March 9
1997 Rapper Notorious B.I.G. is killed in Los Angeles
Christopher Wallace, a.k.a Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., is shot to death at a stoplight in Los Angeles. The murder was apparently the culmination of an ongoing feud between rap music artists from the East and West coasts. Just six months earlier, rapper Tupac Shakur was killed when he was shot in Las Vegas. Ironically, Wallace's death came only weeks before his new album Life After Death was scheduled to be released.
Wallace was the most prominent East Coast practictioner 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. 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 and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.
The murder of Wallace has not yet been solved, but investigators have lately been focusing on Marion "Suge" Knight, the former head of Death Row Records, Shakur's label. Knight was also shot (but not wounded seriously) in the attack on Shakur and is rumored to have been engineered a retaliatory strike against Wallace, whom he held responsible for the Las Vegas shooting. Knight is currently in a California prison, serving time for assault.