RE: LeoThread 2025-03-10 00:50
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On March 9th, 1997 - 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 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 killed when he was shot while in his car in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Ironically, Wallace’s death came only weeks before his new album, titled Life After Death, was scheduled to be released.
Wallace was the most prominent East Coast practitioner of “gangsta rap." 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.
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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 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 be 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. Knight has been incarcerated for a fatal hit-and-run since 2018.
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🔗On March 9th, 1997 - Rapper Notorious B.I.G. is killed in Los Angeles
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The Notorious B.I.G. - Big Poppa (Official Music Video) [HD]
This marks an unfortunate, yet key point in history for my beloved hip-hop.
Before Tupac & Biggie, all rap “beefs” were handled in the studio & didn’t result in people losing loved ones.
From this point forward it was the norm and the music industry made sure they capitalized off it.
I grew up on the hood and not too far from Biggie. I was listening to rap before it hit the airwaves and before it morphed into Hip Hop. Losing Big and Tupac was a huge dent to the pure genius of the genre. With that said all these years later it’s still going although never the same.
I remember like it was yesterday.....Was driving back into Toronto from doing a DJ show out of the city. Our friend called us on the road and let us know....
We did a set that night, and pretty much played Biggie the entire time.
Tough punch in the gut loss to the genre.