*Twenty years after he was gunned down in Los Angeles, the murder of the late-great Biggie Smalls remains one of rap’s greatest mysteries.
The murder of the Brooklyn-born hip-hop legend — born Christopher Wallace, and also known as The Notorious B.I.G. — occurred on the night of March 9, 1997, when the emcee was shot four times in a drive-by shooting which led to his death an hour later. Biggie was shot dead by a bow-tied, black male assassin March 9, 1997, while sitting in a green Chevy Suburban parked on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
As the NY Post notes, “investigators hit roadblock after roadblock as they pursued Biggie’s case. Months of dogged investigation turned into years, and then decades, despite even the FBI’s help.”
Many fans have come to the conclusion that if law officials can’t solve the murder then they must be enforcing the blue code of silence to protect one of their own — someone with ties to the hustle of street life that gang members pay to protect their secrets and crimes.
The fact that her son’s murderer has yet to be caught continues to haunt Smalls’ mother, Voletta Wallace.
“It still hurts that nothing has been done,” she told The Post on Tuesday.
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Following the death of his friend Tupac, who was shot in a drive-by on Sept. 13, 1996 in Las Vegas, Biggie began fearing for his own life — according to his widow, singer Faith Evans.
“I think it would be some element of fear that would kind of run through his mind, given the fact that his name was involved in a lot of the situations involving Tupac before his murder,” Evans said.
“He was already getting threatening phone calls. I’m sure for all he thought, he could be next. Which, ironically, months later, he lost his life as well.”
Biggie even dreamed of quitting the rap game altogether.
“I swear, it’s a headache,” he told The Source in 1997, shortly before his death. “Sometimes as of late, I’ve really been talkin’ about quittin’. I really want to stop. If I was financially stable, I would.”
The Notorious B.I.G will be posthumously honored when Faith drops a duet record, “The King and I,” in May.
Meanwhile, Johnny Depp is tapped to star as the lead investigator in a film about the murder case, “Labyrinth.”
Additionally, Biggie’s mom is producing an upcoming documentary about her son, called “Notorious B.I.G.: One More Chance.” She also plans to honor him at a Brooklyn Nets game March 12 — but Voletta says she’ll remain silent on the anniversary of his slaying.
“His death is not something I want to celebrate,” she said. “But I am grateful to everyone who remembers him.”
She noted that if her son had lived, he would, “Either he’d be in jail or he might be a multimillionaire roaming the Earth and vacationing in Bora Bora,” she said.
But “whatever the world sees him as, I just see him as my son. He may not be here, but his memory is etched in me for life.”
In related news, to mark 20 years since his death, Biggie’s fashion label ‘Hypnotize’ will be hosting a pop-up shop in London from March 10-12, and offering a “never before available, exceptional limited collection of premium apparel and accessories.”
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Classic Notorious B.I.G. Music
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