Murder of the Notorious B.I.G. | |
---|---|
Location | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Date | March 9, 1997; 22 years ago 12:47 a.m. PST (UTC−08:00) |
Target | Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. 'The Notorious B.I.G.' |
Attack type | Drive-by shooting, assassination |
Weapons | Blue-steel 9x19mmpistol (exact model and make unknown) |
Deaths | 1 (Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. 'The Notorious B.I.G.') |
Perpetrator | Wardell “Poochie” Fouse (alleged) |
Motive | Unknown |
The murder of Christopher Wallace, better known by his stage names 'the Notorious B.I.G.' and 'Biggie Smalls', occurred in the early hours of March 9, 1997. The hip hop artist was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California, one of which was fatal. Despite numerous witnesses and enormous media attention and speculation, no one was ever formally charged for the murder of Wallace. The case remains officially unsolved, as police have searched for years for more details without success.
In 2006, Wallace's mother, Voletta Wallace; his widow, Faith Evans and his children, T'yanna Jackson and Christopher Jordan Wallace (CJ) filed a $400 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department alleging that corrupt LAPD officers were responsible for Wallace's murder. Retired LAPD Officer Greg Kading alleged that Marion 'Suge' Knight, the head of Death Row Records, hired fellow Blood gang member Wardell 'Poochie' Fouse to murder Wallace and paid Poochie $13,000. He also alleged that Theresa Swan, the mother of Knight's child, was also involved in the murder, and was paid $25,000 to set up meetings both before and after the shooting took place. In 2003, Poochie himself was murdered in a drive-by by rival gang members.
- 4Lawsuits
Prior events[edit]
Christopher Wallace traveled to Los Angeles, California in February 1997 to promote his upcoming second studio album, Life After Death, and to film a music video for its lead single, 'Hypnotize'. On March 5, he gave a radio interview with The Dog House on San Francisco's KYLD, in which he stated that he had hired security because he feared for his safety. Wallace cited not only the ongoing East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud and the murder of Tupac Shakur six months prior, and his role as a high-profile celebrity in general, as his reasons for the decision.[1]Life After Death was scheduled for release on March 25, 1997.
On March 7, Wallace presented an award to Toni Braxton at the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles and was booed by some of the audience.[2] The following evening, March 8, he attended an after-party hosted by Vibe magazine and Qwest Records at the Petersen Automotive Museum in West Los Angeles.[2] Other guests included Faith Evans, Aaliyah, Sean Combs, and members of the Bloods and Crips gangs.[3]
Shooting[edit]
On March 9, 1997, at 12:30 a.m. (PST), Wallace left with his entourage in two GMC Suburbans to return to his hotel after the Los Angeles Fire Department closed the party early because of overcrowding.[4] Wallace traveled in the front passenger seat alongside his associates Damion 'D-Roc' Butler, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease, and driver Gregory 'G-Money' Young. Combs traveled in the other vehicle with three bodyguards. The two SUVs were trailed by a Chevrolet Blazer carrying Bad Boy Records' director of security.[3]
By 12:45 a.m. (PST), the streets were crowded with people leaving the event. Wallace's SUV stopped at a red light on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax Avenue[5] just 50 yards (46 m) from the museum. A dark-colored Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up alongside Wallace's SUV. The driver of the Impala, a black male, rolled down his window, drew a 9 mm blue-steel pistol and fired at the Suburban; four bullets hit Wallace.[3] Wallace's entourage rushed him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency thoracotomy, but he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. (PST). He was 24 years old.
His autopsy was released to the public in December 2012, fifteen years after his death. According to the report, three of the four shots were not fatal. The first bullet hit his left forearm and traveled down to his wrist; the second hit him in the back, missing all vital organs, and exited through his left shoulder; and the third hit his left thigh and exited through his inner thigh. The report said that the third bullet struck 'the left side of the scrotum, causing a very shallow, 3⁄8 inch [10 mm] linear laceration.' The fourth bullet was fatal, entering through his right hip and striking several vital organs, including his colon, liver, heart, and the upper lobe of his left lung, before stopping in his left shoulder area.[6]
Wallace's death was mourned by fellow hip hop artists and fans worldwide. Rapper Nas felt at the time of Wallace's death that his passing, along with that of Tupac Shakur, 'was nearly the end of rap.'[7]
Investigation[edit]
Immediately following the shooting, reports surfaced linking Wallace's murder with that of Shakur six months earlier, due to similarities in the drive-by shootings and the highly publicized East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud, of which Shakur and Wallace had been central figures.[8] Media reports had previously speculated that Wallace was in some way connected to Shakur's murder, though no evidence ever surfaced to seriously implicate him. Shortly after Wallace's death, Los Angeles Times writers Chuck Philips and Matt Lait reported that the key suspect in his murder was a member of the Southside Crips acting in service of a personal financial motive, rather than on the gang's behalf.[9] The investigation stalled, however, and no one was ever formally charged.
In a 2002 book by Randall Sullivan, called LAbyrinth, information was compiled about the murders of Wallace and Shakur based on information provided by retired LAPD detective Russell Poole.[3][10] In the book, Sullivan accused Suge Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records and a known Bloods affiliate, of conspiring with corrupt LAPD officer David Mack to kill Wallace and make both deaths appear to be the result of the rap rivalry.[11][12] The book stated that one of Mack's alleged associates, Amir Muhammad, was the hitman who killed Wallace. The theory was based on evidence provided by an informant[13] and the general resemblance of Muhammad to the facial composite generated during the investigation.[11][12] In 2002, filmmaker Nick Broomfield released a documentary, Biggie & Tupac, based on information from the book.[10]The New York Times described Broomfield's low-budget documentary as a 'largely speculative' and 'circumstantial' account relying on flimsy evidence, failing to 'present counter-evidence' or 'question sources.'[14] Moreover, the motive suggested for the murder of Wallace in the documentary—to decrease suspicion for the Shakur shooting six months earlier—was, as The New York Times put it, 'unsupported in the film.'[14]
An article published in Rolling Stone by Sullivan in December 2005 accused the LAPD of not fully investigating links with Death Row Records based on Poole's evidence. Sullivan claimed that Combs 'failed to fully cooperate with the investigation', and according to Poole, encouraged Bad Boy staff to do the same.[3] The accuracy of the article was later challenged in a letter by the Assistant Managing Editor of the Los Angeles Times, who accused Sullivan of using 'shoddy tactics.' Sullivan, in response, quoted the lead attorney of the Wallace estate calling the newspaper 'a co-conspirator in the cover-up.'[15] In alluding to Sullivan and Poole's theory that formed the basis of the Wallace family's dismissed $500 million lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, The New York Times wrote: 'A cottage industry of criminal speculation has sprung up around the case, with documentaries, books and a stream of lurid magazine articles implicating gangs, crooked cops and a cross-country rap rivalry,'[16] noting that everything associated with Wallace's death had been 'big business.' More recently, the film City of Lies was produced based on Poole's investigation and Sullivan's book: LAbyrinth, and casts Johnny Depp as Poole. The film has yet to be released.[17]
In examining Sullivan's assertion that the Los Angeles Times was involved in a cover-up conspiracy with the LAPD, it is instructive to note that conflicting theories of the murder were offered in different sections of the Times. The Metro section of the Times wrote that police suspected a connection between Wallace's death and the Rampart police corruption scandal, consistent with Sullivan and Poole's theory.[18] The Metro section also ran a photo of Muhammad, identified by police as a mortgage broker unconnected to the murder who appeared to match details of the shooter, and the paper printed his name and driver's license. But Chuck Philips, a staff writer for the Business section of the Times who had been following the investigation and had not heard of the Rampart–Muhammad theory, searched for Muhammad, whom the Metro reporters could not find for comment. It took Philips only three days to find Muhammad, who had a current ad for his brokerage business running in the Times. Muhammad, who was not an official suspect at the time, came forward to clear his name. The Metro section of the paper was opposed to running a retraction, but the business desk editor, Mark Saylor,[19] said, 'Chuck is sort of the world's authority on rap violence' and pushed, along with Philips, for the Times to retract the article.[18]
The May 2000 Los Angeles Times correction article was written by Philips, who quoted Muhammad as saying, 'I'm a mortgage broker, not a murderer' and asking, 'How can something so completely false end up on the front page of a major newspaper?'[20] The story cleared Muhammad's name.[18][21] A later 2005 story by Philips showed that the main informant for the Poole-Sullivan theory was a schizophrenic with admitted memory lapses known as 'Psycho Mike' who confessed to hearsay.[22] John Cook of Brill's Content noted that Philips' article 'demolished'[21] the Poole-Sullivan theory of Wallace's murder.
In the 2000 book The Murder of Biggie Smalls, investigative journalist and author Cathy Scott suggested that Wallace and Shakur's murders might have been the result of the East Coast–West Coast feud and motivated by financial gain for the record companies, because the rappers were worth more dead than alive.[23]
The criminal investigation into Wallace's murder was re-opened in July 2006 to look for new evidence to help the city defend the civil lawsuits brought by the Wallace family.[24][25] Retired LAPD detective Greg Kading, who worked for three years on a gang task force that included the Wallace case, alleges that the rapper was shot by Wardell 'Poochie' Fouse, an associate of Knight, who died on July 24, 2003, after being shot in the back while riding his motorcycle in Compton. Kading believes Knight hired Poochie via his girlfriend, 'Theresa Swann,' to kill Wallace to avenge the death of Shakur,[26] who, Kading alleges, was killed under the orders of Combs.[27]
In December 2012, the LAPD released the autopsy results conducted on Wallace's body to generate new leads. The release was criticized by the long-time lawyer of his estate, Perry Sanders Jr., who objected to an autopsy.[28] The case remains officially unsolved.
Lawsuits[edit]
Wrongful death claim[edit]
In March 2006, Wallace's mother Voletta filed a wrongful death claim against the City of Los Angeles based on the evidence championed by Poole.[12] They claimed the LAPD had sufficient evidence to arrest the assailant, but failed to use it. David Mack and Amir Muhammad (a.k.a. Harry Billups) were originally named as defendants in the civil suit, but were dropped shortly before the trial began after the LAPD and FBI dismissed them as suspects.[12]
The case came for trial before a jury on June 21, 2005. On the eve of the trial, a key witness who was expected to testify, Kevin Hackie, revealed that he suffered memory lapses due to psychiatric medications. He had previously testified to knowledge of involvement between Knight, Mack, and Muhammed, but later said that the Wallace attorneys had altered his declarations to include words he never said. Hackie took full blame for filing a false declaration.[13]
Several days into the trial, the plaintiffs' attorney disclosed to the Court and opposing counsel that he had received a telephone call from someone claiming to be an LAPD officer and provided detailed information about the existence of evidence concerning the Wallace murder. The court directed the city to conduct a thorough investigation, which uncovered previously undisclosed evidence, much of which was in the desk or cabinet of Det. Steven Katz, the lead detective in the Wallace investigation. The documents centered around interviews by numerous police officers of an incarcerated informant, who had been a cellmate of imprisoned Rampart officer Rafael Perez for some extended period of time. He reported that Perez had told him about his and Mack's involvement with Death Row Records and their activities at the Peterson Automotive Museum the night of Wallace's murder. As a result of the newly discovered evidence, the judge declared a mistrial and awarded the Wallace family its attorneys' fees.[29]
On April 16, 2007, relatives of Wallace filed a second wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles. The suit also named two LAPD officers in the center of the investigation into the Rampart scandal, Perez and Nino Durden. According to the claim, Perez, an alleged affiliate of Death Row Records, admitted to LAPD officials that he and Mack (who was not named in the lawsuit) 'conspired to murder, and participated in the murder of Christopher Wallace'. The Wallace family said the LAPD 'consciously concealed Rafael Perez's involvement in the murder of .. Wallace'.[30]
Full version Cracked Soft For sale Linksafe site: Contact email: ted7590 @ gmail. Flexisign pro 10.5 crack.
United States District JudgeFlorence-Marie Cooper granted summary judgment to the city on December 17, 2007, finding that the Wallace family had not complied with a California law that required the family to give notice of its claim to the State within six months of Wallace's death.[31] The Wallace family refiled the suit, dropping the state law claims on May 27, 2008.[32] The suit against the City of Los Angeles was finally dismissed in 2010. It was described by The New York Times as 'one of the longest running and most contentious celebrity cases in history.'[16] The Wallace suit had asked for $500 million from the city.[16]
Defamation[edit]
On January 19, 2007, Tyruss 'Big Syke' Himes, a friend of Shakur who was implicated in Wallace's murder by the Los Angeles Fox affiliate KTTV and XXL magazine in 2005, had a defamation lawsuit regarding the accusations thrown out of court.[33]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Biggie Told Interviewer He Worried About Safety'. MTV News. March 12, 1997. Retrieved May 6, 2008.
- ^ abBruno, Anthony The Murders of gangsta rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.Archived 2007-04-07 at the Wayback MachineCourt TV Crime Library. Retrieved January 24, 2007.
- ^ abcdeSullivan, Randall (December 5, 2005). 'The Unsolved Mystery of the Notorious B.I.G.' Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 29, 2009. Retrieved October 7, 2006.
- ^Purdum, Todd S. (March 10, 1997). 'Rapper Is Shot to Death in Echo of Killing 6 Months Ago'. The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
- ^nevereatshreddedwheat # (March 9, 1997). 'where biggie smalls was shot and killed in los angeles : the notorious b.i.g. | music at popturf'. Popturf.com. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
- ^Horowitz, Steven J. (December 7, 2012). 'Notorious B.I.G. Autopsy Report Released'. HipHop DX. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
- ^Smith, Alex M. (August 18, 2014). 'Nas Interview: Tupac, B.I.G. Deaths Were Nearly 'The End Of Rap''. Music Times.
- ^Cathy Scott. 'Rap slaying similar to Shakur's'. Las Vegas Sun. March 10, 1997.
- ^Philips Laitt, Chuck Matt (March 18, 1997). 'Personal Dispute Is Focus of Rap Probe'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
- ^ abFuchs, Cynthia (September 6, 2002). 'Biggie and Tupac review' PopMatters. Retrieved January 2, 2007.
- ^ abSerpick, Evan (April 12, 2002). 'Review: Rappers' deaths probed in 'LAbyrinth'Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 2, 2007.
- ^ abcdPhilips, Chuck 'Slain rapper's family keeps pushing suit'Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2007. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
- ^ abPhilips, Chuck (June 20, 2005). 'Witness in B.I.G. case says his memory's bad'. LA Times. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
- ^ abLeland, John (October 7, 2002). 'New Theories Stir Speculation On Rap Deaths'. New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
- ^Duvoisin, Marc; Sullivan, Randall (January 12, 2006). 'L.A. Times Responds to Biggie Story'. Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 17, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- ^ abcSISARIO, Ben (April 19, 2010). 'Wrongful-Death Lawsuit Over Rapper Is Dismissed'. New York Times. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
- ^Lopez, Ricardo; Lopez, Ricardo (2018-08-07). 'Johnny Depp's Notorious B.I.G. Film 'City of Lies' Pulled From Release Schedule'. Variety. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ abcCook, John (May 23–26, 2000). 'Notorious LAT'. Brills Content. Archived from the original on 2012-08-09. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
- ^Trounson, Rebecca (February 22, 2012). 'Mark Saylor dies at 58; former Times editor oversaw Pulitzer-winning series'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 28, 2013.
- ^Philips, Chuck (May 3, 2000). 'Man No Longer Under Scrutiny in Rapper's Death'. Los Angeles Times.
- ^ abCook, John. 'Notorious LAT'. Reference tone. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
- ^Philips, Chuck (June 3, 2005). 'Informant in Rap Star's Slaying Admits Hearsay'. LA Times. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
- ^Bruno, Anthony. 'Hip-Hop Homicide — 'Worth More Dead Than Alive' — Crime Library on'. Trutv.com. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
- ^Philips, Chuck (July 31, 2006). 'LAPD Renews Search for Rapper's Killer'. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 21, 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2007.
- ^'LAPD launching new Notorious BIG task force'. Associated Press. August 3, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2006.
- ^Kenner, Rob (March 9, 2012). 'Interview: Former L.A.P.D. Detective Says He Knows Who Killed The Notorious B.I.G.' Complex.com. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
- ^Quinn, Rob (October 4, 2011). 'Sean Combs Ordered Tupac Murder: LA Cop:And Suge Knight had Biggie Smalls killed in revenge, says book by former LAPD detective'. Newser. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
- ^Wolfe, Roman (December 8, 2012). 'Lawyer For Notorious B.I.G. Blasts LAPD Over Autopsy Report'. AllHipHop. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
- ^Estate of Wallace v. City of Los Angeles, 229 F.R.D. 163 (C.D. Cal. 2005);Reid, Shaheem (July 5, 2005). 'Notorious B.I.G. Wrongful-Death Case Declared A Mistrial'. MTV News. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
- ^Finn, Natalie (April 18, 2007). 'An Extra B.I.G. Suit'. E! Online. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
- ^Estate of Christopher G.L. Wallace v. City of Los Angeles, et al., 2:07-cv-02956-FMC-RZx, slip op. at 15 (C.D. Cal. December 17, 2007) (Cooper, J.).
- ^Complaint, Estate of Christopher G.L. Wallace v. City of Los Angeles, et al., 2:07-cv-02956-FMC-RZx (C.D. Cal. May 27, 2008).
- ^'Lawsuit involving rapper death dismissed'. Yahoo!. Associated Press. January 20, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
Coordinates: 34°03′46″N118°21′41″W / 34.06278°N 118.36145°W
Story highlights
- Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., was shot and killed in Los Angeles
- The autopsy report shows Wallace suffered four gunshot wounds, one of which was fatal
- His killing remains unsolved despite investigations by the Los Angeles police, FBI
Tupac declined Biggie's offer to manage his career. 'Nah, stay with Puff,' he told Biggie. 'He will make you a star.'
Image by Lia Kantrowitz
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The following is excerpted from Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rapby Ben Westhoff, forthcoming from Hachette Book Group on September 13, the 20th anniversary of Tupac Shakur's death.
Jeene laga hu mp3 download. Tupac and Biggie first encountered each other in 1993, in Los Angeles. There on business, the Brooklyn-bred rapper Biggie asked a local drug dealer to introduce him to Tupac, who invited Biggie and his party to his house. There, he shared with them a 'big freezer bag of the greenest vegetables I'd ever seen,' said an intern for Biggie's label, named Dan Smalls, who was part of the group.
Tupac got them high and pulled out a 'green army bag' filled with handguns and machine guns. 'So now, here we are, in this backyard running around with guns, just playing,' continued Dan Smalls in The Fader. 'Luckily they were all unloaded. While we were running around, 'Pac walks into the kitchen and starts cooking for us. He's in the kitchen cooking some steaks. We were drinking and smoking and all of a sudden 'Pac was like, 'Yo, come get it.' And we go into the kitchen and he had steaks, and French fries, and bread, and Kool‑Aid and we just sittin' there eating and drinking and laughing. And you know, that's truly where Big and 'Pac's friendship started.'
'We all thought he was a dope rapper,' Tupac's longtime friend EDI Mean, a member of Tupac's affiliated group the Outlawz, told me. Tupac gifted Biggie a bottle of Hennessy. Biggie slept on Tupac's couch whenever he came back to California, and when Tupac was in New York, he came by Biggie's neighborhood, picking him up in a white limousine and throwing dice with the locals. The pair freestyled back-to-back at a concert called Budweiser Superfest at Madison Square Garden in 1993, with Biggie wowing the crowds with lines like, 'Oh my God I'm dropping shit like a pigeon / I hope you're listenin' / Smackin' babies at their christenin'.'
Despite the Garden cameo, Biggie still wasn't much known outside of Brooklyn. Tupac, by then a platinum‑selling rapper and movie star, acted as a mentor. Biggie and other young rappers assembled in recording studios or hotel rooms to hear Tupac lecture about how to make it in the game. 'Pac could get up and get to teaching,' said EDI Mean. 'Everyone was transfixed on this dynamic individual, and soaking up all the information we could soak up.' But Tupac devoted special attention to Biggie, grooming him and letting him perform at his concerts. Biggie even told him he'd like to be a part of another of his affiliated groups, called Thug Life. 'I trained the nigga, he used to be under me like my lieutenant,' Tupac said.
Tupac claimed to have directly influenced Biggie's style. 'I used to tell the nigga, 'If you want to make your money, you have to rap for the bitches. Do not rap for the niggas,' ' he said. 'The bitches will buy your records, and the niggas want what the bitches want.' As proof that Biggie had heeded his advice, Tupac cited the difference between his early track, the aggressive 'Party and Bullshit,' and softer songs from his debut Ready to Die like 'Big Poppa,' which appealed more to the ladies: 'Soon as he buy that wine, I just creep up from behind / And ask what your interests are, who you be with?'
But before Ready to Die came out, Biggie worried he could miss his shot, considering that the new label he was signed to, Bad Boy—owned by his manager Sean 'Puffy' Combs—hadn't taken off yet. Things weren't happening for him quickly enough, he complained. He asked Tupac to take over as his manager, in hopes Tupac could advance his music and film career as rapidly as he'd done his own. 'Biggie looked like he was wearing the same pair of Timberlands for a year, [while] 'Pac was staying at the Waldorf‑Astoria and buying Rolexes and dating Madonna,' EDI Mean said.
But Tupac declined the offer. 'Nah, stay with Puff,' he told Biggie. 'He will make you a star.'
In New York to shoot the 1994 film Above the Rim, Tupac became enmeshed with a group of notorious Queens toughs. He was modeling his character Birdie—a gangster involved in youth basketball programs—on a Haiti-born high roller called Jacques 'Haitian Jack' Agnant.
Tupac had noticed Haitian Jack at a Manhattan club, surrounded by women and champagne, and asked for an introduction. They also spent time at a Queens bar, where Jack would bring through celebrities including Madonna, Shabba Ranks, and Jamaican musician Buju Banton. (Tupac briefly dated Madonna, after Rosie Perez introduced them at the 1993 Soul Train Awards in LA.) Biggie, who ran in the same circles as Haitian Jack and his associates, warned Tupac to keep his distance from him, to no avail. Tupac liked Jack's swagger. He introduced the rapper to high-end jewelry and Versace duds, as well as the local gangstas who called the shots. '[H]e loved the respect and recognition I got in New York, and I think he wanted that same respect,' Haitian Jack said.
The two were partying at a Manhattan club called Nell's in November 1993, where Tupac met a 19-year-old woman named Ayanna Jackson. They got close on the dance floor and went back to his suite at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel. Four days later ,she met up with him at the hotel again, only to encounter not just Tupac, but Haitian Jack, Tupac's road manager Charles 'Man Man' Fuller, and another man who was not identified. There, she alleged, the group gang-raped her and forced her to perform oral sex. Tupac claimed he left the bedroom when the other men entered and fell asleep. She called the police, and Tupac, Haitian Jack, and Fuller were arrested. The police also found guns, which Tupac later claimed belonged to Biggie.
The prosecution alleged Tupac, charged with sexual abuse, sodomy, and illegal weapons possession, had offered up Jackson 'as a reward for his boys.' Tupac denied this, but after the trial told Vibe he blamed himself for 'doing nothing' to protect Jackson from the other men. Before the trial began, Tupac's and Fuller's cases were severed from Haitian Jack's; in a deal that Tupac and his lawyer deemed too good to be true, Jack pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and avoided jail time. Believing Haitian Jack was a snitch, Tupac told a New York Daily News reporter that Jack had set him up. (Ayanna Jackson and Haitian Jack have denied this.)
Calling out a reputed gangster in the press is not sensible. But, ironically, after spending so much time with Jack and his ilk, Tupac had begun to feel invincible. He went wherever he wanted, wearing flashy jewelry worth thousands of dollars. Secure in his street credentials, he was convinced that nobody would mess with him.
Supporting his extended family and paying lawyers for his interminable string of court cases, Tupac's bank accounts withered. In late 1994, he agreed to record a guest verse for a rapper named Little Shawn, who was close with Puffy and Biggie. The invitation came from Little Shawn's manager, Jimmy 'Henchman' Rosemond, whom Tupac had met through Haitian Jack, and Tupac was to be paid $7,000.
Tupac had begun to feel invincible.
On November 30, 1994, Tupac arrived stoned to Quad Recording Studios in Times Square. He came with three associates, none of whom were bodyguards, and encountered three other men he didn't know, wearing army fatigues. This was fashion from Brooklyn—Biggie's home—so Tupac assumed they were with him. He felt better about the situation when Biggie's affiliated rapper Lil' Cease yelled down to him that Biggie was upstairs recording. Puffy was there, too.
But before Tupac's crew could get on the elevator, the men in army fatigues drew 9mm guns and ordered them to the floor. Instead, Tupac reached for his own gun. He was shot, beaten, and robbed of his jewelry. He played dead, and the assailants left, at which time he staggered into the elevator and rode it upstairs. When the doors opened, he saw a group including Puffy, Biggie, and Henchman. Tupac said the crew looked surprised and guilty, but Puffy claimed they showed him 'nothing but love and concern.'
Tupac believed the incident was more than a random heist. 'It was like they were mad at me,' he said. He claimed to have taken five bullets, including shots to the head and through his scrotum, though forensic evidence suggested he likely shot himself.
Bill Courtney, a retired NYPD cop who also worked hip-hop cases, believed the stick-up was a response to Tupac's Daily News comments against Haitian Jack. 'A message was being sent to him not to name-drop,' he said.
'Nobody came to rob you,' Henchman told Vibe in 2005. 'They came to discipline you.'
Puffy and Biggie denied their involvement in the crime, or any prior knowledge of it. Haitian Jack also claimed he wasn't involved, and following a separate conviction was deported to Haiti in 2007.
On December 1, 1994, Tupac arrived to a New York City courtroom wearing bandages and confined to a wheelchair, and was pronounced guilty of sexual abuse in the Ayanna Jackson case, though acquitted on the sodomy and weapons charges. Sentenced to a minimum of a year and a half in prison, pending appeal, his bail was set at $3 million.
Unable to raise bail, Tupac served most of his time at Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in upstate New York. Me Against the World, Tupac's third album, was released soon after his prison sentence began. Tupac considered making it his swan song; he was tired of all of the music industry drama. But his passion reignited after a disturbing rumor began to sink in, one that came from people he trusted: that Biggie knew in advance about the Quad studios shooting.
'He owed me more than to turn his head and act like he didn't know niggas was about to blow my fucking head off,' he said later. And even if Biggie hadn't set him up, he should at least have been able to find out who did it. 'You don't know who shot me in your hometown, these niggas from your neighborhood?'
The way Tupac saw it, his own friend had betrayed him—a friend whom Tupac had helped to acquire fame and fortune.
While in prison, Tupac asked his wife Keisha Morris (whom he had married while incarcerated) to relay a message to Suge Knight, the head of the volatile label Death Row Records: He was broke and needed help. On top of the lawyers' fees and everything else, his mother was losing her house.
'Suge sent $15,000 and put it on his books,' Reggie Wright Jr., Death Row's head of security, told me. Tupac was jubilant and sent Suge another message, that he'd like to see him.
Few places in the US were farther away from Los Angeles than Dannemora, New York, where Tupac was incarcerated, but Suge began coming out. Further, Death Row offered him something no one else seemed to be able to deliver: release. Death Row's lawyer David Kenner pledged to help Tupac with his case and began working to spring him on an appeal bond.
Suge didn't just try to recruit Tupac to his label, he offered him a place in his family, the most powerful and out-of-control family in hip-hop.
Tupac was still incarcerated in August 1995, when Suge came to visit him again. Immediately afterward Suge headed down to New York City, where, on August 3, the annual awards show put on by hip-hop magazine the Source was held at Madison Square Garden's Paramount Theater. Death Row spent some $100,000 on its opening-act stage show, which included life-size jail cell replicas.
With his chest puffed out, Suge took the stage to accept his label's award for best soundtrack, for Above the Rim. Giving a stink eye to the audience, he digressed, throwing a pointed barb at Sean 'Puffy' Combs, the head of Bad Boy, Biggie Smalls's label. Alluding to Puffy's tendency to insert himself in his performers' works, Suge said: 'Any artist out there wanna be an artist, and wanna stay a star, and don't have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the records, dancing—come to Death Row.'
The venue erupted in boos. Why would you do that? Death Row rapper Nate Dogg thought to himself.
What inspired Suge's bizarre attack? After all, he and Puffy had been cool with each other until fairly recently. They'd discussed how to keep the feds from tracking them, and, earlier in 1995, Suge had even invited Biggie Smalls to perform at his Club 662 in Las Vegas. The show never went off, but this didn't sour their relationship.
What soured it was Tupac.
Suge had flown straight to the Source Awards from visiting Tupac in prison. That's where Tupac not only agreed to join Death Row, but where he told Suge about his anger at Biggie. 'I need you to ride with me because I'm going to destroy Bad Boy Records. I believe they had something to do with me getting shot,' Tupac told Suge, according to Reggie Wright Jr. Suge pledged his loyalty. Tupac's enemies would be his enemies.
Battle lines had been drawn, and the Source Awards were the first shots in what would become known as the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop wars. Though there's no evidence that Biggie or Puffy knew about Tupac's shooting in advance, Tupac's belief that this was the case—and his ability to convince Suge as much—spurred a conflict that would eventually claim the lives of both Tupac and Biggie. Their murders remain unsolved.
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How Did Biggie Smalls Die
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How Did Biggie Smalls Die
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