
friendship with Tupac Shakur
3.) The
involvement of Sean (P. Diddy) Combs
4.) The
involvement of Marion (Suge, pronounced Shug) Knight and the LAPD
5.) The
involvement of the FBI.
Up
until this day, the murder of Biggie Smalls is still being investigated by LAPD
officers and the officers of the NYPD. There has never been a murder case go on
in American history for this amount of time.
Works Cited
Giannotta,
Meghan. “A Look at Tupac and Biggie's Infamous Hip-Hop Feud.” Am New York, 16
June 2017,
www.amny.com/entertainment/east-coast-vs-west-coast-rivalry-a-look-at-tupac-and-biggie-s-infamous-hip-hop-feud-1.13742586.
Hautman, Nicholas.
“20 Years After Notorious B.I.G.'s Death: Theories on His Murder.” Us Weekly, 6
Dec. 2017,
www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/20-years-after-notorious-bigs-death-theories-on-his-murder-w471171/.
“Who Is The
Notorious B.I.G.? Everything You Need to Know.” The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie
Smalls) Biography - Facts, Childhood & Life Achievements, Sept. 2017,
www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/the-notorious-b-i-g--6705.php
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